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Ex-WaMu worker claims he was shunned for refusing to push toxic loans on borrowers – iWATCH

Ex-WaMu worker claims he was shunned for refusing to push toxic loans on borrowers – iWATCH


The Mortgage Salesman Who Wouldn’t Sell

iWATCH-

In the case of the salesman who wouldn’t sell, the two sides have starkly different tales to tell.

Greg Saffer says conscience and common sense prevented him from pushing the product his bosses wanted him to sell – “Option ARM” home loans that, he says, put homeowners at risk.

“I’m not going to steer people into a loan program that might not be good for them just because it’s more profitable for the company,” he says.

[iWATCH]

 

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Reuters Special Report: The watchdogs that didn’t bark

Reuters Special Report: The watchdogs that didn’t bark


This is an absolute must read.

“I think it’s difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history,” said Raymond Brescia, a visiting professor at Yale Law School who has written articles analyzing the role of courts in the financial crisis. “I can’t think of one where you have literally tens of thousands of fraudulent documents filed in tens of thousands of cases.”

Reuters-

Four years after the banking system nearly collapsed from reckless mortgage lending, federal prosecutors have stayed on the sidelines, even as judges around the country are pointing fingers at possible wrongdoing.

The federal government, as has been widely noted, has pressed few criminal cases against major lenders or senior executives for the events that led to the meltdown of 2007. Finding hard evidence has proved difficult, the Justice Department has said.

The government also hasn’t brought any prosecutions for dubious foreclosure practices deployed since 2007 by big banks and other mortgage-servicing companies.

But this part of the financial system, a Reuters examination shows, is filled with potential leads.

[REUTERS]

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Schneiderman Teams Up With FHFA IG on Foreclosure Fraud Investigation

Schneiderman Teams Up With FHFA IG on Foreclosure Fraud Investigation


For all those AG’s who ARE doing their job to protect the people (tiny handful only), we thank you very much.

This is BIG NEWS!

FDL-

As other Attorneys General took the lead in efforts to fight foreclosure fraud, with lawsuits from Delaware’s Beau Biden, Massachusetts’ Martha Coakley and Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto, we hadn’t heard as much from New York’s Eric Schneiderman lately. But he’s back in the news, teaming with a federal Inspector General on an investigation:

The federal watchdog overseeing US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is joining forces with New York’s attorney-general to investigate banks’ mortgage securitisation practices, a partnership that could make it easier for authorities to bring fraud charges against Wall Street companies.

Eric Schneiderman, New York attorney-general, and Steve Linick, the inspector general supervising Fannie and Freddie and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the unit responsible for the taxpayer-owned home loan financiers, signed a co-operation agreement in recent weeks that allows the two investigators to share documents, findings and to pool their resources, according to people familiar with the matter.

The collaboration escalates Mr Schneiderman’s probe into roughly a dozen banks and mortgage insurers as part of a broad investigation into whether banks properly bundled hundreds of billions of dollars worth of home loans into now-soured securities sold to investors.

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Dear Attorneys General: If You Want to Be Re-elected, Sue the Banks.

Dear Attorneys General: If You Want to Be Re-elected, Sue the Banks.


By Abigail Caplovitz Field |

Dear Attorneys General:

If you want to be reelected–in those 41 states where voters get to have their say on how well you’re doing your job–you’d better get busy and indict some document fraudsters, or at least sue the big banks for their deceptive and deeply damaging practices. That’s because voters are catching on to just how above the law bankers believe they are. And if you don’t make a real effort to hold the banks accountable–NO, the “50 state” settlement Santa’s supposedly giving to the banks doesn’t count, as I’ll get to–if you don’t make a real effort to hold the banks to account, you’ll get voted out for any candidate that credibly promises accountability.

See, the gig is up.

[…]

[REALITY CHECK]

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VIDEO: Beau Biden talks Alex Wagner about Foreclosure Fraud & Accountability

VIDEO: Beau Biden talks Alex Wagner about Foreclosure Fraud & Accountability


“Average Americans lost 16 Trillion dollars flushed down the toilet, No accountability”

“Man-made Disaster”

“Losing your home is like losing your child”

 

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Prosecuting Wall Street, pt. 2 – 60 Minutes – CBS News

Prosecuting Wall Street, pt. 2 – 60 Minutes – CBS News


Two high-ranking financial whistleblowers say they tried to warn their superiors about defective and even fraudulent mortgages. So why haven’t the companies or their executives been prosecuted? Steve Kroft reports.

Read Story: Prosecuting Wall Street

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Prosecuting Wall Street, pt. 1 – 60 Minutes – CBS News

Prosecuting Wall Street, pt. 1 – 60 Minutes – CBS News


Two high-ranking financial whistleblowers say they tried to warn their superiors about defective and even fraudulent mortgages. So why haven’t the companies or their executives been prosecuted? Steve Kroft reports.

Read Story: Prosecuting Wall Street

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Behind the financial crisis: Tom Borgers A Fraud Investigator Talks – 60 Minutes Overtime

Behind the financial crisis: Tom Borgers A Fraud Investigator Talks – 60 Minutes Overtime


CBS 60 MINUTES

“It’s been three years since the financial crisis crippled the American economy,” Steve Kroft begins his 60 Minutes piece this week. “[Yet] there has not been a single prosecution of a high ranking Wall Street executive or major financial firm.”

60 Minutes producer James Jacoby wanted to find out why, and one of the first people he spoke with was Tom Borgers, a man who literally helped write the book on the financial meltdown.

Borgers was a senior fraud investigator for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC), a bipartisan panel set up by the Obama administration to examine the causes of the crisis. In the end, the FCIC issued a 500-page report on its findings, required reading for James and associate producer Maria Gavrilovic.

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Iowa AG Expected to Press California AG to Join Foreclosure Settlement

Iowa AG Expected to Press California AG to Join Foreclosure Settlement


My mother always said “Don’t have nothing good to say, Don’t say anything at all”

FOX BUSINESS-

The impasse over the nationwide mortgage foreclosure settlement continues, but could a meeting Tuesday provide the much needed breakthrough that brings the California Attorney General into the settlement and paves the way for a deal?

Some people close the negotiations say yes. That is because California Attorney General Kamala Harris will be attending a meeting with Iowa’s Attorney General, Tom Miller, who is leading the negotiations with the banks over faulty mortgage foreclosures and who is likely to press Harris to join the broader group.

.
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Foreclosure settlement talks push ahead without California, One proposal pegs deal at around $19 billion

Foreclosure settlement talks push ahead without California, One proposal pegs deal at around $19 billion


Absolutely no respect for the AG’s who are doing their jobs. Absolutely no consideration for the valid reasons why they simply will not settle to the greatest heist in American History.

WSJ-

Bank representatives and government officials are working on a broad settlement of most state and federal foreclosure-practices investigations that could move forward without the participation of California, long considered a key to any deal, people familiar with the negotiations said.

The terms of the deal remain fluid. Banks have proposed a deal excluding California that would carry a value of $18.5 billion, though the final outcome remains uncertain, people familiar with the discussion said.

Negotiators are continuing to make a push to persuade California to join a settlement valued at $25 billion among federal officials, state attorneys general and the …

[WALL STREET JOURNAL]

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iWATCH | Whistleblowers ignored, punished by lenders, dozens of former employees say

iWATCH | Whistleblowers ignored, punished by lenders, dozens of former employees say


Another home run from Michael Hudson this time deep inside several lenders

iWATCH-

Darcy Parmer ran into trouble soon after she started her job as a fraud analyst at Wells Fargo Bank. Her bosses, she later claimed, were upset that she was, well, finding fraud.

Company officials, she alleged in a lawsuit, berated her for reporting that sales staffers were pushing through mortgage deals based on made-up borrower incomes and other distortions, telling her that she didn’t “see the big picture” and that “it is not your job to fix Wells Fargo.” Management, she claimed, ordered her to stop contacting the company’s ethics hotline.

In the end, she said, Wells Fargo forced her out of her job.

[iWATCH NEWS]

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Rep. Maxine Waters: California Deserves a Better Deal

Rep. Maxine Waters: California Deserves a Better Deal


HuffPO-

A recent editorial in the LA Times, “California Should Make that Mortgage Deal,” admonishes California Attorney General Kamala Harris for her insistence on ensuring that the big banks that caused the foreclosure crisis in our state pay their fair share to our homeowners. The editors urge Attorney General Harris to take the deal that’s currently on the table, even though she knows–and California’s homeowners know–that the deal isn’t good enough.

[HUFFINGTONPOST]

 

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ED KOCH: Mr. President, Stop the Great Bank Heist – “MERS”

ED KOCH: Mr. President, Stop the Great Bank Heist – “MERS”


HuffPO-

The Times editorial describes why Eric Schneiderman, Beau Biden and Kamala D. Harris, Attorney General of California, have refused to join the 47 other attorneys general who have agreed to the settlement. The Times editorial stated,

The proposed settlement reportedly would prevent the states from pursuing claims against banks relating to fraud or abuse in the origination of loans during the bubble. (In some states, the statute of limitations has expired for bringing challenges for faulty originations but not on all loans in all states.) It would also prevent states from pursuing claims for foreclosure abuses, like improper denial of loan modifications. And it would prevent them from pursuing banks’ misconduct in their dealings with the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems database, or MERS, a land registry system implicated in bubble-era violations of tax, trust and property law. The proposal would not preclude the states from pursuing the banks for wrongdoing in the repackaging and marketing of loans as mortgage-backed securities. But, as a practical matter, the ability to fully press such claims — and to achieve significant redress — could be impeded or blocked by the other constraints. Once one avenue of inquiry is closed off, it can be difficult to ascertain what happened along other points in the mortgage chain. In effect, the legal waivers being contemplated would let the banks pay up to sweep wrongdoing under the rug.

[HUFFINGTONPOST]

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Whistleblower: Despite payments, a foreclosure threat

Whistleblower: Despite payments, a foreclosure threat


Mark my words, Someone is going to die from all the frustration these banks are causing and they are going to regret they ever fraudulently foreclosed on that person. If it hasn’t occurred already.

There are very ill people out there and this is going to cause a severe tragedy, for an unavoidable circumstance.

A banker says Nancy Gosselin made the mortgage payments on her St. Louis Park house, but CitiMortgage seems determined to foreclose.

Star Tribune-

Nancy Gosselin cannot understand why CitiMortgage is about to foreclose on her St. Louis Park house. Neither can her local banker or the Minnesota attorney general.

At the heart of the dispute is a single monthly payment of $584 that CitiMorgage says she failed to make more than two years ago, according to the attorney general’s office. Gosselin says she made all her payments. A loan officer at Bremer Bank agrees. The attorney general’s office, which says it can’t get a straight answer from CitiMortgage, has urged the mortgage giant to stop the foreclosure and work out a deal.

But the fallout from the alleged missed payment has been a series of cascading late fees and penalties and refused payments that has culminated in CitiMortgage’s threat to auction Gosselin’s home at a sheriff’s sale Dec. 2

“I did nothing wrong. This is very frustrating,” said Gosselin, standing on the sidewalk last week in front of her house on Xenwood Avenue S.

[STAR TRIBUNE]

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California refuses to accept Obama’s banking sellout, or just holding out

California refuses to accept Obama’s banking sellout, or just holding out


I have mixed emotions on this one because I am seeing California teeter totter, not sure of the outcome. As Matt Stoller wrote about AG Kamala Harris Network:

she shares them with President Obama, who endorsed her late in 2010 for the AG office. Her brother-in-law, Tony West, was key fundraiser for Obama in California, having helped raise $65 million for Obama in the state, and he is considered a rising star in the Democratic Party. He now works at the DOJ and has expanded the Civil Rights department to take on some elements of mortgage fraud. The DOJ has an internal directive to make mortgage fraud a top priority, but what mortgage fraud means to the DOJ are mortgage modification scams and penny ante borrowers ripping off fly-by-night lenders. West, while not the direct actor in the DOJ’s settlement talks, is in all likelihood involved in pressure on state AGs to sign on to a settlement. And it’s simply inconceivable he hasn’t dealt with his sister-in-law and political ally on the matter. Harris and West are part of a coherent political network, and much of the strength of that network has to do with reinforcing the traditional bank-friendly policies of the Democratic elite and then using that to create political support.

The first indication that as California AG Harris was more sympathetic to the Obama side of the ledger on banking is that one of her first decisions as AG was to let off Angelo Mozilo without admitting to wrong-doing or personally paying a fine (the small money that went to restitution came from Bank of America shareholders). I suspect the issue is actually more personal to her than legal, not because she particularly cares about finance or foreclosures, but because her friends and allies are very concerned about ensuring that the banks get a release. In their view, this will cause the housing market to clear, the economy to recover, and then help reelection chances.

The political problem for Harris is that she was elected by liberal votes, and she’s getting enormous public pressure to resist signing on to a settlement that is perceived as favorable to the banks. While she backed out of an immediate settlement a few weeks ago, she refused to join the joint investigation by Eric Schneiderman and Beau Biden of the foreclosure fraud crisis. She has sat on the sidelines, trying to figure out what to do.

Appeal-Democrat has a different view-

There is no three-strikes law for crooked bankers, not even a law for a fifth strike, as The New York Times reported in the case of Citigroup, cited last month in a $1 billion fraud case. Unlike the California third-striker I once wrote about whom a district attorney wanted banished forever to state prison for stealing a piece of pizza from the plate of a person dining outdoors, Citigroup executives get off with a fine and by offering a promise not to do it again, and again and again.

As the Times reported when Citigroup agreed to settle SEC charges last month: “Citigroup’s main brokerage subsidiary, its predecessors or its parent company agreed to not violate the very same antifraud statue in July 2010. And in May 2006. Also as far back as March 2005 and April 2000.”

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Letting the Banks Off Easy

Letting the Banks Off Easy


The banks want California, and the Obama administration hopes they can get it.

NYT-

In September, the attorney general of California, Kamala Harris, withdrew from settlement talks between the banks and federal and state officials over mortgage abuses. Ms. Harris said California was being asked to excuse bank conduct that has not been adequately investigated and to grant the banks an unacceptably broad release from legal liability for the mortgage mess.

[NEW YORK TIMES]

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State AGs target mortgage mess – Eric Schneiderman and Beau Biden

State AGs target mortgage mess – Eric Schneiderman and Beau Biden


Pay close attention to this one, real close 🙂

We undertook such an inquiry, building on the work of many others. And we know time is of the essence. Homeowners and investors are suffering every day, and patterns of abuse and misconduct are continuing. We’re working hard to complete the first — and most critical — phase of our investigation before the end of 2011.

POLITICO –

America’s free markets work only when there is one set of rules for everyone — and everyone plays by those rules.

It is now clear, however, that many in the mortgage finance industry ignored the rules over the past decade. This led to a breakdown in our housing market and in the market for mortgage-backed securities.

[POLITICO]

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Real Time with Bill Maher – Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden

Real Time with Bill Maher – Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden


by stellthmode

.

“I’m a Prosecutor

and a Consumer Protector”

.

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Kamala Harris, California Attorney General, To Fannie And Freddie Head: ‘Step Aside’ Over Mortgage Crisis

Kamala Harris, California Attorney General, To Fannie And Freddie Head: ‘Step Aside’ Over Mortgage Crisis


I clearly see this as one thing, FHFA’s Ed DeMarco is keeping CA AG Harris from moving forward on the Foreclosure Fraud Settlement. Hmm this is getting interesting.

 

HuffPO-

California Attorney General Kamala Harris has called on the head of the agency that houses Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “step aside” if he continues to refuse to reduce mortgage loans for underwater homeowners.

“It has become clear to me that the only way to keep distressed California homeowners in their homes is through meaningful principal reduction,” Harris said in a statement Thursday.

The lack of meaningful principal reduction is what drove Harris in late September to exit the multistate settlement talks with major banks that are led by Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller with the support of the Obama administration. The attorneys general of Massachusetts, New York, Kentucky, Minnesota, Delaware and Nevada have also bridled at the settlement efforts, finding the banks’ expected $25 billion write-down to be inadequate to protect their states’ homeowners from losing their property.

[HUFFINGTONPOST]

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Dylan Ratigan Interviews Nevada AG Catherine Cortez Masto “Follow Foreclosure Fraud Law or you go to prison for 10 yrs.”

Dylan Ratigan Interviews Nevada AG Catherine Cortez Masto “Follow Foreclosure Fraud Law or you go to prison for 10 yrs.”


“There is a Cloud of Title Issue” – AG Catherine C. Masto

Pay close attention, as soon as the Nevada Foreclosure Fraud Bill took effect on October 1, 2011… FORECLOSURES STOPPED.

Imagine if ever state participated in setting new laws? C’est la vie to fraudulent documents!

Still shocking that there are settlement talks when an investigation NEVER took place. I’m also surprised that the AG’s going after the banks, are getting absolutely no respect from the other AG’s to follow…

Yes, you all know who you are.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Adam Levitin | The Multistate Settlement Lottery: Bupkis

Adam Levitin | The Multistate Settlement Lottery: Bupkis


Remember that it’s not just a bunch of AGs at the table here. It’s also the Obama Administration. And therein lies the problem…

Credit Slips-

The NY Times had some details today about the multi-state attorney general mortgage servicing settlement in the works. It looks every bit as awful as one might have feared. Here’s the criticial take-away:  this is bupkis. It gives meaningless relief to a meaningless number of randomly or adversely selected homeowners.  It doesn’t do justice, even by halves.

First, though, there’s a detail reported in Gretchen Morgenson’s otherwise insightful piece that I have on good source is incorrect.  The piece states that the banks would be doing principal write-downs on loans they own or service.  That’s gotta be incorrect.  The banks can do principal write-downs only on loans that they own.  They have no legal authority to pledge write-downs on loans that they service on behalf of investors.  (Remember the Greenwich Financial suit against Countrywide for doing just that?)

There’s a critical implication here, then about the scope of the multi-state settlement:  at best 20% of the population of underwater mortgagees will be helped by this settlement, say 2.2 million homeowners.  The other 8.8 million (and probably 10 million by my reckoning) are SOL.  How do you think they’re going to feel about their AGs?  About their President?  Too many times have American homeowners been promised help without receiving any.  It’s getting old.

[…]

[CREDIT SLIPS]

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Adam Levitin | Make The Banks Pay

Adam Levitin | Make The Banks Pay


Obama and the AGs still balk at the only solution to the housing-driven recession

Salon-

There is $700 billion in negative equity in the U.S. housing market. That means Americans owe $700 billion more than their homes are worth. Any plan for the housing sector or the U.S. economy, that doesn’t take a serious bite out of negative equity isn’t serious.

Yet un-serious is what we continue to get from elected officials. This week the Obama Administration announced a new plan to help underwater homeowners refinance their mortgages to lower rates.  The plan, really an expansion of an existing program, is the latest in a series of programs designed to deal with the moribund housing market. Each has proven a more dismal disappointment than the next.

So too with the latest version of the proposed settlement between the state Attorneys General, led by Iowa’s Tom Miller, and the mortgage servicing industry. Yes, the deal has been sweetened by the addition of some interest rate reductions for underwater homeowners who are current on their payments. But that’s small potatoes.

[SALON]

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