Ingham County officials expect to see tens of thousands of dollars in new revenue as they begin collecting taxes from two of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders.
Ingham County Register of Deeds Cutris Hertel Jr. said he will begin requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to pay full transfer taxes on all property transfers in which they are the seller.
The two companies had claimed to be exempt from paying taxes upon filing new deeds, saying they were government entities.
“We’ve been telling them along the way they need to pay on these, but we haven’t had the legal backing until the Oakland County case was decided,” Hertel said.
The county could be in line for a half-million-dollar payout from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if a U.S. District Court decision Friday stands up to a likely appeal.
County Treasurer Deb Cherry said today that Friday’s decision by Judge Victoria A. Roberts could provide an unexpected revenue boost to the county and immediately urged that the payout be used to help fix problems that have been created by mortgage and tax foreclosures.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION
OAKLAND COUNTY, ET AL., Plaintiffs,
vs
FEDERAL HOUSING FINANCE AGENCY AS CONSERVATOR FOR FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE ASSOCIATION AND FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTGAGE COMPANY; FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE ASSOCIATION; AND FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTGAGE COMPANY, Defendants. ________________________________/
ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND DENYING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
EXCERPT:
IV. CONCLUSION
In the end, this case turns on a single question: whether a statutory exemption from “all taxation” includes excise taxes such as the Michigan Transfer Taxes. Wells Fargo dictates that it does not. Accordingly, the Enterprises are liable for the Transfer Taxes.
Plaintiffs’ and State Plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED. Defendants’ motion is DENIED. The issue of damages remains.
IT IS ORDERED.
S/Victoria A. Roberts Victoria A. Roberts United States District Judge Dated: March 23, 2012
Just breaking and will report when the ruling is released…
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on 6/20/2011, alleged that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed to pay the real estate transfer tax.
Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner stated in twitterverse “Just got word Oakland County has won our lawsuit against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, one step in fighting to make our taxpayers whole!”
1. Did the borrower have a choice or was he/she coerced into accepting MERS, who they really had no idea of what or who it was?
2. Was it ever disclosed that many of the lenders are shareholders of MERS, also who may own the first or second position… this includes Fannie Mae who is a shareholder?
3. Since Fannie (GSE) is owned by “taxpayers” why is she acting 100% private – 100% of the time?
4. One may have been coerced into having MERS in their documents but one would never accept forgery or robo-signing because everyone knows this would be fraud and therefore void the transaction…like a check.
With mounting evidence of robo-signing and other alleged fraud perpetrated by banks, foreclosure law firms and others, Fannie Mae and Flagstar Bank have filed a new defense of such actions in Ingham County Circuit Court — and Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel, Jr. is crying foul.
“What they are basically saying is they can forge an assignment and there is nothing the citizen or court can do about it. It is a brazen attempt to legalize robosigning,” says Hertel. “It’s just another example of Fannie Mae thumbing its nose at the American people, and unfortunately while they are under federal bailout we are paying for it.”
This is happening in the case of a Haslett man who suffered a stroke and fell behind on his mortgage payments. As a result, Flagstar Bank and Fannie Mae foreclosed on him and are now in the final stages of evicting him from his Haslett home, says Hertel.
STATE OF MICHIGAN
30th CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF INGHAM
CURTIS HERTEL, JR. individually and as
Register of Feeds for Ingham County,
V
BANK OF AMERICA N.A.;
BAC HOME LOANS SERVICING, LP;
WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.;
COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS SERVICING, LP;
ORLAN ASSOCIATES, PC;
TROTT & TROTT, PC;
FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE ASSOCIATION
d/b/a FANNIE MAE;
FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTGAGE CORPORATION
d/b/a FREDDIE MAC
CONTACT: Curtis Hertel Jr. Ingham County Register of Deeds Ph 517 281 3574
Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel, Jr. Files Lawsuit Against Mortgage Lenders For Unpaid Taxes
Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel Jr. has filed a lawsuit today in the 30th Circuit Court, to recover millions in alleged unpaid transfer taxes from mortgage servicers and their attorneys.
“This is money that should have been applied to the county’s general funds, which could have been used for public safety, health programs, or countless other public services,” said Hertel. “Additionally, the state taxes collected would have gone straight to the school aid fund. It’s time for some of the banks responsible for the foreclosure mess to pay their fair share, instead of allowing our county’s taxpayers to bear all of the burden.”
Transfer taxes are the monies paid when a new deed is recorded in the county’s Register of Deeds office. The taxes apply to the sale price of the property being transferred, unless it falls under $100. Many large-scale banks have used Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to claim an exemption to the taxes by identifying themselves as government entities, which Hertel contests.
”Depending on the amount of the judgment, this could provide a needed boost to our county’s constrained budget,” said Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing. “The foreclosure crisis has drained county tax dollars in many ways – not merely in uncollected property taxes, but also because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were claiming these federal exemptions while re-selling foreclosed homes.”
The official transfer tax rate for counties in Michigan is $1.10 for every $1,000 of value being transferred. So the sale of a $100,000 home would typically carry a $110.00 tax. State taxes on the same transactions stretch even further – $7.50 for every $1,000 of value being transferred. It is estimated that the lawsuit could fetch a judgment in the millions of dollars.
“MFI-Miami, an internationally recognized mortgage fraud investigation firm based in Florida, has been instrumental in assisting in our investigation of this,” said Hertel. William Maxwell, Dan Marsh and Brian Parker from the Home Defense League, PLC, working in conjunction with MFI-Miami discovered a pattern of unpaid transfer taxes on foreclosure sales across Michigan. “The fact is banks and mortgage servicers, in concert with their foreclosure firms, failed to pay state and county transfer taxes,” said Steve Dibert of MFI-Miami, who has been part of the document examination.
Hertel is also working with other members of the Michigan Association of Registers of Deeds. “We are cooperating with other municipalities to join us in this fight, because this not just an Ingham County problem, it a problem that affects all 83 counties in the state.”
“Currently, the Michigan Association of Registers of Deeds, Inc. is compiling data from documents representing taxable transfers from these and other entities to determine the potential amount owed Michigan counties,” said president Bambi Somerlott. “Accordingly, each county will, in its discretion, use the information and proceed as they deem appropriate.”
Hertel has received the support of the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, and will announce the lawsuit at a press conference at 1:00 pm today. He has chosen the site of 1117 S Grand Avenue, a home that was recently subject to tax foreclosure, to make the announcement. “The banks should bear their share of responsibility for our current housing climate, and their role in what has happened is becoming more clear as time passes,” said Hertel. “We will do everything we can to pursue financial justice.”
Public Date: 06/20/2011
Contact: Bill Mullan, Media and Communications Officer
Phone Number: 248-858-1048
Pontiac, MI. — Oakland County Treasurer Andy Meisner and the Oakland County Corporation Counsel will hold a news conference Thursday to announce the filing of a lawsuit against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that alleges the two lenders have failed to pay the county a real estate transfer tax for the privilege of recording various documents with the County Register of Deeds. The news conference will be held at 1:00 p.m. Thursday, June 23, 2011 at the Oakland County Treasurer’s Office, 1200 North Telegraph, Pontiac.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Monday, has the potential to recover more than $1 million for Oakland County based on the number of times Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac failed to pay the real estate transfer tax.
The Oakland County Corporation Counsel discovered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s failure to pay after reading an article titled “Bypassing county fees may cost banks” in the December 2, 2010 edition of the Oakland County Legal News. The Corporation Counsel – along with outside counsel Kenneth Robinson and William Horton – began to take a look at real estate transfer taxes on various documents filed with the Oakland County Register of Deeds. In the course of examining those documents, the Corporation Counsel discovered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s failure to pay.
Further details will be outlined at the news conference.
For media inquiries only, please contact Bill Mullan, Media and Communications Officer, at (248) 858-1048.
The signatures of the same names on more than 4,500 documents handled by Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS) for real estate valued at $624.8 million varied enough to raise doubts about their validity, Jeff Thigpen, register of deeds in Guilford County, North Carolina, told reporters today in Greensboro.
The Bristol County Board of Commisioners voted unanimously Tuesday to send a letter to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley expressing interest in pursuing litigation against Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc, commonly known as MERS, for skirting public recording laws.
MERS is a private network that is partly owned by Bank of America. The commissioners did not specify how much they are looking to recover. “It’d be really rough numbers,” said Commissioner John Mitchell. “We’d have to find out.”
JOHN L. O’BRIEN, JR.
Register of Deeds Phone: 978-542-1704 Fax: 978-542-1706
website: www.salemdeeds.com
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds
Shetland Park 45 Congress Street Suite 4100
Salem, Massachusetts 01970
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Salem, MA May 3rd, 2011
Contact: Kevin Harvey, 1st Assistant Register 978-542-1724
kevin.harvey@sec.state.ma.us
The 1960’s television show “To Tell the Truth”, where imposters pretend to be the central character, is playing out today at the Essex Southern District Registry of Deeds and Register John O’Brien is not happy about it. After the 60 Minutes’ expose on Mortgage Fraud was aired and showed that leading mortgage services have been using forged documents to foreclose on homeowners, Register John O’Brien reviewed mortgage discharges recorded in his Registry. To view the 60 Minutes Article and a link to the video, go to http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/01/60minutes/main20049646.shtml
What he found astonished him. In 2010 alone, 286 Bank of America’s mortgage discharges were recorded with what he calls “questionable and possibly fraudulent signatures of the notorious Linda Green.” O’Brien said that he has found at least four variations of Green’s signature recorded in his Registry.
Green, who was spotlighted in the 60 Minutes Episode, had her name signed by various individuals on thousands of documents recorded at Registries of Deeds throughout the state of Massachusetts and across the nation. In Register O’Brien’s opinion, these documents have corrupted Essex County homeowner’s chains of title. “I have a responsibility to ensure that the documents recorded in my Registry meet the statutory requirements of recording. If, however, I am presented with evidence that clearly shows that fraud may have been committed then it is my responsibility as the keeper of records to turn these documents over to the appropriate authorities for their review and action.”
O’Brien has today forwarded certified copies of these discharges to United States Attorney, Carmen Ortez, Attorney General, Martha Coakley, and Essex County District Attorney, Jonathan Blodgett. “If what I suspect has happened, then the people who have committed this fraud should be held accountable for their actions” commented O’Brien. O’Brien fears that this fraudulent behavior is only the tip of the iceberg and feels strongly that lenders and mortgage servicers should be held accountable for their actions. Actions which he originally only thought involved a scheme to circumvent the land recordation system by creating a private, for profit cyber-registry to benefit the big bank’s pocketbooks. Now it seems that MERS, and its member banks may have added fraud to their repertoire of services that they offer.
Register O’Brien questions if a good portion of this foreclosure mess could have been avoided in the first place, if the big banks did what they were supposed to do and recorded assignments like other lenders do. Register O’Brien believes: 1) Homeowners deserve to know who owns their mortgages; 2) Assignments should be recorded in the appropriate registry of deeds, each and every time a mortgage is sold, to provided transparency and public disclosure of ownership; and 3) Any and all documents should be signed by an authorized authority at the entity that actually owns and holds the note secured by the mortgage.
Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen Uncovers Possible Fraud by Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and MERS
Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen will hold a press conference in the Blue Room in the Old Guilford County Courthouse on Wednesday, May 6th at 10 am to reveal the findings of an internal investigation initiated after a 60 Minutes segment called “The Mortgage Paperwork Mess” that followed alleged fraud committed the company Doc X, owned by Lender Proccessing Services (LPS) and contracted with major mortgage and banking institutions including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) Inc.
Register of Deeds Thigpen will be joined by Lynn Szymoniak, an attorney interviewed during the segment by 60 Minutes Scott Pelley. The findings of this internal investigation will be revealed and forwarded to the appropriate federal and state agencies including the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
The findings will be submitted to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, heading the 50 State Attorney General Investigations into Foreclosure Fraud, and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, current President of the National Association of Attorneys General for their consideration and the financial services institutions.
Register of Deeds Thigpen will also announce actions taken involving Lenders and Mortgage companies to address the findings of this investigation.
###
*April 4, 2011 60 Minutes segment on Mortgage Mess:
Curtis Hertel Jr., Register of Deeds for Ingham County, says that a discovery he made involving alleged fraudulent mortgage documents is now being investigated by both the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.
“Yes, this is, in my opinion, fraud,” Hertel said. “This is a situation where people were forging someone else’s name to a legal document to take another person’s property. That is fraud.”
When the Suffolk County Legislature meets again next week, the county’s share of an estimated $2 billion in fees big banks saved with their electronic record-keeping system — bypassing paper mortgage records in county clerks’ offices — will top the agenda for legislator Ed Romaine.
In his previous job as county clerk, Romaine fought in court against the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, for several years in the early 2000s and lost. But he’s taking another run at it now as the firm’s shaky legal foundation is cracking and so many ordinary homeowners are suffering from questionable foreclosure actions involving MERS.
The registry of deeds is supposed to be a sleepy place where you go to record your mortgage or look up how much your neighbors paid for their homes.
But at the Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds in Salem, haymakers are being thrown in a bare knuckles brawl featuring Register John O’Brien in one corner and Bank of America Corp. and other large banks in the other.
In O’Brien’s mind, big U.S. banks created a bogeyman called the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems to dodge paying recording fees when a mortgage is assigned. Early estimates indicate Massachusetts taxpayers have been deprived of anywhere from $200 million to $400 million-plus in lost revenue. O’Brien says his office alone has lost more than $22 million, but he calls that a conservative estimate.
COURTHOUSE — Montgomery County Recorder of Deeds Nancy Becker is urging registers of deeds across state and the country to withdraw public money from any banks affiliated with the Mortgage Electronic Registry System (MERS), which she claims is undermining the practice of accurate land recording.
[…]
Since discovering the descrepancies, Becker has pulled the county funds out of Wells Fargo and transferred the money into Univest National Bank and Trust Company, a smaller local bank based in Souderton. The bank had been approached by MERS but decided not to partner with the cyber registry.
In light of the action taken by the Department of Treasury, The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Thrift Supervision and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, whereby they issued a Cease and Desist Consent Order against the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. “MERS”; Essex County Register of Deeds, John O’Brien , who has been leading a national effort to ensure that MERS and its member banks including Bank of America, J P Morgan Chase and others, be held accountable for the damage that they have inflicted on the land recordation system and their failure to pay recording fees, said that he is very encouraged that this action has been taken. O’Brien, however, cautioned that this is just the beginning of a very long process to ensure that these banks are held accountable both monetarily and legally for the damage that they have done.
O’Brien, along with Register of Deeds, Jeff Thigpen, of Guilford County, North Carolina, have asked that representatives of the Registers of Deeds across the nation be given a seat at the table during any discussions with MERS, its member banks and any and all government agencies. “It is imperative that we make sure that our voices are heard. As Registers, we have the responsibility to ensure that our records are accurate. We must never lose sight of the fact that millions of homeowners across this country have had their chain of title compromised. This is a very serious issue which needs to be addressed. In addition, MERS must be held accountable for their failure to pay billons of dollars in recording fees. Fees, I might add, that everyone else is required to pay. We will continue to lead this fight to make sure that these issues are not swept under the rug and settled for pennies on the dollar. The taxpayers must be made whole, and the homeowners must be guaranteed that their chain of title is accurate.” said O’Brien.
Norfolk County Register of Deeds William P. O’Donnell Requests Support on Behalf of Massachusetts Citizens
Norfolk County Register of Deeds William P. O’Donnell announced today that he has requested Attorney General Martha Coakley to examine the issue of whether the large lending conglomerates have failed to pay the recording fees associated with the sale and assignment of mortgages as mandated by Massachusetts Law.
Register O’Donnell’s request comes on the heels of the recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling U.S. Bank v. Ibanez, in which the Commonwealth’s highest court stated that when a holder of a mortgage seeks to exercise its right to foreclose upon a home that mortgage holder must prove that it is the valid owner of the mortgage at the time of foreclosure. The Ibanez case raises multiple issues concerning the practices of huge lending conglomerates utilizing the Mortgage Electronic Recording System, Inc. or “MERS” to keep track of the numerous and multiple sales and assignments of average homeowners’ mortgages.
Register O’Donnell states that, “Prior to 1995 the sale or assignment of a mortgage was traditionally confirmed by a recording at the Registry of Deeds. The transparency of this practice not only afforded safeguards and protections for homeowners but resulted in revenue to the Commonwealth, the counties, and our local communities.” O’Donnell adds that especially in these tough economic times when, “Local aid is being cut, public safety shortchanged, and drastic adjustments made the revenue loss implication cannot be overstated and warrants inquiry.” Register O’Donnell notes that while local community banks and lenders appeared to have followed long held recording practices the failure of the huge lending conglomerates to follow suit in Norfolk County may have resulted in anywhere from $1.5 to $3.1 million in lost revenue in 2010 alone. “It is a question of fundamental fairness and one to which I will personally support the Attorney General’s efforts at examining,” states O’Donnell. .
![[VIDEO] Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen Press Release on Mortgage Fraud](https://stopforeclosurefraud.com/wp-content/themes/gazette/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2011/05/JeffThigpenPressRelease21.jpg&w=100&h=57&zc=1&q=90)
Recent Comments