Mortgage-Title Fraud: A National Catastrophe

[Joanne98]

It is impossible to overstate the severity of the real estate crisis in the United States which has been caused entirely by the reckless fraud of the nation’s largest banks – the Wall Street Oligarchs. We now have mortgage-fraud being openly acknowledged by the banksters, and on a scale never before seen in human history.

We have a single individual with JP Morgan (JPM) openly admitting that she and her team committed more than 18,000 acts of fraud per MONTH, while one Bank of America official admitted that she personally committed 7,000 to 8,000 acts of fraud monthly. Regular readers will recall that in a recent commentary I reported on two, separate anecdotes where the Bank of America attempted to foreclose on properties which did not even have mortgages.

In that same commentary, there was also an anecdotal report from a Florida lawyer who specializes in foreclosure proceedings, who stated that he regularly encountered (so-called) judges who were rubber-stamping these foreclosures without even looking at the documents. The lawyer also reported that one particular judge had already written her judgments (confirming foreclosure) before the foreclosure trial started.

We thus have the following chain of events, a Wall Street bank pushes a stack of 18,000 foreclosures in front of a small group of clerks (who make convenient patsies), and tells them they have to clear this many documents every month – knowing that it is impossible to process that volume and still follow mandatory legal procedures.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/229048-mortgage-title-fraud-a-national-catastrophe?source=hp_wc

[grasswire]

1. extremely interesting regarding the impact of this for years to come

Big kick.

I believe this can now be called FUBAR.

[northoftheborder]

2. This is a catastrophe, heaped upon the rest of the financial boondoggles.

Now I think I understand why Congress rushed that bill through last week without a bit of public attention, voice-vote only. They understood the true consequences of this whole stinking mess which is being pulled out of the sewer, and were trying to desperately do something to lessen the damage to the banks. A totally inadequate and feckless endeavor. Thank God my mortgage is paid off, as well as other real estate I own. This country is screwed, completely.

[Waiting For Everyman]

5. Exactly right. n/t

[mikelgb]

3. great writer, enjoyable and informative, k+r

[Waiting For Everyman]

4. In Florida's "rocket docket" foreclosures are given 90 seconds each.

And THAT is in a judicial foreclosure state. Non-judicial states don't even require court action at all. Tell me that's not a travesty in this situation that we have now?

Somebody should've put the brakes on non-judicial foreclosure 2 to 3 years ago. And they STILL haven't. And in MD where I live, we are a non-judicial foreclosure state and also have ZERO homestead exemption under bankruptcy. Talk about effed up!!! In normal times it didn't impact so many people, but in this climate to let that continue is ridiculous.

Homeowners have been thrown to the wolves. And most in foreclosure can NOT afford an attorney. A good stimulus program would've been to supply some legal aid to them. Most such agencies ONLY do criminal, domestic, and immigration cases.

[Waiting For Everyman]

6. Actually what we have are toxic titles, moreso than toxic mortgages.

Lots of people have toxic titles and don't even know it... but now in the future, they'll find out about that when they try to sell. People will want them to "produce the note" before buying - to know that the true lender is being paid off. And title companies are going to be very leery of insuring anything without a clear and recorded chain of title. That's very few homes nowadays.

[indepat]

7. If only RICO penalties were applicable, and if applicable, if only the powers to be had the balls

to apply these penalties through rigid enforcement. If only large corporations had to answer for their seeming crimes in the manner most individuals would have to. ;)

[Waiting For Everyman]

8. Kentucky did file a class action recently, pretty sure it's a RICO.

The cases are starting. Ohio filed a suit claiming $25,000 for each perjured document. That would be over $1billion, just on what they have now (definitely only the tip of the iceberg number-wise).

There's a qui tam suit just filed in CA on behalf of counties for back recording fees - that should be an interesting one.

[fasttense]

9. A new scam is born.

A lawyer can get the original homeowner, who was foreclosed on, to file suit against the bank who foreclosed. If the lawyer does a little homework and finds out there was fraud involved, a good firm can make a killing on getting the original homeowners property back free and clear.

The scam comes in when the law firm claims they can get the house back, free and clear for the original owner who had gone through foreclosure, while collecting huge fees. Then in the end say oh well, there wasn't any fraud involved.

Mark my words this scam is coming to a city near you.

I've been contacted already by a law firm, on the other side of the country, trying to get me to file suit against my bank for the low, low cost of $2,500 and guaranteeing a 2% refinanced rate. It was too good to be true so I told him to take a hike.