The foreclosure fraud scandal may be worse than we all think
By SueN
You need to know this. The foreclosure fraud scandal may be worse than we all think. An audit of 400 foreclosures in San Francisco found that 99% of them had “legal problems or suspicious documents.” This new finding comes after the recent $26 billion mortgage settlement between 48 states and the 5 biggest mortgage lenders on Wall Street.
Many argue that $26 billion is not nearly enough to compensate for the damage these banks did to millions of families through fraudulent foreclose practices – and this recent study out of San Francisco appears to back that claim up.
-Thom
Comments
#2
Why do you think the banksters worked so hard to get this settlement signed, sealed and delivered. Now they will have free reign to foreclose, forclose, foreclose.
#3
To receive $2000 when your home was taken away from you is NOT fair treatment. The big Wall Street banks must be held accountable. That is what Occupy Wall Street is all about.
#4
Nothing surprises me whatsoever. We have plenty of good things going on; but some of the worst scams are far beyond our worst imaginings. Fortunately it's become so blatant, more and more People can't help but see; can't ignore it any longer. We're swimming upstream; but we are progressing.
#5
We all know that the American people are for sale by the highest bidder in Washington , I filed a complaint about Wells Fargo with the OCC which is a government agency controlling national banks ,and they are telling me there is nothing they can do for me and that they have no authority on Wells Fargo.so I expect nothing good from Washington .and yes they told me if they forclosed on my house that they will get the balance from Washington with the bail out money ,they said it over the phone but not in writing of course ,what more do you need.
#6
There was some talk 2 or 3 years ago about a "commercial mortgage crisis" set to hit us in 2014. If that is in fact true, I wonder what the relative size of the gov. bailout of businesses underwater in commercial real estate will be? I would predict something like 95% - must protect the "job creators" moving forward.
#7
We can't allow ourselves to believe the mortgage crisis is only the result of shady bankers and overleveraged homeowners. This is a facade. Homes that my grandfather built for single income families now require two incomes to own. The same home 80 years later can no longer be owned by a single income family here in CA. They can rent it for more but they cannot own anymore. This means that money today is worth a whole lot less then a generation before. Do you really believe that Greenspan didn't forsee this event coming? They knew home value increases were not based on true value and that our economy could not continue to absorb the unrealistic valuations. A lot of the overdevelopment occured in Vegas and Miami. What does that tell you?...There was a whole lot of loose unaccounted money moving into real estate. The banks knew what was coming that is the reason for all those creative financial instruments. Bundle it up and move it on in a brilliant shell game. There are sheep and sheep herders. Then there are the wolves. The sheep have to replace the sheepherders for they are not doing their jobs. In CA Deutchebank is busy buying up foreclosures. A german multinational tried unsuccesfully to buy up our water rights in a small community here. In Germany and Japan the people have a higher standard of living with higher wages, healthcare and affordable housing. Today in CA a single family can no longer own a home. They must rent. There is no program for renters. This is the other half of America.
#8
It seems to me it was kind of American flue, or was it a spell of insanity? This idea, we would make our living by just moving money was insane. Money was invented to share goods and services we all need to survive. But we can't just live on money. No wonder those who did that, tended to trick other people to take away their houses.
I very much hope it will come true what Thom explained the other day: The Republicans are done for the coming years and there will be time to take America back. Until the next flue comes along and the GOP will assault another American generation......
Very interesting our notorious Ron Paul fans don't have anything to say here.
#9
HUMAN RIGHTS ARE LAW
In today's Democrat-Gazette under "Letters" a Fayetteville resident wrote about human rights are law. He wrote: "Article II, section 2 of the U.S. Constitution authorizes the President, with advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties with other nations.. In 1945, the United States signed the charter of the United Nations. Article 55 of the charter requires all member states to promote universal respect for and observance of human rights. In Article 56, all member states pledge to take joint and separate actions for the achievement of human rights. On Dec 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among these are the rights to food, clothing, shelter, medical care, educations and jobs that pay a livable income. While the term "human rights" in the UN charter are vague, they are made specific in the Declaration of Human Rights, and thus binding on the member states."
Very well said and I felt it important to share this since basic human rights as described above are rapidly disappearing world wide. Another story in today's Gazette was about some young protestors speaking to the UN regarding their rights.
#10
On the Max Keiser show, they spoke about how little this settlement was and how it had almost no impact on the banks. $17-20B was in loan modifications and principal write downs and only $5B was actual cash. If this was levied against 5 banks then that's only $1B cash each, which is a mere pittance of the trillions they stole. The rest is loan modifications, etc. would actually impact Freddie and Fannie more then the banks, so it's our taxpayer dollars, not the banks money. Now we appoint the NY AG to head up the investigation while we already have a US Atty Gen and the DOJ who have sat on their hands for 3 years doing nothing. The $2K settlement per homeowner who was foreclosed on is about the same as the banks would have paid for mortgage insurance by packaging and selling these loans as mortgage backed securities. It's all a huge psychological con game, and the con is on us.
Furthermore, an audit of 400 foreclosures in the San Francisco, CA area showed that 99% may be fraudulent due to legal problems or suspicious documents. And this is just one city.
#11
Yup! Ron Paul is full of hot air...telling people what they want to hear....but will be no better than Obama in following through with what he says.
I'm all for getting the heck out of ridiculous and criminal foreign wars but one thing Ron Paul will likely follow through with is trashing Social Security and other social safety nets...as this is the agenda of the real powers in this country anyway. He wants to privatize Social Security...and we all know what happens to your money when you stick it in the grand capitalist casino especially after capitalism (without government controls and stringent, enforced laws) is a proven failure. And they haven't fixed the broken system yet. They have not moved, in any real meaningful sense, to regulate the banks, corporations, and Wall Street. Which means moral hazard will be asking for more and bigger bailouts soon to come. And they'll be trying to blame in on the Chinese...or maybe even Iran. That's it...let's nuke Iran! And worst of all...they'll be producing yet another Poor Paulson or Geithner movie...like "Too Big To Fail" movie. The country would have been better off if P. had swallowed all those sedatives.
I highly doubt that Ron Paul will get us out of any foreign conflicts and will be just like Obama in being totally ineffective in that regard. If you are very, very wealthy living off your capital, unless you are part of the Military Industrial blood-money machine, and will never have to rely on the social safety nets...then Ron Paul's your man.
Talk is cheap and the one who tells the biggest lies usually gets elected. And those who rake in the most cash to spend on campaign propaganda can get more people to believe in their lies. Those who really hold the reigns on this country will make sure that they keep whoever is President tied to the whipping post...whether they deserve it or not.
How about that Santorum, eh? Saying that Obama is not a follower of "the Bible"! Duh...what exactly does that mean? There are hundreds of different religions that have been invented with their various interpretations of an ambiguous ancient book (do you know where your bible has been?..how it came to be? who wrote it?). And they all claim to be the correct or only true believers.
Many bible-thumping right wingers have sometimes indicated that our Constitution is antiquated and no longer applicable (Bush: "it's just a piece of paper!") yet they slam that old antiquated bible down our throats claiming they are the true believers...and anyone who isn't is filth. At least I have managed to get the weirdos that knock on my door on Saturdays to not come around anymore ...thank Zod! "Souls! Souls! We want more Souls!".. Night of the Living Dead Zombies.
Are Santorum's remarks another way for Santorum to claim that Obama is really a Muslim or an atheist or maybe a Catholic or Baptist...a Jew...Zombie? (my apologies if I have left anyone out)
Santorum has more letters in his name that are also in the word Satan than Obama does. So there!
#12
That's right....it is a big psychological con game! Thanks for the heads up on the Max Keiser show...gotta watch it! Things are going to have to get a whole lot rougher (like Syria) if we will ever have a chance of changing things in this country. The people running this country are just as greedy, cruel, deceptive, and corrupt as Syria or any of the other countries whose citizens have had enough.
#13
Surveillance Police State...
Well, I watched this Max Keiser show from 1 day ago...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu156DguEIE
They said that we have a tollbooth, privilege class economy that has turned a manufacturing economy into a financial economy (FIRE-Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate) but now have to include espionage (Spying on everyone--maybe we should change FIRE to FIRES) where most of the 1% elite are in that last category and live just minutes away from Washington DC. 17 or 18 new government agencies have been created since 911 and do big business with big business..especially the ones that spy on us. (so much for making big government smaller)
The guest, Charles Hugh Smith...oftwominds.com, said that in an expanding economy...more energy is used...but in a contracting economy...less energy is used. The US has gone from 21bbl/day to 18bbl/day since the start of the housing crises. So those that claim that our economy is increasing or expanding are playing around with numbers.
And this from the running words at the bottom of the screen: "Man tricked by the FBI into carrying out suicide bombing in Washington arrested." This is not the first time...nor will it be the last time these "government employees" (part of the "Big Government") have done this kind of thing. If they don't have terrorists...they will manufacture them...using patsies.
And here is a recent bit from Max Keiser on Alex Jones..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq-xdpxa0v0
Will the Government start ordering Google YouTube to remove videos critical of the government because they say it makes it hard for them to protect us from terrorists?
Anyone notice the recent notice from Google about their new privacy policy?
#14
This Sunday afternoon I'm pondering, the American history must not necessarily repeat and repeat. I hope, from 2013 on we can really drive money out of Congress. Don't forget, Congress is the soul of our Democracy!! In other words: lets pull all the teeth of corporatocracy and add Amendments that keep big money out forever.
Then let more parties grow at the left of the Democratic Party, which will really have a chance, as soon as big money is out.
My fiscal dreams pretty much are about 35% maximal income tax, 35% maximal corporate tax, 50% capital gains tax. The capital gains tax should be reduced if the money is invested in positive projocts, which are good for the American economy, or for charitable, enviromental ect. purposes. But why not go higher than 50%..... why not 70% capital gains tax maximal? And then add very generous deductions for investments in those above "positive projects". This would make it profitabel for corporations and investors to actually work for the growth of this country.
This would make America a highly productive country. I tell ya, we would get back to our old strength.....
#15
Carbon release comes from stored energy and the market has a project called Derivatives which create value on the promises of tomorrow. The derivative market and its future promises of energy has far exceeded natures capacity to sustain the unbalanced system that is civilization. How/? Well, the Debt is in the water! The Housing mortgage derivative $7 trillion dollar ponzi scheme is only a small fraction to the over all $600 trillion dollar derivative markets tipping points. And all the while the media uses the housing bubble to point fingers at the cause of the financial crisis because that is the only derivative bubble that affected the working class people. All the rest of it (Energy futures) were only for the hedge fund elite and their banks. So again the American industrial media stays focused on blaming the victim. Well, now the tipping point everyone should be paying attention to is Fracking water from life. 400,000 wells now consume 4-7 million gallons of water per well across the US. The derivative is water for Fracking over living systems. The debt is in the water from under.”
#16
A month or so ago, I read about something similar done in Massachusetts.
The Registrar of Deeds for Essex county had Assignments of Titles audited and found 75% were invalid. The Assignment of Title is the document transfering ownership of mortgages when a mortgage is sold.
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x1281105638/Register-targets-Bank-o...
The Registrar is concentrating on the fees lost by the county, but the real story is what MERS was really created to do. MERS was created so the mortgage companies would have a non-public record of the multiple transactions of each mortgage. The age-old criminal tool: a second set of books.
Many states have laws on the books stating that a mortgage is paid off when the mortgage holder receives monies equal to the principal of the mortgage. Doesn't matter who pays it, if the mortgagee receives the money, mortgage is paid in full. The 'smartest guys in the room' didn't think through their little securitization scheme. Well, they did, actually, that's why they created MERS, to hide the money.
When , (IF), this MERS con is finally sorted out, a lot of people should get their mortgages marked paid in full, but I'm not holding my breath for that one.
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If this was known before the $26 Billion figure was arrived at, the banks may be protected. Lousy deal.