General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHuffPo: Robo-Signing Bank Settlement Is a Criminal Sell Out
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dennis-m-kelleher/foreclosure-settlement-mortgage-crisis_b_1264998.html"Let me help a few victims I created by ripping them off and illegally throwing them out of their homes by false court filings that I swore were true." That's what the so-called mortgage settlement talks are really all about: fraud, perjury and crimes. That's what these banks did and that's what they are trying to buy their way out of.
The settlement discussions are the same: eliminate all or almost all liability for the bank and, most importantly, all bank officers and employees in exchange for a loan forgiveness or modification program. Think about this: the banks engaged in a years' long pattern and practice of what can only be described as fraudulent if not criminal conduct that would put anyone else in prison for years if not decades, yet banks get to buy off the cops with some money to help just a few of the victims they created. Worst of all, there is no requirement in any of these talks that I'm aware of that require the banks to come clean, publicly release all the relevant documents and provide sufficient information on their conduct so that anyone can evaluate whether the sell-out, I mean, pay-off, oops, I mean, "settlement" is anywhere near adequate.
And they get to buy their way out of prosecution for chump-change. It's reported that the settlement is going be $25 billion, with only $5 billion in cash and $20 billion in "loan forgiveness." That's nothing. There are more than 10 million homes under water where the amount they owe on their mortgages is more than the house is valued, i.e., could be sold for. $20 billion doesn't make a dent in that: 1 million homes at $20,000 loan forgiveness is it. And, remember, $20 billion in loan forgiveness to the banks is not equal to $20 billion in cash. It is probably more like $10 billion, if that, due to accounting, prior write-downs and similar shenanigans.
There is also the risk of a tacit conspiracy here. The banks want to "put this behind them" (gee, who wouldn't) and escape from real liability (criminal and civil) and the prosecutors (many of them politicians) and the administration want to claim victory. You will hear that the settlement was the largest, one of the largest or the greatest settlement in history that will help millions or billions or trillions of people who need help -- you get the point: no hyperbole will be spared. As if all that wasn't bad enough, the most egregious aspect of all this may be the reporting: stories repeatedly use innocuous, but grossly misleading words that obscure what really happened here. For example, so-called "robo signing" is massive, systematic, fraudulent, criminal conduct. This is where banks themselves or their contractors sign legal documents to file in court swearing under oath that the facts are true and therefore support the legal application to take someone's home away from them, i.e., foreclose.
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Hell Hath No Fury
(16,327 posts)Sigh, so much to "put behind us".
MrCoffee
(24,159 posts)Everyone will claim victory, and no one will win. Well, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial are making out like bandits, so there's that.
rfranklin
(13,200 posts)but they are in the protected class.
russspeakeasy
(6,539 posts)Pirate Smile
(27,617 posts)MrCoffee
(24,159 posts)This settlement is a steaming load of shit that can be painted either blue or red to suit your fancy.
msongs
(67,407 posts)AtomicKitten
(46,585 posts)Matt Taibbi: "The narrow focus of the deal covers only a small amount of liability and leaves the banks incredibly exposed to all kinds of criminal investigations."
- excerpt from Matt Taibbi interview by Bill Press on Countdown:
http://current.com/shows/countdown/videos/matt-taibbi-ponders-whether-obamas-embrace-of-populist-rhetoric-is-already-impacting-wall-street
girl gone mad
(20,634 posts)by Matt Taibbi
So the foreclosure settlement is through.
A few weeks back, I was optimistic about it I had been worried that it was going to contain broad liability waivers for all sorts of activities, and I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that its scope had essentially been narrowed to robosigning offenses.
However, now that the settlement is finalized, and I've had time to think about it and talk to people who know far more than I do about this, I'm feeling pretty queasy.
It feels an awful lot like what happened here is the nation's criminal justice honchos collectively realized that a thorough investigation of the problem would require resources they simply do not have, or are reluctant to deploy, and decided to accept a superficially face-saving peace offer rather than fight it out.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-the-foreclosure-deal-may-not-be-so-hot-after-all-20120209#ixzz1lumtgFAs
stockholmer
(3,751 posts)MrCoffee
(24,159 posts)Taibbi has changed his opinion
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)Wasn't he thrown under the bus not so long ago?
Hard to keep up sometimes with who is and who is not credible, or maybe it's WHEN they are credible. Today he seems to be very popular even among even some of those who declared him not credible not so long ago. I wish there was some consistency about all of this.
Meantime, a man who actually does understand the economics and crime that led to the 'Biggest Bank Heist in History', Bill Black, speaking about this agreement two days ago, doesn't agree. His interview merely confirms what most people's reaction to it is, we just got sold out again, and the Banks just got another bailout.
It's disgraceful how much crime, and robo-signing IS a crime, has been swept under the rug and the criminals rewarded, rather than punished.
I'm sure there are many happy Bankers today, but not so many happy ordinary citizens. Only about $5 billion of that settlement is intended to compensate the wrongfully foreclosed on homeowners, and there is a 3 year deadline for the Banks to get this done. Too bad if they don't get around to you before that time is up.
If the distribution of this ends up like the money allotted to help homeowners stay in their homes, most of it will never get to those it is supposedly intended for. And Geithner or whoever is in charge of THIS money, will refuse to answer questions about why, once again. And no one will compel those questions to be answered.