My Take On Newly Filed AG Foreclosure Settlement: As Bad As We Thought It Was

[girl gone mad]

from Isaac Gradman:

This famous postgame rant from former Arizona Cardinals coach Denny Green after his team’s epic meltdown on Monday Night Football against the Bears could just as easily apply to my reaction to reading the official terms of the Attorney General Foreclosure Settlement (the “AGFS”), filed today. The nation’s largest banks get off with a relatively small penalty (much of it paid by investors or in “credits” for things the banks should already be doing) in return for releases across a broad spectrum of misconduct that pervades just about every dark corner of mortgage servicing. The categories of servicer misconduct are laid out in detail in the complaint filed today in D.C. Federal Court, and include the following:

• Providing false or misleading information to borrowers,
  
• Overcharging borrowers and investors for services of dubious value,
  
• Denying relief to eligible borrowers,
  
• Foreclosing on borrowers who were pursuing loan mods in good faith,
  
• Submitting forged or fraudulent documents and making false statements in foreclosure and bankruptcy proceedings
  
• Losing or destroying promissory notes and deeds of trust,
  
• Lying to borrowers about the reasons for denying their loan mods,
  
• Signing affidavits without personal knowledge and under false identities,
  
• Improperly charging excessive fees related to foreclosures,
  
• Foreclosing on servicemembers on active duty,
  
• Making false claims to the government for insurance coverage, and
  
• Being unorganized, understaffed, and generally slower than molasses to respond to borrowers desperately in need of relief, while servicing fees continue to accrue.

The list goes on and on, but I can sum it up in one phrase, from the Honor Code of University of Virginia: lying, cheating and stealing. Such conduct would have broken every tenet of my alma mater’s Honor Code. There, we had a strict no-tolerance policy and a single sanction – violating any tenet of the Code resulted in automatic expulsion.

But what’s the result when lying, cheating and stealing is perpetuated on the largest scale imaginable, by five of the largest banks in the country, thereby exacerbating the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? A broad release of liability, no admission of guilt, and a monetary settlement that pales in comparison to the size of the problem, even if it were paid in full by the banks themselves (which it will not be, as we’ll get into in a moment).

http://www.subprimeshakeout.com/2012/03/early-assessment-of-ag-foreclosure-settlement.html

[tridim]

1. I'm getting two grand..

Which is a hell of a lot better than nothing.

My servicer didn't bother processing my loan mod application, twice.

Complain about the settlement if you want, but it represents real justice to real people who got screwed, people who will never be able to afford a team of high-priced lawyers to fight the TBTF's.

[girl gone mad]

3. Bully for you.

[msongs]

2. payoffs are a token to avoid any real responsibility/jail time - they will pay gladly to

buy off the government for pennies on the billions they hijacked

[JDPriestly]

4. The amount does not begin to compensate people for the harm done to them.

How can you compensate children for the upheaval in their lives due to the stress in their foreclosed families?

We need a full criminal trial, and if we are to be denied that modicum of justice, then at least a Pecora Commission -- a full and comprehensive investigation into what happened and who should have been held responsible.

This is shameful. They are sweeping the offenses under the rug.

The article in the New York Times by the resigning employee from Goldman Sachs is a must-read in light of this article.

We will continue to be kicked by our banks until we do a proper investigation and clean up the untrustworthy folks in that sector.

It's a shame because at the local level some of the banks have great employees. Is this a case of the slime rising to the top?

[The Doctor.]

5. The fix is in.

And it's not getting out anytime soon.

[Mojorabbit]

6. One set of laws for the rich and one for the rest of us. nt

[CAPHAVOC]

8. The top .01%

Is taking us to the cleaners.

[Po_d Mainiac]

7. 65 million (+/-) broken chains of ownership/title

prior to the settlement.

65 million (+/-) broken chains of title after the settlement. Problem solved....right?

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. which is why I just figure I am renting from the bank

instead of buying.
We are 5 years into our 30 year mortgage, payment less than 500.00 a month., nice house,
3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, on acreage.
House is a bit underwater, depending on how one looks at it.
By the time we are close to paying off the mortgage, we will be in our late 80s.
Maybe we will qualify for a reverse mortgage at some point, maybe not.

Don't think we'll live long enough to have to worry about getting a broken title,
doubt we will live long enough to see home values go back up, so selling this house will be iffy.
But RENTS are much higher here than our mortgage payment, if you can find a comparable house.
No property taxes to pay ( homestead exemption applies).
So, I am not sweating the title issue right now.

I figure the banks have more to be worried about than I have, in the short run.

[Po_d Mainiac]

10. I got 1 more kid to put a roof over, and haven't been able to find

one with a clean title. Been running into the problem south of you.

Bought a pre-foreclosure-short in 2008. The owner signed off on that one so a warranteed deed was issued.

This place ain't an issue..owned the land since 1980, and built the place from scratch....1 full bath for me bride, and I get to use the woods (which I have to share with the dog) But, your heat bill is probably bigger than ours, and I have no need for A/C

[truth2power]

11. I've been ranting about broken chains of title for the past couple of years, but no one

seems to understand or care.

I don't claim to understand this completely, but these mortgage companies didn't file titles with county recorders, or if they did, everything was traced back to MERS.

Also, not paying recording fees deprived counties of a significant source of revenue most often used to run their court systems.

Even I can understand how egregious this all is. Why are people not outraged??

P.S. Could you please tell me where you got the number '65 million'? Just wondering, because I want to use it when discussing this. Thanks.

[ms.smiler]

12. Truth2power, I don’t often post but I do understand and I do care.

We don’t have a foreclosure crisis in this country; we have a mortgage/Title crisis.

I’m sorry that I missed your rants but thanks to other fellow DU members, I did acquire an understanding of securitized mortgages. Once I understood MERS and the securitized mortgage scam, it certainly didn’t make sense to me to pay a mortgage for decades when I wouldn’t ever receive a valid Deed and clear Title.

This past May I filed a Quiet Title action against my mortgage servicer. We are challenging the authority of supposed MERS Assistant Secretaries and Vice Presidents since MERS has never legally created any such officers as required by Delaware law where they are incorporated.

I’m sure you understand how this issue is even worse than “robo-signing.” There are millions of Satisfactions of Mortgage & Assignments of Mortgage filed in our land records that are invalid/fraudulent. Even properties that were never foreclosed have clouded Titles.

It appears you understand that property Titles are clouded because not all transfers were filed in our land records. That’s a valid point. We’re calling out the servicers on a particular vulnerability and waiting to see how much fraud they are willing to reveal to the court. I realize that only a court can clear my property Title and provide me with a valid Deed. Moreover, I prefer to cash a check rather than writing several hundred.

I would also like homeowners to realize that some party or parties likely owe them more money in damages than the homeowner MIGHT still owe on their mortgage loan because of the likely fraud in the mortgage itself and the damage done to the property Title.

There is a growing percentage of our population that is wise to this scam. I’m delighted that the foreclosure fighters are training up the Occupy movement. I’m hoping that homeowners come to understand that the problems that arise in foreclosure suits exist, unbeknownst to them the entire time a securitized mortgage is timely paid.

The 65 million number is familiar to me as the number of MERS mortgages in existence at one time, although I have also seen 70 million. I agree that this settlement did nothing to fix/correct or compensate homeowners for the damage done to property Titles. I think it will be up to each homeowner, one lawsuit at a time like we are doing to fix the Titles, obtain damages and relieve homeowners of fraudulent securitized mortgages.

My trial is presently scheduled for May.

[Po_d Mainiac]

13. I tend to not go with high estimate numbers

The 65-70 million MERS registered titles is accurate.....The number is also likely to be very light, because is not factoring multi-family, and commercial RE
http://michiganloanhomeinc.com/2130/mers-65-million-titles-clouded/

To do a quick cross check:
Approx 1 in 10 single family are expected to be in some stage of foreclosure by the end of the year....6.5 million securitized past due loans at present 6.5M (X) 10 = 65million

[Po_d Mainiac]

15. ayuh...more to go with your point

http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2010/08/27/exclusive-mers-deposition-of-secretary-and-treasurer-of-merscorp-42010/

On April 7, 2010, in the Superior Court of New Jersey, MERS Treasurer and Secretary William C. Hultman gave an oral sworn video/telephone deposition in the case of Bank Of New York v. Ukpe.:

Q Do the assistant secretaries — first off, are
you a salaried employee of MERS?
A No.

Q Are you a salaried employee of MERS Corp,
Inc.?
A Yes.

Q Are any of the employees of MERS, Inc.
salaried employees?
A I don’t understand your question.

Q Does anyone get a paycheck, if they are an
employee of MERS, Inc., do they get a paycheck from
Mercer, Inc.?
A There is no MERS, Inc.

Q I thought, sir, there’s a company that was
formed January 1, 1999, Mortgage Electronic Registration
Systems, Inc. Does it have paid employees?
A No, it does not.

Q Does it have employees?
A No.

Q Does MERS have any employees?
A Did they ever have any? I couldn’t hear you.

Q Does MERS have any employees currently?
A No.

Q In the last five years has MERS had any
employees?
A No.

<SNIP>

Q How many assistant secretaries have you
appointed pursuant to the April 9, 1998 resolution; how
many assistant secretaries of MERS have you appointed?
A I don’t know that number.

Q Approximately?
A I wouldn’t even begin to be able to tell you
right now.

Q Is it in the thousands?
A Yes.

Q Have you been doing this all around the
country in every state in the country?
A Yes.

Q And all these officers I understand are unpaid
officers of MERS?
A Yes.

Q And there’s no live person who is an employee
of MERS that they report to, is that correct, who is an employee?
A There are no employees of MERS.

If so, how does anyone have any authority to sign security instruments encumbered by any loan documents, if these certifying officers are not paid employees and never attend corporate meetings in the capacity as Vice President, Assistant Secretary, etc. with Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc..

[ms.smiler]

16. Po d Mainiac, from my Complaint:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/75281522/Amended-Quiet-Title-Complaint-8-21-11-Redacted

Count IV

29. According to the Deposition, the Board of MERS did not vote to appoint anyone to the position of Assistant Secretaries or Vice Presidents (E-P115).

30. Instead, Hultman claims that the Board of Directors of MERS delegated to him the ability to appoint persons to the position of Assistant Secretary and Vice President.

31. No Corporate Resolution from the Board has been produced to substantiate this delegated authority.

32. Since Hultman’s actions were done without the consent of the board, his actions are void.

33. These actions include granting Ms. Anderson her signing authority.

34. Ms. Anderson is not an Assistant Secretary of MERS.

35. Ms. Anderson is not a Vice President of MERS.

36. Ms. Anderson did not have authority to execute the first assignment of mortgage.


The Board Members themselves must meet, vote and pass a Corporate Resolution in order to create an officer of MERS. That satisfies their own by-laws and more importantly, Delaware law. Those well compensated executives though were too darn lazy to ever bother to show up and actually do the job so at no time did the Board ever legally create any such officers with any authority whatsoever.

There are no MERS documents - no Affidavits, no Satisfactions or Assignments that are valid.

We Subpoenaed a MERS official who never appeared for the Deposition.

[Po_d Mainiac]

14. This is not a topic covered by the MSM

The 60 Minutes piece on robo, Linda Green, DocX, MERS, etc which featured Attorney Lynn Szymoniak (whom just pocketed a cool $18 Million) was a rarity.