The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Richard Day's picture

    MORTGAGE CRISIS; CH. 324

                                               
                                                                          HELL

    The subject of mortgages is back in the news thanks to HUFFPO & the Levin Report.

    I have taken some time to document the fraud perpetrated upon the county recorders in this country.

    Ron Paul and his son Curly Rand have attempted to tell us all that the only purpose of government is to protect property interests.

    The Black Panthers spent decades attempting to tell me the same damn thing.

    A set of confidential federal audits accuse the nation’s five largest mortgage companies of defrauding taxpayers in their handling of foreclosures on homes purchased with government-backed loans, four officials briefed on the findings told The Huffington Post.

    The five separate investigations were conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general and examined Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial, the sources said.

    The audits accuse the five major lenders of violating the False Claims Act, a Civil War-era law crafted as a weapon against firms that swindle the government. The audits were completed between February and March, the sources said. The internal watchdog office at HUD referred its findings to the Department of Justice, which must now decide whether to file charges.

    The federal audits mark the latest fallout from the national foreclosure crisis that followed the end of a long-running housing bubble. Amid reports last year that many large lenders improperly accelerated foreclosure proceedings by failing to amass required paperwork, the federal agencies launched their own probes....

    The five giant mortgage servicers, which collectively handle about three of every five home loans, offered during a contentious round of negotiations last Tuesday to pay $5 billion to set up a fund to help distressed borrowers and settle the allegations.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/16/foreclosure-fraud-audit-false-claims-act_n_862686.html

    I have posted this article in the news corner of Dagblog.

    Dick the Butcher might have wished to do away with all of the lawyers, but damn this is smart stuff!

    The attorneys, referred to in the link, signed onto a theory for taking on the mortgage companies that encompassed legislation passed by our Congress 156 years ago. Now this link from HUFFPO covers just one of scores of attempts to call the banking system into question.

    But what the hell! Have at em!

    I mean this is really good stuff.

    Congress has done little, apparently, to stave off a felonious onslaught by the economic pricks who really control this country. And yet, these attorneys found laws so old that most capitalistic pricks forgot about them.

    Who'd a guessed?

    But here we are.

    You will recall that attorneys all over the country began to question documents that were being filed on behalf of the mortgage companies during foreclosure proceedings.

    http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/false-affidavits-foreclosures-what-robo-34185.html

    These challenges arose from the practice of mortgage bundling that led to the financial collapse of 2008.

    As hundreds of articles and books have disclosed, the financial companies that hold our nation hostage could no longer trace the property liens that served as backing for their mortgage products.

    If these companies had adequately assessed their own product line, they would have seen that most of these mortgage bundles were no better than unsecured loans.

    And unsecured loans are worth a lot less than secured loans.

    Well, on the street level the companies charged with collections discovered that they were having problems tracing back to the original mortgages on specific properties.

    Procedural steps were skipped as individual mortgages were transferred from company to company.

    Mortgage assignment documents were never filed with the local county recorders.

    So when push came to shove and the homeowner ceased to make payments, 'processing' companies were having a devil of a time attempting to foreclose on the mortgages in order to receive proper title to the real estate.

    So these 'processing companies' filed false documents, under oath.

    The rationale for this felonious behavior would boil down to this:

    Look, who cares who owns the goddamn mortgages, the homeowner was not properly making his mortgage payments anyway. And the most important element of our economic system is that if the peasants do not make payments on their properties, those properties must be confiscated.

    Of course us poor peasants are supposed to ignore the fact that the original mortgages were pushed upon an unsuspecting public in the form of preprinted contracts that made no sense to skilled attorneys let alone the prospective homeowner.

    Adjustable clauses that made those mortgage bundles so lucrative, contained language that would eventually increase mortgage payments 50% or more within a few months of closing. And when the average citizen's salary only increased 1% over the last decade, some analyst with much less skill than Krugman might have concluded that some people might find it difficult to make their payments after the ADJUSTABILITY CAME INTO PLAY!

    The lowly salespeople involved in the day to day vending of these adjustable mortgages received peanuts for their efforts. Meetings called by the employers of these salespeople most probably resembled scenes from Glengarry Glen Ross .

    You better produce or you are going to be filling orders for fries in short order!

    To sum up, fraudulent mortgages were being perpetrated upon an unsuspecting public by fraudulent salespeople employed by fraudulent companies ultimately enforced by fraudulent companies filing fraudulent documents in fraudulent foreclosure proceedings by fraudulent attorneys.

    At the same time these frauds were being perpetrated, our biggest banks were bundling these fraudulent loan documents and fraudulently selling the bundles to unsuspecting purchasers like pension funds (pension funds that should have known better) and pocketing billions of dollars by fraudulently selling the packages short.

    And what about our courts? You know, those centers for truth, justice and the American Way?

    Well, foreclosure actions were becoming so prevalent that judges could hardly be expected to review each and every document and attempt to piece together sworn testimony with those documents. There just were too many damn foreclosure actions to keep up. See Here and here and here

    Now, as in our criminal courts, plea bargaining was put into place. 82% or more of all criminal actions end with the defendant pleading guilty through blackmail of a sort. I mean you plead guilty now and you will be sentenced to a term of 6-10 years instead of 10-15.

    So representatives (paralegals and such) were sent to meet with the individual homeowners and asked to 'sign off' on the foreclosure and were promised that they could keep their couches. Along the way homeowners were also lied to with regard to their property rights by the lowliest of the low representatives.

    But even with the releases signed by the homeowners, a mortgage company must 'prove-up' its lien. A chain of title must be established by law.

    I mean if you cannot prove ownership to property or an ownership of a lien to property, you are not entitled to title of any kind.

    And I think that Ron Paul along with his son Curly Rand would have to admit that title to property is the single most important facet of a capitalistic system!

    That is a basic capitalistic tenet.

    Otherwise, how can you prove how important you are?

    And you would think that there would already be enough laws on the books to put all those bastards responsible for these multitudes of frauds in prison for eternity.

    But, in fact, three, four and five years after the fact, clever attorneys had to reach back 150 years in order to come up with a theory for prosecuting these felons.

    What is interesting about this article from HUFFPO and this report is that there were other times when Post Civil War Legislation came to the fore in the 20th century.

    Many of our civil rights cases arose from what we learned in law school as 1981,1982,1983 laws.

    http://finduslaw.com/civil_rights_act_of_1866_civil_rights_act_of_1871_cra_42_u_s_code_21_1981_1981a_1983_1988

    Take a look at this legislation sometime!

    You will not be disappointed.

    All of our 1964/1965 Civil Rights Legislation comes to us as a direct result of lawsuits filed under Federal laws passed in 1866.

    Some extremely smart attorneys in the 50's & 60's rediscovered this old legislation in the face of Plessy v. Ferguson and changed American History. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v_Ferguson

    The Supreme Court in Plessy decided that separate but equal would be all right; blacks could have their own schools and their own drinking fountains and their own separate society.

    Sometime in the 1950's attorneys began to attack Plessy v. Ferguson and it was eventually over turned.

    So I am amazed that attorneys in our new millennium found other post civil war legislation to prosecute the bastards who stole our republic.    

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-people-vs-goldman-sachs-20110511

    Comments

    Thank you Richard, for another fine work

    The weasel mortgage company lawyers couldn’t attack the sound reasoning of the old law.

    They may have known the old law was on the books, but figuring the fines would be worth the risk “IF they were to get caught.  Highly unlikely

    Plausible deniability; How would we know someone would find what we thought was hidden, a late 1800’s law still applicable.

    By the time, “IF” we get caught, we’ll have set aside a fund to cover the fine.  A fund financed by our illegal gotten gains, drawing interest.  

    Hoping to avoid applying the old law to them, they write new laws for themselves, in an attempt to circumvent the intent of the near perfect old law; they write new laws in an attempt to obfuscate the meaning and interpretation of the original intent.

    Changing the words and if someone should question the NEW and improved clarified words, they’d argue the words mean the same thing.  Only the wordsmiths know, overtime the original word meant more and was more deliberative.

    Overtime the old law is thought of as arcane, replaced by words relevant for today.  New words invented, new words employed to confuse principle.

    (We wouldn’t need so many laws on the books if we all lived by principle) “Thou shall’t not steal”  is a lot simpler than;  you will not defraud by scheming or inside trading.)  

     How sweet it is the old law is based upon a good principle and is good law, and all the attempts to nullify the intent of the original, will hang these bstrd’


    I am having probs getting to responses.

    This is clever lawyering Resistance. And I hope the hell they follow through.

    Yes, you are correct, the felons write the laws!

    This time, THEY might have been caught with their pants down, just like Southern sheriffs in the 60's.

    I was quite caught by this HUFFPO article.


    Hey Dick. Glad you keep bringing this forward, especially with Levin out there. Donno why it's not dwarfing the other news items....

    One question - What was the law from the 1860's that they used? 


    Yes

    Now it is just the perspective concerning the cheating the government where it comes into play but to recite the quote that is relevant:

    The audits accuse the five major lenders of violating the False Claims Act, a Civil War-era law crafted as a weapon against firms that swindle the government. The audits were completed between February and March, the sources said. The internal watchdog office at HUD referred its findings to the Department of Justice, which must now decide whether to file charges.

     

    This just got to me Q. I mean they did go back 150 years to find this government cheat law.

    I was amazed.

    This is top notch lawyering on behalf of the people.

    And I wonder how this theory would apply to the defense contractors over the last decade?

    Anyway, these guys and gals should be awarded with medals!

    Assuming of course, that charges are brought!

    On reread, I am going to research the False Claims Act and discuss it by tomorrow!

    I see what you are getting at. The False Claims Act was instituted to go after the frauds who stole from the Union during the Civil War. Like when HST went after the defense contractors just prior to WWII.

     


    The new Civil War - the super-rich against the people. (No offense or besmirchment of the original Civil War intended!) 

    Go get 'em, Dick!


    Are we supposed to gather from your comment,......... you were Pro- slavery?

    Just kidding


    Dick, do you think Obama's Justice Dept. will prosecute, or will they stall and let the States AGs do the heavy lifting?


    Miguel I have stated three years ago that this country had a real chance to change the very essence of American Capitalism and they dropped the ball.

    I make jokes about looking forward instead of behind and then cite Charles Manson. hahahahaha

    I sure the hell hope so!

    All these states are looking for MONEY!

    Not justice...just MONEY!

    And I think the Fed DOJ cannot ignore this!

    I am so damn mad at the current administration for lack of prosecution of these felons that I become depressed.

    But the states have picked up the pace here for MONEY!

    So lets see!


    It sounds as though the State Attorneys General might need a new leader if they want to do some major prosecuting of fraud. After being so incredibly gung-ho to 'put people in jail', Tom Miller folded his tent.  Rumor had it that he wanted to head the CFPB, so...

    And recently his group had been in settlement talks with the Big Five Banks; Yves thinks this new HUD info will tank the talks (a great thing).

    Hard to imagine Holder's DoJ prosecuting many bankers, isn't it?  This site keeps up with a lot of it, though there are others, too. 

    I read some stuff about the head of the NY Fed all primed to act, but David Dayen said it's not clear if he has jurisdiction, but I didn't get the argument, frankly.

    Nice blog, Dick!


    Great links! I really like Nakedcapitalism.

    These developments all aimed at the 'organizations to big to fail' are really interesting.

    Yeah I am going to follow this!


    Dylan Ratigan (yep; a Libertarian) is hell on the subject of Fraudclosures and TBTF banks, crap fin-reg, etc.  He has a series called 'No Way to Live', and Lisa Meyers helps deliver info from investigations.  This clip is about the servicers foreclosing because the servicing fees earn them more money than principal modifications, and not always because the house has little equity.  Messed up, but it seems critics think that was sorta how HAMP was designed, i.e., folks who didn't really need it were given loan mods, and not even just on FIRST houses.  Feh!

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31510813/#43027582

    So many mortgage holders were approved for modifications, but were foreclosed on during the trial periods, even when they were up to date with their payments. 

    Here's a bit about the NY AG and investigations.  1921 NY Martin Act, 'intent' not so imortant to prove, I think he means. 

    But now for all those links, would you tell me your shouting comic's name again?  The man who dies not long ago?  Sorry to forget; I can't remember jokes, either.   ;o)


    1921--how do you like that?

    There are so many ways to get around 'intent'.

    I do know that Cumo and Spitzer caused Wall Street all sorts of pain and they made a lot of money for NY.

    Which reminds me, the states and the Feds can make money prosecuting these bastards.


    Remeber, too, that the push-back kinda started with the County Clerks who realized that they were being stiffed for fees with the MERS robo-signed deeds not being registered on paper in their offices.  For some counties, it was adding up to some big numbers of lost revenue (counties being strapped already from the meltdown), so they called their County Attorneys who called their State Ags and so on...

    But ya misser; ya forgot to tell me the Unknown Comic's name!   ;o)  (I swear I'll try to remember to put it on my favorites list or something.)


    Hey Stardust:

    I Dom Irrera who you are thinking of?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3mrLi-1m4g

     

     


    No, silly!  The comic I'd see on Canadian teevee who would start off in a conversational tone and then SHOUT OUT LOUD ANOTHER WHOLE PART OF AN OUTRAGED RANT!!!  (I've learned to do it without wrecking my voacal cords; it's so much fun!)



    That's it!!!  Bless your pea-pickin' heart, Dick, that got me grinnin'.! I will put him on my faves list today!  ;o)

    "DON'T FEED THE KID!!"  "LIVE WHERE THE FOOD IS!!"  (i NEEDED THAT...)


    I'm surprised

    Beginning @.20 seconds him yelling about Marlboro's  and Engish, speaking about shooting the Vietnamese clerk from Da Nang when he had a chance..

    You'll put him in your favorites despite his racist joke;  but for me scorn? Surprised

    .  


    He is being humorous via faux-racial rant; you are that other category.  Sorry; you fail.


    Early life

    Born in Yakima, Washington[1] and spending most of his childhood in Peoria, Illinois, Kinison was the son of Marie and Samuel Kinison, Pentecostal preachers.[2] 

    His father pastored several churches around the country, receiving little income. Sam later attended East Peoria Community High School in East Peoria, Illinois.

    He followed in his father's footsteps as a Pentecostal preacher before becoming a comedian. Recordings of his sermons reveal that he used a "fire and brimstone" style....

    He attended Pinecrest Bible Training Center in Salisbury Center, New York.[3] After he and his first wife were divorced, he abandoned preaching and took up comedy as a profession.


    Musta been either one hilarious Pentecostal Preacher,. or one Suffering, Choking Mis-cast Father-Follower!  Thanks for the bio.   ;o)   (Ya oughtta hear my imitation...it can stop traffic...)


    And all that 'speaking in tongues' stuff mightta helped.   ;o)


    To sum up, fraudulent mortgages were being perpetrated upon an unsuspecting public by fraudulent salespeople employed by fraudulent companies ultimately enforced by fraudulent companies filing fraudulent documents in fraudulent foreclosure proceedings by fraudulent attorneys. ... Our biggest banks were bundling these fraudulent loan documents and fraudulently selling the bundles to unsuspecting purchasers ... and pocketing billions of dollars by fraudulently selling the packages short.

    Amen.

    Beautifully summed up, Dick. Things are finally moving it seems. The Levin-Coburn report, the NY AG, HUD. Looking forward to the details on that false claims law. Intriguing stuff!!


    Thanks Obey.

    My favorite Swiss economic expert! ha!


    Amen to Richard's Amen.  And Amen to Obey.  Things are finally moving.  Like molasses, but moving.  What finally did it?  Whatever it was, I hope it sticks around.