David Dayen: GAO Report on Independent Foreclosure Reviews Exposes OCC, Fed’s Plan to Deliberately Minimize Evidence of Borrower Harm
By David Dayen, a lapsed blogger, now a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on Twitter @ddayen
This morning the Government Accountability Office released their second report on the Independent Foreclosure Reviews. Kudos to Rep. Maxine Waters for getting GAO to take another look. At the time that the OCC and the Fed scrapped the reviews and amended their consent orders, this review, expected to be critical of the process, was seen as a proximate cause.
Rep. Brad Miller, a North Carolina Democrat, told The Huffington Post that the report, which has not been released, was “critical” and that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which administers the review, was aware of its findings. Miller said that that one problem the GAO was likely to highlight was an “unacceptably high” error rate of 11 percent in a sampling of bank loan files.
That indeed is in the report, though I wouldn’t call it a major feature. And there are only a few big bombshells or pieces of corroboratory evidence in the report. Furthermore, its narrow scope – GAO only looked at the regulators’ design and ovesight of the foreclosure reviews, rather than what the independent reviewers did, and in fact they used the bank consultant reviewers as primary sources – tends to give a very circumscribed picture of the reviews. You could even say that this report will help get the bank consultants off the hook by putting the blame on OCC and the Fed.
But the regulators were definitely part of the story here, and once you get through the government audit-ese, you can begin to see the picture of how they conspired to ensure the reviews would offer little to no value, and indeed attempt to exonerate the banks. The ensuing calamity only shows how the scheme worked too well, burying any evidence of borrower harm among an avalanche of deliberately cracked design.
Copy of the report below…
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4closureFraud.org
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Lessons Learned Could Enhance Continuing Reviews and Activities Under Amended Consent Orders
Our home was “stolen” by Wells Fargo in 2010. They committed forgery, submitted fraudulent documents to foreclose, enlisted robosigners, and basically performed all the same actions that they supposedly “got in trouble” for. We attempted to fight the illegal foreclosure through the courts (but lost because we are just victims, while they are THE BANK) and ultimately turned our case over to the OCC, Department of Consumer Affairs, our State Attorney General, and any other entity we thought should be aware of and could perhaps help us see justice. But NO, instead we get a postcard affirming our standing as eligible for Restitution from the Foreclosuere Review program. The amount is unspecified but ranges from “a few hundred dollars to $125,000.” I wonder if anyone will actually get that top mentioned amount paid to them? I doubt it. I am so disgusted with our Government and it’s paltry ability or desire to right the wrongs committed to so many of us by the G-damn banks, I am ready to March on Washington and raise Holey Hell! This stinks, and there is NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT!
I am ready to march too, but am disabled and on oxygen. We actually won one of our foreclosures pro si until the bank got a reconsideration from the judge and then we got a reconsideration and lost . the is on an investment condo that we have owned since 1989, almost 30 years. Our home is on appeal. The judge in the lower court didn’t even allow us the 20 days to prepare, she made her decision in 5 minutes. Luckily we were prepared enough that day in court that we had enough points showing the bank fraud to get the appeal granted. We been at this about 5 years now. It is destroying my son’s childhood and our life in general. We never dreamed we were going to have to become lawyers and study the law in our retirement years. I am sick of the fraud, corruption in Washington, the never ending lies, schemes and outright evil in our government and Federal Reserve, banisters, corporations. This country has lost its way, it has no morality or even basic decency. So sad. God will be their judge.
We can only hope that a Higher Power will call them to the carpet, But that doesnt make me feel any better nor give back a piece of our lives now forever taken from us. That old belief that anyone can work hard and achieve the American Dream is baloney now days. Not if you live in Southern California that is, because nobody but foreign Non Citizen Chinese and Russians with suitcases of cash can afford the homes we can no longer touch with a 10-foot pole!
https://4closurefraud.org/2013/04/02/here-it-comes-floridas-foreclosure-project-courts-setting-trials-by-the-thousands/
PURPOSELY BOTCHED SUPPRESSED REVIEWS. Seven whistleblowers have come foreward to whistle blow on the purposely supressed non independent reviews.
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2013/04/03/review-of-botched-u-s-foreclosures-beset-by-missteps-gao-says/
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2013/04/03/occ-promontory-deloitte-likely-to-testify-over-botched-foreclosure-reviews-on-4112013/
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/blame-abounds-over-a-flawed-foreclosure-review/
http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2013/04/04/gao-74-pg-report-botched-foreclosure-review-lessons-learned-could-enhance-continuing-reviews-and-activities-under-amended-consent-orders/
The government needs to call a moratorium on foreclosures due to the obviously breached settlement and on going crimes against American families. Please call your legislative representatives and demand a moratorium on the foreclosures. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
DEMAND A MORATORIUM ON FORECLOSURES,
Game over man. At least we still have faith in the GAO. (?) Right from the start, the review effort was another staged show to exonerate Banksters. In fact, every single effort allegedly intended to assist victims has been an exercise in outright bias and fake investigations. More deplorable, and depressing, is the considerable effort put forth by so-called public institutions to white wash outrageous fraud.