Independent Foreclosure Review Fiasco: OCC and Fed Decided Not to Find Harm
The last few days have had more and more ugly revelations emerge about the botched OCC and Fed Independent Foreclosure Review settlement, with some particularly important ones coming out of the hearings in Robert Menendez’s Senate Banking subcommittee today. We’ll turn to that soon, but first wanted to cover some issues that have correctly stirred ire among the NC commentariat.
First was the embarrassing confirmation of complaints all over the web that paying agent Rust Consulting did not have sufficient funds in its account to cover the first batch of settlement checks sent out Friday. And this isn’t the first time that Rust has sent out checks that bounced in a settlement. And in some jurisdictions, passing bum checks is a crime. What gives?
Second is the fact that the envelopes themselves look like numerous scam letters, in particular debt collection letters and offers. Lisa Epstein kindly provided this example:
People who sent in letters to the IFR are waiting for payments and will presumably be on the lookout for the settlement letters. But what about the everyone else?
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Who regulates the OCC? I’d like to file a complaint against the OCC for not regulating Rust Consulting.
I was on the brink of foreclosure; but, Fannie Mae was able to help me stop it. I am still behind but not at risk of foreclosure. If I cash this check is it an acceptance for them to start foreclosure again?
Demand the O.C.C. reinstate the orginal order, honor the judgment set forth in the settlement, and comply with the mandate of a independent review. The President, the O.C.C., banks, consultants, and the Treasury all have committed FRAUD against the American people. Do not let them get away with this.
Our “demands” mean nothing to these crooks! To sign “petitions” does nothing, either … it goes to a corrupt White House and a usurper who is a fake and a liar! Unless Attorney “Wendy” re-enters these blogs with the “how to” info she previously stated we would have to do COLLECTIVELY in order to effectively file a lawsuit against these money-baggers in order to TRY for SOME justification … NOTHING is making or will make a dent with these SOBs! Evil IS prevailing; the “machine” is so big and powerful, we’re simply flapping our lips in the wind, folks! “Justice” has vanished!!
please sign one or both of these petitions.
http://www.change.org/petitions/occ-and-federal-reserve-reinstate-the-independent-foreclosure-review-for-all-that-applied/share
PASS IT ON….new whitehouse petition demanding reevaluation of IFR…..and OCC and Fed reserve’s role. Need 150 signatures before it will be moved to main whitehouse.gov site, PLEASE SIGN! We need all the publicity we can get!
http://wh.gov/tILP
Hi Wendy, I had MERS and numerous other violations with Saxon…..I’m in ….my email is Lisa.lloyd43@yahoo.com…please contact me…..
I called the number for Rust this morning to ask when my check will be mailed. After listening to the prerecorded messages, I got the first person who wanted to know who had my loan and she gave me their direct 866 number in case I got disconnected. Then after listening to pretty much the same prerecorded message, I got to another operator who asked pretty much the same information that the first person asked and them some more. After she verified that I was me, she said how can I help you and I said I am reading that you can now say when checks are being mailed and she first said that it will be delivered by the August and then she said let me look at your record and said mine was mailed on 4/19 and I should have received it. Of course my mail has not been delivered yet so it should be here today or tomorrow and we will see what they think I am worth. I just expect $300 so if it is more then I will be happier but no amount will replace my house. I am not military so I won’t be receiving the $125,000.
There are many who do not do social networking … I will NOT become a part of Facebook or Twitter. Hopefully, whatever is planned that we Homeowners can do for restitution, will be made available to ALL of us, not just Facebook and Twitter pages. Thank you.
I would be willing to contribute to a legal fund as I am sure most injured homeowners would be.We can no longer tolerate the injustices by the banks or our elected official,and I agree the only way to be successful is if we join together.If the government was interested in helping wronged homeowners why didn.t they back loans for the people who actually damaged in the foreclosures,which is all most honest people are looking for.I don;t think that would have costed 3.6 billion dollars,and most people would be satisfied with that.
My previous post was in response to ATTY Wendy Alison Nora’s post:
Atty Wendy … if you’re still reading these posts, please inform those of us who WANT to collectively go after these big banks and the OCC for their greediness that caused so many of us, emotional and physical pain/ duress not to mention – their ROBBING us of our homes, i.e., OUR/the American Dream… where we can go/what we can do to start whatever it is we can do, PLEASE! Trying to achieve some justification via Congressman or one’s Senator does nothing more than play their game of “politics” – while they seem concerned, they’ll “go through the motions” to gain (hopefully) your “vote”! “Thank you” … many of us await your reply. =’)
Fannie are and Freddie Mac were actually ripped off by fraud to begin with by these same banks with fraudulent gse s….so why are they still backing these banks? Because they are all FDIC backed. But the federal government can’t soar like an eagle if they are backing turkeys. First, theytake the stocks and other securities and found that wwasn’t enough so they had to come up with a way to get more and more by taking our homes and equity…what about their insurance? So they get our homes and insurance backed security and our equity…..how can we believe any longer in the american dream …when it is really and truly a nightmare that we can’t wake up from?
and how do you like that Rust prints info on the outside of the envelope
so everyone can see it?
fraud victims have had their pride and privacy stripped away at every damn level.
we need FULL RESTITUTION not a bad check for a fraction of what was stolen from us!
Any word on the next wave of checks to be sent?
Rust stated April 19th, April 26th, and May 3rd. They won’t specifically tell you though which wave your check is in, or any other info, but some times someone gets a nice CSR and they say, “yes or no” to if it has been mailed out…Continued checks will be mailed through July/August.
Not only will people disregard this as junk mail they are out the money if not cashed in 90 days. Think this is on purpose with all the scams gone on so far? 90 days is ridiculous. and garbage looking mail is outrageous.
I am waiting for the small check from Rust. I feel we should all band together as foreclosure victims and sue the 13 mortgage services as a group, who actually lost our homes, and not as a group in the foreclosure process. The federal government should not be included in this effort at all. only the courts. Let a jury decide.
The OCC and Feds closed the door as per our rights to review or appeal the monetary decisions and the category we are placed in. They did however leave a window of opportunity open to go after the 13 mortgage services.
After I receive the check I will file suite against my mortgage servicer and all people who lost their homes in 2009 and 2010 should do the same.4.2 million small claims cases would cost the banks
billions in legal fees . The homeowner will win ,the banks will settle with us to avoid loosing money.
sincerely,
Roger
Same here. I will be doing the same
So where do we start? Maybe starting with a site with a petition for victims that want to sign up and band together?
For all the homeowners who think that a class action suit should be brought against the OCC/Federal Reserve/IFR Consultants, please consider this: the few lawyers who are fighting to save people’s homes throughout the nation are often doing so on a shoestring budget against huge odds. One of my clients tried to raise funds to pay for the deposition of a Wells Fargo robo-signer which I could have done because she is local in my area, but everyone who contacted him wanted to get a copy of the deposition after it was already taken and produced. (His family receives earned income credit, so they cannot afford to fund major litigation, not even the costs of the deposition.) I have been very grateful for the work of other lawyers at the expense of their clients which resulted in depositions which are available on the internet, but no class action suit is going to fall out of the sky without any contribution by homeowners. The case is just too expensive for any lawyer to cover the costs of necessary discovery in the action. The mortgage fraud system knows this.
My problem with us, the homeowners, is that we think that someone else should take on the battle and send us our share of the proceeds when it is won. What is needed is an organization as strong as the criminal cartel we are fighting with a common purpose and shared, affordable cost contribution. Maybe this latest scam of the IFR coverup for the servicers’ crimes will wake all the fraudclosure victims up to see that they need to crowd-fund the important litigation. We lack unity of purpose and direction. We do not trust lawyers or each other. Everyone is afraid someone else is getting more or less than they deserve. The fraud system uses our separation, whereas they have unity of purpose and designed the system to avoid accountability. Low level employees insulated from the management plan are the fall guys to be sacrificed for crimes of forgery and perjury while the lobbyists and purchased politicians and bureaucrats run interference with law enforcement.
I know a few lawyers who are interested in collaborating on a class action against this monstrous injustice, but none of us, individually or together, can advance a million dollars in necessary litigation costs. Looking at this another way, if every injured homeowner contributed $1.00 in a trust fund for litigation costs, and we could only 25% of those injured, the one million dollars would be available to proceed.
I do have a quasi-qui tam case pending in my own name as a homeowner who lost her home to a forged mortgage assignment and forged allonge before robo-signing was discovered. That is in the RESCAP bankruptcy (which includes GMAC Mortgage, LLC) in the Southern District of New York. When that bankruptcy was first filed on May 14, 2012, I asked all homeowners injured by the GMAC Mortgage, LLC robo-signers to contact me to file a proof of claim. There are thousands of victims of the Jeffrey Stephan forgeries. I was willing to handle the filing of the proofs of claim and their litigate their damages in New York for $500.00 from each injured homeowner. I did not get a single response. That case is still pending. The time to file proofs of claim expired in November, 2012 and the GMAC racketeers are arguing that anyone who did not file a proof of claim should not receive anything for their injuries. I disagree. The punitive damages portion of my claim should cover the harm done to all homeowners, which damages would be put in trust and administered by a court-appointed trustee. There are over 2000 properties which were listed as belonging to the RESCAP Debtors, most of which were taken with forged documents. A bit of investigation is needed (document review) and a number of the homeowners would have to be available to testify by phone or in person, but so far I have acted entirely at my own expense (except one interested party paid for the CD of the First Meeting of Creditors which I attended at my own expense) and have been paying all filing fees and costs out of my own pocket for the public benefit. Here is our problem, in a nutshell, the criminal cartel is well-funded, lawyered-up beyond anything necessary for the services they need (the bankruptcy estate is being raided and depleted for the fees of lawyers and consultants. We have no comparable resources individually, but as a group we could have a chance of minimally funding a good case. The facts are sooooo obvious. No one is going to do this for us. The IFR shows why we must organize and work together.
I have a few lawyers who have been willing to sue MERS and their robo-signers for fraud, but, again, the homeowners tend to want it to be done for them and then have the check sent out after the case is won. What is wrong with this picture? Our strength is in our numbers. Our weakness is in our atomization.
Class actions won’t solve the problem. Group actions might. Commitment to the common good is where this must begin.
This is informative and food for thought, but while there is power in numbers, who do we contact or how do we start this action? I’ve been fighting to save my home since one year prior to CitiMortgage sucessfully stealing it from me, even though I was aided by my Congressman’s office investigating through the Comptroller to no avail. Unbelieveable to me that a Congressman had no jurisdiction over any of the process. But, they quoted Freddie Mac as stating they weren’t interested in any of MY offers – only interested in reselling the property at “fair market value”! They ended up selling it 7 months after evicting us for $5000 LESS than they bought if for at Sheriff’s Sale and $13,132.51 LESS than we yet owed, which I offered, but it needed to be restructured into a lower payment. My circumstances is more technical than some, but I have every proof they fraudulently, took our home of 35 years from two people living on Disability who were forced to file for bankruptcy, and made every conceivable effort to keep our home. So, again … who and where do we victims of foreclosure, go to accomplish what you suggest? Thanks for your valuable input and taking the time to post here.
@Wendy Alison Nora…I also had jeffrie Stephen’s robot signer. I am willing to help you. Please contact me @shirlieperry@gmail.com. I am sick over this but can’t cave as I care take my adult disabled daughter and I am not going to sit back and let them get away without a fight. I paid my mortgage for 27 years…please get in touch.
I completely agree with you, however, how do I go about reaching your firm? Please leave an email and/or phone number to be reached. There are a great deal of homeowners that are very interested and suing the OCC and the banks. There in a group of homeowners on facebook that are signing up for a lawsuit on Facebook that created a link for lawsuits titled http://www.independentforeclosurelawsuit.com, I am sure we all can get together and contribute more than $1.00 for this effort and take back what belongs to us, our American Dream, our home!!
Not hearings mere Communist Show Trial (like Nuremberg Germany) or KA Buke Theatre?
Chroanies Bankster Gangsters too B I G to Jail? Hah to the Gallows or Guillotine in the Words of the Mad Red Queen Off with Their pretty Heads? Sell Tickets to The Executions and Wipe out the CONtrived Glo Ba’al Debt? What a Country?
i got a check for 500 dollars and i am out five thousand that i had to borrow to avoid foreclosure. i was on a trial payment plan with wash. mutual. chase denied that and said i owed five grand. is there any help here? maybe a class action lawsuit and bring these crooks to heel. peace.
It’s such a sad state of affairs, the game is so rigged it’s not even worth playing. Let’s take Pam Martens advice and not play anymore. The is the United States of ‘Murica people:
“The OCC and Fed settled blindly, eager to shut down the reviews as more and more damaging leaks filtered out. And their objectives were the same as the banks”
Are these hearings held just to appease the people? Why is it that they have to have sooooo many different ‘hearings’ on the same subject with the same results? I mean, c’mon, how many times does one have to say “fraud, crime, direlect of duty”, before it finally sinks in? And what do these hearings actually produce? A slap on the hand to the bankstas, an echo of a warning to the government offices that participated with a straighten up or ship out and then what? It is all so disgusting that we see, we hear and yet we do NOTHING. We, the people, are like the three mystic apes: hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.
Hoping an attorney will help us all with a class action law suit against the corruption of banks in our society, but from what I understand, that is slim to none chance that will happen! I wish someone would have the balls to take on the criminals! Most people are getting have got 300.00, 600.00 dollars, and they paid them 20 gs for review! That’s the government for you. They have zero accountability. Why is this whole OCC, IFR, Federal Reserve, Rust Consultant, and Independent Consultants not being held accountable?? I don’t get it!! They need to kick their asses to the curb, and refund all the money consultants were paid to the IFR victims! Not have senate meeting after senate meeting beating a dead horse, just simply, 1)Refund the money consultants 2) Give everyone at least 125,000 fair and square. 3) Jail time for bank frauds. Can someone tell me why this is not being evaluated? It seems rather simple doesn’t it? Is it that complicated for the senate to reprimand with consequences for their criminal behavior?