civilCriminal

“An Ongoing Criminal Enterprise”: Why America’s Housing Disaster is Back and Wreaking Terror

Remember the housing nightmare that busted the economy? The crooks are back and here’s what they’re secretly up to

Servicers have run into another problem in Florida, ground zero for the foreclosure crisis. Because of a series of state Supreme Court rulings after the robo-signing scandal, an employee affiliated with the servicer must sign a document that says, “Under penalty of perjury, I declare that I have read the foregoing, and the facts alleged therein are true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.”

Defense lawyer Evan Rosen of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, decided to depose one of the signers of these verification statements: Lona Hunt, foreclosure specialist for Seterus, servicer for the mortgage giant Fannie Mae. In the deposition, Hunt admitted twice that she never read the complaint at all before she signed the document swearing that the facts were correct.

Hunt testified that she only scanned the foreclosure complaint, checking that the defendant’s name and date of default matched what was on a computer screen.  She misidentified key documents in the case, did not know the meaning of basic legal terms in the complaint, and basically showed little expertise about anything related to mortgages and foreclosures. You can read the deposition here.

It’s impossible for someone with such a limited knowledge base about foreclosures to verify that the facts of an individual case are correct. And keep in mind that this verification process exists in Florida because servicers illegally robo-signed official documents and got caught. The courts decided to increase legal consequences by forcing servicers to verify the truthfulness of their claims. Yet they are robo-signing those verifications too.

So why is this important? If the verifiers cannot verify and the witnesses bear no witness to the facts, so what? Didn’t homeowners default on their loans? Why should they get a free pass? This is the familiar refrain of those who would minimize this misconduct. Some even blame the states for forcing the poor servicers to prove they own the homes they want to repossess.

Here’s the truth. False documents and mass perjury, both criminal violations, make a mockery of the judicial system. It means that the servicers have as much legal right to foreclose as I do. To say that the homeowner is guilty of not paying, so their lender can do whatever they want to force them out of the home, is like saying the murder suspect is obviously guilty, so the cops can plant false evidence. We have a system of law to defend the rights of everyone, and ensure equal treatment.

The full, must read article, can be found here…

~

4closureFraud.org