Hundreds of Millions in Damages Demanded for New York Homeowners
(PRWEB) August 20, 2010 — On August 17, 2010, attorney Susan Chana Lask filed a Federal Class Action Complaint on behalf of tens of thousands of New York State homeowners who lost their homes to an alleged foreclosure fraud orchestrated for years by a New York “foreclosure mill” attorney and major mortgage companies. The case is filed in the US District Court, Eastern District of New York, entitled “Connie Campbell against Steven Baum, MERSCORP, Inc, et al.”, Case #10CV3800. It alleges RICO civil racketeering, RESPA, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act violations and that homeowners paid inflated foreclosure and other fees fictionalized by Mr. Baum who profited from the scheme since 2005.
The action seeks to return tens of thousands of foreclosed homes to their owners or the values thereof and hundreds of millions in punitive damages against Mr. Baum, MERSCORP and HSBC.
Attorney Susan Chana Lask discovered the alleged foreclosure scheme after her client lost her 1.7 Million Dollar Brooklyn Caroll Gardens Brownstone home to a $190,000 mortgage foreclosure filed by attorney Steven Baum for HSBC. The foreclosure court filings were false as filed in HSBC v. Cncepcion Campbell, et al, New York Supreme Court, Kings County, Index #20393/07 . Steven Baum’s foreclosure complaint he filed was for HSBC against Ms. Campbell . It admits the loan was never assigned to HSBC, yet he sued for HSBC. A later Satisfaction of Mortgage was not filed for HSBC but for a company named MERS, admitting HSBC never owned the loan and the foreclosure complaint should have never been filed in the first place. The actual Mortgage was always in MERSCORP’s name and never assigned as required by law. Just who owns the loans Steven Baum forcloses on is a deliberate mystery and potentially tens of thousands of New York homeowners lost their homes on a mystery.
But there’s more. The documents filed in the Courts are signed by attorneys from Mr. Baum’s office under penalty of perjury that they are filing with knowledge of the transaction; however, they have no knowledge as they admit they do not have the documents they attest to in their office. In fact, in the later case filed of Concepcion Campbell v. Walendowski, et. al., New York Supreme Court, Kings County, Index # 08-3467, when Ms. Lask subpoenaed Mr. Baum’s firm for the original Note, they responded it was not needed and refused to produce it; implying they never had it yet they swear they reviewed it in their court filings “under penalty of perjury.” Also, in the original foreclosure case of HSBC, they file documents by an alleged officer of MERS named Rebecca A. Cosgrove by a notary in “Erie County”. But MERS is located in Virginia and Erie County is in Buffalo New York where Steven Baum’s office is. It is suspect that Ms. Cosgrove is even an officer of MERS, no less that she flew all the way to Buffalo NY for the day just to sign a document before a notary. In fact, other courts recently discovered these same false notaries and “officer” claims in other cases involving Mr. Baum and MERS.
“Mr. Baum is an attorney who knows better, yet his foreclosure filings for parties who have no standing to sue confuse the courts and homeowners while he and his banking clients profit tremendously by throwing people on the streets after their bad loans sold by the very same banks become unaffordable to innocent people.”, says Susan Chana Lask.
The aforementioned false foreclosure filings potentially hit tens of thousands of New Yorkers who were foreclosed upon. “Courts have rules and laws are made to be followed. Corporate America needs to follow the rules and be accountable just like the rest of us, else we’re all victims to one big Bernie Madoff scam,” says Lask.
Courts blast Mr. Baum for his sloppy filings claimed to be deliberate to hasten foreclosures on unwitting homeowners and courts. On July 29, 2010 NY County Supreme court Judge Alice Schlessinger summed up a MERS foreclosure as “I am unable to say with any confidence that this was an honest transaction.” (Index #109824/05). The Manhattan US Trustees office started an investigation of Steven Baum months ago.
His tens of thousands of filings hit innocent and desperate people victimized by the present economic crisis who don’t know how to defend themselves nor have the money for an attorney, according to Susan Chana Lask and courts as referenced above. People lose their property for false filings.
This process allows banks to avoid recording loans in the proper name, which saves the banks county clerk recording fees and allows them to resell the mortgage under different names that are hard to trace if not recorded. “They profit at every angle, starting with all the fees they getfrom the initial mortgage closing, then reselling it on the market to investors, right down to taking someone’s house away to sell it for more money on top of everything they already got”, says attorney Susan Chana Lask.
Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2010/08/prweb4409724.htm.
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4closureFraud.org
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Connie Campbell Against Steven Baum, MERSCORP, Inc, Et Al., Case #10CV3800
How do one become a class member in this suit
If any one wants to file a complaint Against Steven J. Baum send it to Eigth judicial district buffalo
438 main street suite 800 Buffalo, New York 14202-3212 tel 716-845-3630.
2009 I file a complaint against Mr Steven J. Baum there answer was he did not
do anything wrong. who looks like fools know.
Susan Chana Lask; There is a few clients awaiting your sucess for another lass action suit against MERS
Sherrie If you need any lawyer help for jurisdiction especially contact Tom at CryerLaw.com in Shrevesport, LA
Where do sign up as a plantiff against S. Baum esq. ?
[…] LINK – Class Action RICO Suit Against MERS Alleges Tens of Thousands of New York Foreclosure F… […]
Besides the recording fees don’t forget that MERS also avoids transfer tax, corporate income tax, and capital gains as the notes silently transfer. I’ll bet they record losses though.
When the TARP/TALF back-stops were paid out I wonder if they were paid to the owner of the note — the entity registered in court records — or to an individual bank at the time of the payout? Something tells me I know the answer.
Seems like the SIGTARP regulators should be interested if hundreds of billions of tax dollars went to companies for losses on notes they didn’t own; if they relied on MERS rather than property records when deciding which corporate welfare queen to dole the money out to.