I worked for a Michael Pines who was with the firm Panther and Pines in Oceanside, CA.
Wonder if it is the same person.

you might be a bit misinformed about mortgages in general. Most mortgages were not underwritten by banks, they were underwritten by non-regulated mortgage lenders with money insured by Fan/Fred. Most FDIC insured institutions aren’t in the business of loaning to consumers and are having problems because of their CRE portfolios.

All that being said, I will tell all of you that I worked for Mr. Pines for 5 months in 2009. Despite an employment contract signed by him and working countless hours to help him get his real estate investment business off the ground, he never paid me. He wrote me one check for about 15% of what he owed me, but put a stop payment on it because the account had no money in it. I decided to let my hard earned taxpayer dollars work for me and filed a claim with the State of Ca LRB. He was summoned to a pre-hearing conference to try and resolve the matter and instead of appearing, he wrote a letter to the Labor Commissioner that drew a laugh. He then failed to show up for the hearing. I still had to prove my case to the Labor judge and testify. He was found to owe the money by preponderance of the evidence (Labor Commissioner hearings cannot by won by default) and sent a copy of the order and a notice of his right to request a trial de novo. Being the uber-competent lawyer he is, he filed his appeal with the court of appeals rather than the trial court and failed to post the required bond and/or deposit. The case was dismissed summarily. A judgment was filed by the State on my behalf and now I wait for collection to take place. Of note, while he was not paying me he was drawing a salary of $25k/month for his own use.

I’m not a banker. I’m just a hard-working regular guy who had been laid-off from a job and then “hired” by Pines. I worked hard for 5 months and paid, out of my own pocket, for a trip to NY and CONN to take business meetings at his request and on behalf of his firm. I did so under the belief that we had a binding contract which he intended to honor. I’m not asking for your pity, but I am putting all of this out there so that people can understand this man’s character. I fully believe he took money from clients and failed to produce results.

You can google his name and note that every court case he has ever been a part of, he has lost. That isn’t because of a conspiracy against him (the losses have occurred in multiple jurisdictions at both the Federal and State levels and in multiple states). It’s because he is a poor attorney who files paperwork late and fails to make legal arguments successfully. This isn’t my opinion, it is public fact.

I do believe there was plenty of fraud on behalf of banks in this whole mortgage mess. I also believe there were plenty of borrowers who lied and over-borrowed out of their own greed. In essence, greed ran rampant on both sides. Having someone willing to loan me $100MM today based on my statements of income alone doesn’t make borrowing it a good idea. Both sides agreed to every loan that was closed. Borrowers knew whether or not they could afford the house and took the gamble that real estate values would continue to rise. They lost. Many bankers took the same gamble. They lost.

Tell him John!!! I would take Pines as my lawyer any day!!!

You are dillusional and Paranoid
And if I may say so . . . . quite creepy

Hired by the banks? This isn’t a conspiracy bro – It’s FACT !!!

Pines is Paranoid and dillusional – He is violent and gives his clients REALLY bad advice

This is what it is – There is nothing more to say

Michael T Pines – #77771
Current Status: Not eligible to practice law (Not Entitled)
See below for more details.

Profile Information
Bar Number 77771
Address Pines & Associates
701 Palomar Airport Rd Ste 300
Carlsbad, CA 92011 Phone Number (760) 453-0131
Fax Number (760) 301-0093
e-mail uwimn@ahpdna.netinfo@pinesandassociates.comafijpw@ugmwss.orgemqqrrt@yofnwj.orghtbasoe@ppm.netqrdaygij@holriknt.comnksqujar@fhqo.orgfjoygfesy@whkew.eduiqwfhbmkp@fcnac.commagm@uucil.orgmnwli@pkelpydr.govigneh@htm.orgfyfw@hyet.netmuerwh@ijge.eduqembadn@chl.orgijpysqym@ppkmd.netecipquou@nipjict.combsaiobh@cmbu.netqbjhmnuhc@dds.netuirn@jfwsdl.gov
District District 9 Undergraduate School Univ of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh PA
County San Diego Law School Univ of San Diego SOL; San Diego CA
Sections None

Status History
Effective Date Status Change
Present Not Eligible To Practice Law
5/1/2011 Not Eligible To Practice Law
12/21/1977 Admitted to The State Bar of California

Explanation of member status

Actions Affecting Eligibility to Practice Law

Very WEll Said and Yes – TRUCE 🙂
I am sorry they screwed you. I know there have been a lot of wrong doings by lenders and banks so they can pocket their commission. It’s freaking disgusting !!!
I live a modest life, work hard, and make an honest living. I rent and do not really know that much about the financial working of our corrupt and greedy system.
I do know that what Mr. Pines does is illegal, dishonest, corrupt and violent.
Otherwise, Why would he be held on over A Quarter Million Dollars in bail?
He’ll say the law is out to get him and they are being paid off.
OMG !! He lives on a universe all of his own. Where he is Martin Luther King or Ghandi

And I agree that people should not be looking for avenues to unfairly get out of their debts. There are legitimate foreclosures. These tools are crimes if homeowners use them for illicit gain as well.

My reply was to Alex, not you. That being said, I will respond. I am not a person that you are describing. I stopped paying because I was over-escrowed, and noone would take fiduciary responsibility to resolve the issue, since the PSA wiped out my contract.

As far as lying about income, once again, I can tell you that without my knowledge, Countrywide submitted to my originator that I 100% owned a property that doesn’t even exist. That is on the bank. If these no doc loans were illegal, that would have been corrected. They also submitted the same info on a 1099A to the iRS, which I corrected.

As I stated, I am not aware of the situation with Mr. Pines, I clearly stated such. On a final note, you are correct, that I have no clue about Mr. Pines. I guarantee you though that I have much more of a clue of the financial industry crimes than you do. That being said, what I wrote was not meant as an argument, per se. Let’s leave it as such. I do not want to give or receive personal attacks which do nothing for the goals of this site…..truce?