July 25, 2011
William P. O’Donnell
Register of Deeds
Norfolk Registry District of the Land Court
649 High Street
Dedham, MA 02026
Re: Massachusetts Register of Deeds Association Request for Meeting
Dear Register O’Donnell,
Thank you for your letter of July 8, 2011. We look forward to meeting with you and your fellow Registers on August 11th, to discuss your concerns regarding MERS, the filing of false or
misleading documents with registries, and other matters.
As you are aware, we are currently investigating creditor misconduct in connection with
unlawful foreclosures, including failure to establish the right to start a foreclosure as well as
filing false or misleading documents with registries in the Commonwealth. We have focused
particularly on creditors’ reliance on MERS and whether MERS conforms to the requirements of Massachusetts law, in the context of foreclosures and otherwise. In the next week, we plan to
send civil investigative demands (CID) to Registers in order to gather critical information to our investigation, and appreciate your continuing cooperation in this process. If the Massachusetts Registers of Deeds Associations or any individual Registers have questions or concerns about the CIDs, they should contact Public Protection and Advocacy Deputy Bureau Chief Stephanie Kahn at 617-963-2986.
Many of your fellow Registers also have asked about the impact of our investigation on the
ongoing federal-state negotiations with the large banks. We have made clear that Massachusetts will not sign on to any global agreement with the banks if it includes a comprehensive liability release regarding securitization and the MERS conduct. We strongly believe that these investigations must continue and responsible parties must be held accountable in order to fully protect homeowners and return to a healthy economy.
We look forward to continuing to work with you on these important matters.
Cordially,
Martha Coakley
cc: John F. Meade, Barnstable Register
Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr., Berkshire Middle Register
Frances T. Brooks, Berkshire Northern Register
Wanda M. Beckwith, Berkshire Southern Register
Barry J. Amaral, Bristol Northern Register
J. Mark Treadup, Bristol Southern Register
Bernard J. McDonald, III, Bristol Fall River Register
Dianna E. Powers, Dukes Register
Robert F. Kelley, Northern Essex Register
John L. O’Brien, Jr., Southern Essex Register
Joseph A. Gochinski, Franklin Register
Donald E. Ashe, Hampden Register
Marianne L. Donohue, Hampshire Register
Richard P. Howe, Jr., Northern Middlesex Register
Eugene C. Brune, Southern Middlesex Register
Jennifer H. Ferreira, Nantucket Register
Jolm R. Bucldey, Jr., Plymouth Register
Francis Roache, Suffolk Register
Kathleen Reynolds Daigneault, Northern Worcester Register
Anthony J. Vigliotti, Southern Worcester Register
MC/pas
Martha Coakley Letter Re Massachusetts Register of Deeds Association Request for Meeting
Only jail time, will deter crimes like this in the future. Demand jail time for all fraudclosure players.
well said talktotennessee
MERS is a firewall that insulates the banking industry from responsibility to municipalities for recording fees, transfer taxes and more, as savings to a greedy industry, MERS aids banks in fraud through sloppiness in legal transfers bringing about title defects that the banking industry never realized would be discovered. They have no remedy for an enormous problem because it occurred one deal at a time over many years. Now it represents millions of loans, transactions and legal problems. Like feathers in the wind, some mistakes cannot be recovered.
AG Martha Coakley may be on to something solid by holding the line on the registry process. With one stone, giants fall if the pebble is targeted to a vulnerable area. The reason the industry is trying to gain full amnesty in settlement to bailout MERS is because they know their MERS ‘invention’ circumvents legal responsibility (or law) in almost every state in the Union. MERS is a one size fits all entity specifically designed to avoid compliance with property law.
Bringing down MERS may be a huge task but my thinking is AGs like Coakley can make a huge impact by just taking the next indicated step on safe ground to force compliance with their own state law. Not all AGs have the integrity or courage do what is right. If enough of them do their job correctly, they will force the banking industry into correction. Remember, Sheila Bair, former FDIC head said mortgage products were heavily “infected” with error on a large scale. Right now, banks are vulnerable, with money in hand, ready to buy off complainers while they seek ‘forgiveness’ for their misdeeds. Believe me, they are less generous with homeowners in reducing principal or modifying loans, instead piling thousands of dollars in late fees, penalties, legal fees and inspections on a homeowner making it impossible to modify his loan or stay in his home. Yet, banks are reducing their ‘principal’ responsibility by buying off investors, pennies on the dollar, to recover the collateral they will return to the market to sell for nickels and dimes, reaping another profit selling the REO, further destroying housing market recovery. Banks seek protection from criminal and civil recourse, denying homeowners the most basic assistance to modify loans or keep their homes.
Support Martha Coakley in her legal fight. Write your AG and send him or her copies of Coakley’s letters and ask them to do the same. Demand accountability. If the AGs do not cave in their settlement with banks, banks will be forced into courts where their exposure will continue to uncover the sheer magnitude of their crimes. Alternately they can make amends by seriously helping homeowners or they can answer for their actions in courts .
Threr is a time for planting and a time for harvest, a time to go and a time to come, the banks had a time to cheat and a time to come clean, and pay their damages