Baldwin Stands Up for Middle Class Homeowners
Tells Attorney General Consumers Must Have Path to Recover Losses
Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) today led colleagues in standing up for millions of homeowners across the nation who were victims of fraudulent practices by the nation’s biggest banks. In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder concerning the ongoing settlement talks between state attorneys general, federal regulators, and large mortgage servicers, Baldwin, joined by 24 colleagues, opposed any settlement to grant mortgage servicers blanket immunity for wrongdoing related to illegal mortgage and foreclosure practices.
“It is simply wrong that Wall Street was allowed to recklessly endanger our economy and has had no required recompense while millions of Americans have lost homes and savings and our national economy was brought to virtual collapse,” said Congresswoman Baldwin. “Those families who were victimized by unscrupulous and illegal activities by banks and mortgage companies must be allowed to sue to recover their losses,” she said.
Due to wrongdoing on the part of mortgage lenders, millions of homeowners now find that the mortgage on their homes is greater than the assessed value of those homes. Consequently, many of these homeowners now find themselves in greater debt, bankruptcy, or foreclosure. In her letter to Holder, Baldwin wrote, “We believe that the American public deserves a full investigation into these claims and that those responsible are held to account for their actions.”
Baldwin is angered by the stark contrast between the status of Main Street Americans and Wall Street executives. “I’ve spoken with homeowners throughout Wisconsin who are financially and emotionally devastated by the collapse of the housing market. Yet, no Wall Street executives have faced prosecution for their part in intentionally causing that collapse and that suffering. The message this sends is that average Americans play by one set of rules and everyone on Wall Street plays by another; and Wall Street always wins,” she said.
“It’s outrageous that while banks and other financial institutions were rescued on the premise that they were ‘too big to fail,’ they are now being rewarded as being ‘too big to prosecute,’” Baldwin said.
The $20 billion proposed settlement between the state attorneys general, federal regulators, and large mortgage servicers pales in comparison to the roughly $750 billion in total losses nearly 15 million mortgage holders now face. “And homeowners are not the only financial victims of the mortgage servicers’ fraudulent behavior;” Baldwin said, “state pension beneficiaries, including teachers, firefighters, and police, were also cheated out of critical investments due to fraudulent sales of mortgage-backed securities.”
Baldwin told Holder that, “If blanket immunity is granted to mortgage servicers their appalling behavior goes unpunished and they will continue to behave as if they are above the law…The American principle of equal justice under the law must apply to all, not just some.”
SOURCE: http://tammybaldwin.house.gov/
Copy of letter below…
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4closureFraud.org
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Mortgage Fraud Proposed Settlement Letter to AG Holder 11.1.11
Thanks for this; will write Tammy Baldwin a note of appreciation for standing up for us (even though the Powers That Be are deaf to the issue.)
Have written to thank all the AGs who are fighting for us or dropping out of the settlement and prosecuting MERS and/or the banks. Bet they’ll be glad for the encuoragement, they’ve got to be frustrated by this point in the long,, tedious setlement process, a process which is going nowhere for their consitutents while the banks keep trying to reduce the penaltiy amount!
I’m sure this will go straight to the top of his ” To Do” list with 30 legislators calling for his resignation today over Solyndra..What a frightening individual..Thank God for these 25 AG’s trying to look out for the folks..
I see larger Occupies in the very near future..
Holder hasn’t done anything, completely missing in action. There is no justice, only an indifferent, illegitimate oligarchy.
WAIT….Holder has not fooled anyone but himself…….his day is coming and he knows it……they all know it……..what lurks in the shadows will appear and you will see the rats run………
Securitization violations have a strict 5 year statute of limitations and that whole game had pretty much ended by Febrary 2007 as the wheels first began to come off the bus.
All Holder has to do is take a knee and run out the clock for three more months.
Bought Bastard.
Couldn’t some one file a qui tam? It is very obvious that Holder is not doing his job. Did you know that the firm he came from specialized in white collar criminal defense? Surprise…surprise.
“In common law, a writ of qui tam is a writ whereby a private individual who assists a prosecution can receive all or part of any penalty imposed. Its name is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur, meaning “[he] who sues in this matter for the king as [well as] for himself.” A more literal translation would be “who as much for [our] lord the king as for himself in this action pursues” or “follows.”
The writ fell into disuse in England and Wales following the Common Informers Act 1951 but, as of 2010[update], remains current in the United States under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq., which allows for a private individual, or “whistleblower,” with knowledge of past or present fraud committed against the federal government to bring suit on its behalf. ”
Why couldn’t we as individuals file qui tam against the Wall Street fraudsters, when the DOJ willfully refuses to do its job? If we all chipped in a few dollars, we could accomplish it.
What can we do about corrupt officials who willfully refuse to do their jobs – Bernanke, Geithner, Holder, Mary Shapiro, John Walsh, the HUD and Fannie/Freddie collusionists, etc. Can these people be sued for not doing their jobs? Think of the bad publicity a suit would bring them.
Not only not doing their job….what about working with the enemy against our country….?? Leapfrog….I want to believe their day is coming….treason and tyranny has been in the government for many years…without that…this massive criminal take-over would never have happened….and it is never to late to bring them all to face what they have coming to them. As far as certain charges at this time…I am sure there is more being done on our side that is not known to the people at this time….and not to the enemies. I would say the power is behind us but is for us….when the time is right…..