Mortgage Settlement Talks Look Like Tobacco II
First he starts out with…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Politically ambitious state attorneys general target an unpopular industry with lawsuits based on creative legal theories that would stand a tough time in court. Their sheer legal might brings the other side to the negotiating table. Talks grind on. Finally a grand bargain is struck that buys the industry some measure of immunity and sends cash sluicing directions that will help the AGs in their political careers.
That’s how the great tobacco settlement went down, and it’s looking like the mortgage settlement is headed the same direction. In both cases, the AGs are seizing upon behavior which looks bad and may technically violate the law, but is hard to link directly to consumer injuries.
Oh, so it is okay to violate the law if you personally can’t link injury to consumers. You must not of tried…
He then goes on to say…
Take Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto’s December lawsuit against Lender Processing Services, DocX and other document-preparation firms. According to the Nevada AG, “the foreclosure crisis has been fueled by two main problems: Chaos and speed.” There’s no mention of the primary cause: Borrowers not paying their mortgages. And while the lawsuit throws around words like “kickbacks” and “forging scheme,” it is notably short on evidence a single homeowner suffered foreclosure while current on his payments.
Guess he hasn’t read Michelle Conlins article in Reuters how this happens to thousands of people on a routine basis…
Next up…
Instead, the complaint cites “confidential witnesses” who signed thousands of documents a day without “personal knowledge” of their accuracy. What would that “personal knowledge” consist of? A computer record showing the mortgage was in default. The mortgage industry computerized a long time ago, and the “personal knowledge” inside the mortgage-syndication machine is institutional. Lawyers, notaries and county recorders of deeds may cling to the idea that a knowledgeable person, preferably a lawyer, must bless every document in a foreclosure. But where’s the evidence that the computers were wrong, and vast numbers of foreclosures were filed on mortgages weren’t in default?
As they did with the tobacco companies, the AGs attempt to build a case by citing what the loan processors said, not specific actions that hurt consumers. The Nevada case makes much of LPS’s SEC filings stating it doesn’t falsify documents or do other bad things — laying the ground for a barrage of securities-fraud lawsuits when it agrees in a settlement that maybe it did (there are two already). It also accuses LPS of violating Nevada’s consumer-protection laws, without citing any of its customers — banks and investors — who complain of being defrauded.Instead the consumer fraud is a hazy, derivative sort of thing. Consumers weren’t told that the foreclosure processors charged lawyers filing the paperwork against them a $125 fee for accessing their computer database, which Nevada calls a “kickback” but LPS characterizes as an “administrative fee.”
The penalties are stiff, up to $12,000 for each of the tens of thousands of cases of “fraudulent” documents. But with all those confidential witnesses and tens of thousands of illegal foreclosures, why can’t the state cite a single case of a foreclosure that was made in error?
You can check the article out in full if you can stomach it here…
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Their is no doubt in my mind or anyone else on this site that this was a scheme set in motion to destroy 400 years of land records and make us a nation of renters beholdinding to the 1%. Don’t think for one minute that we “We don’t have the stomache to do anything about it”. Just because we don’t have the insider knowledge Mr. Neva, doesn’t mean we are ignorant as to what really happened, it just took us longer to learn mortgage laws, trust laws, ect. info you have right at your finger tips. If you are so f@#$ing smart why are you speaking out and reporting what you DO know to the appropiate authorities and lend a hand before things really do get out of hand. These fraudulent mortgage practices affect everyone, even the so called “responsible” sheeple who continue to pay God only knows their hard earned money to fund some rich investors who stand to collect on the misfortune of others and others who refuse to pay someone who doesn’t even own the loan. Thanks for nothing and if you don’t like this site go somewhere where you do like. You probably inveasted in toxic mbs’, and have no idea what we here on this site and sister sites already now agter years of collaberation and helping each other. Push, pull, or get out of the way.
This LEGAL SCHEME: Stinks to High Heave, I SMELL a PAY OFF, at the Expense of the VICTIMS to:
ENRICH the GREEDY LEGAL MERCENARIE$!
Whadda DOUCHE.
Check with Gretchen Mortenson, She spent a few years with the same company, Foebes. She really understands the home Crisis better.
Daniel Fisher, FORBES Staff. I notice he does not refer to Catherine Masto’s BoA lawsuit. I’d like to hear what his defenses of those allegations are? Mr. Fisher apparently feels that correct, legal and proper paperwork is a trivial matter that should be ignored. That is if those not abiding by those laws are the banking cartel. I believe his position would change be it under any other circumstances. I would bet that if a family member of his was injured by another and the one causing the injury walked away smiling, scott free, based on an “unimportant” technicality, he would be singing another song. He is a reporter obviously looking for kudos from the very ones that are stealing away our basic rights and he is too ignorant and busy kissing up to see it.
It appears we have some robo-reporters now OR Daniel Fisher has some PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE about millions of cases – interesting.
Should victims (specifically borrowers) of banks’ crimes validate a bank’s alleged debt on the borrower by continuing the paid something that was originated and serviced in fraud – God forbid.
This former banker, me, is telling readers that most loans are originated and serviced with fraud and duress, whereby most banks are trying to put their fraud in the grave by burying it in foreclosure. I have personal knowledge to the banks’ disclosure violations, TILA violations, and FRAUD.