Lynn Szymoniak’s Story in 60 Minutes Wins Prestigious Loeb Award
Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of appearing on a panel at Netroots Nation with, among others, Lynn Szymoniak, the lawyer and forensics expert who during her own foreclosure case recognized the massive fraud in documentation being perpetrated by banks. Lynn devoted the next several years to rooting out this fraud and telling anyone who will listen about what the banks were doing with mortgage assignments. She ended up taking home $18 million in a whistleblower case that was folded into the foreclosure fraud settlement. And now, the 60 Minutes piece that gave her national notoriety won a Loeb Award, the most prestigious award in business journalism.
The story, “The Next Housing Shock,” picked up the prize for explanatory reporting. Other winners last night included the LA Times’ three-part series on used car lots, the Allentown Morning Call’s excellent series on Amazon.com warehouses, and Felix Salmon’s financial blog.
“The Next Housing Shock,” reported by Scott Pelley, brought the story of foreclosure fraud to an audience that may not have heard about it before. Szymoniak was the main expert in the piece, which told the story of how banks, unable to prove ownership of the houses they want to foreclose and repossess, resort to forged and phony paperwork to present to state courts. The story created a sea change in coverage of foreclosure fraud, moving it from a relative backwater to garner national attention.
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Where can I see the piece from 60 minutes? How can I get in touch with Lynn Szymoniak? I am in MA. Thank you so much. Our son is a front line Marine who returned from his 2nd tour in Iraq to find out the only home he ever knew was foreclosed illegally and we were homeless. I would appreciate any advice. My email is cocodo2112@yahoo.com please send me any info directly to my email address. Thank you so much!
I wish I could get an ethical person with a voice that will be heard to tell our story! We had a perfect payment history for 24 years and lost our home due to an illegal foreclosure. We were not in arrears, MA foreclosure laws ch 244 sec. 14 were not abided by. A notice of intent to sell was never sent to us, nor was the illegal sale ever advertised in the newspaper. We were sending our payments and then they refused one and did not find out for 45 days that the home was illegally sold. There was no auctioneer, no memorandum to satisfy the statute of Fraud, no proof of deposit, final payment etc. We had a preponderance of evidence and spent over $35,000 to an attorney and the Judge made a judgment not based on the facts of law. The judge and clerk of courts refused our Notice of Appeal, they ignored the testimony of an expert witness, ignored the perjury in the trial and depositions and the request for documents. Come to find out the loan was invalid because according to UCC 3 305 the closing never came to fruition at infancy. We were never in possession of the note, we never received any of the required documents that are needed to satisfy a legal contract. We found out prior to the deposition that the security instrument was never recorded and none of our payments were credited. We provided proof of every phone call and letter we sent to the bank and their attorney requesting our note and closing documents.We provided proof of the QWR & Validation of Debt that were both ignored and also proof of perjury & forgery. Our case is unlike any other and we have spent our retirement & life savings. We need a reporter to review our case it is unlike any other. I know people who have not made a mortgage payment in 3 years and are still in their home. We had to vacate our home due to Toxic Mold and still never missed a payment. We had so much equity that the bank thought they could put a band aid on the home and flip for a profit. I prevented that by going to building inspec
Bravo Lynn !
I would hope that everyone reading this will pass along recognition to 60 min for their boldness in challenging the banks and exposing fraud and urge them to re-run this segment in an updated version, as they often do in summer re-runs! Public opinion is EVERYTHING! YOU may think it does no good to protest, talk and continue to harp on this subject as Fraudclosure and other similar websites do. However, it is the ONE thing you CAN do to make an impact. You can comment on every housing, fraud, banking article you read and please READ and express your opinion, like Fraudcosure on fb or other social venues. WHY? Public opinion shapes elections, policy, courts, wars, civil rights, women’s rights, voting rights, etc. Change is never easily accomplished, it takes lots of research, hard work by many people working at it without giving up! Would we know nationwide foreclosure news if not for the Fraudclosure website? Some would but most would not. Become an advocate. We can change perception, not today, maybe not tomorrow but one foreclosure, comment at a time.
News this morning is gloomy in Memphis. Foreclosures are up and defaults over 90 days are up. Property taxes are promised to increase to compensate for the great loss in tax base! This hits the big boys in those expensive houses hard, particularly since their home values are either stagnant or falling.
This means yesterday’s couch potato that didn’t give a —–if you (as a deadbeat) lost your house is now losing his or his job or whatever! It has to come home to the individual that we are all in this leaky boat together and we need to VOICE our distress with a broken system that favors big business, outsourcing jobs, destruction of equal pay and bargaining rights combined with loss of healthcare and benefits. (Romney is part of problem not answer.)
SCREAM from the housetops.
The LEAST we can do is petition 60 minutes to repeat “The Next Housing Shock!”:
The article gives “Congratulations” to Lynn. However ,the award was given as Explanatory Winners
Scott Pelley, Robert G. Anderson, Daniel Ruetenik, Robert J. Shattuck and Nicole Young of CBS News 60 Minutes for “The Next Housing Shock”. Congratulations should go to those who rec’d the award.