Championship Subdivision Football | FCS Football | Stadiums | Blogs | Forums

Foreclosure battle: A new hope
As Occupy gears up for a foreclosure campaign, state attorneys general show backbone in tussle over bank fraud
BY JUSTIN ELLIOTT

This week, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley sued five of the biggest banks in the country – including Bank of America, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo – for alleged foreclosure fraud.

As the New York Times noted, the move “diminishes the likelihood of a comprehensive settlement between the banks and federal and state officials to resolve foreclosure improprieties.”

And Coakley’s suit comes just as Occupy Wall Street organizers are planning a campaign focusing on the foreclosure crisis that will likely feature eviction defenses, protests at banks and the like. The Occupy Our Homes project is launching on Tuesday.

But the foreclosure crisis can be dizzyingly complex, and the issue is still opaque to many Americans who have not been directly affected. For an update on what’s going and to get context on the Coakley suit, I spoke to Alan White, a visiting professor at Tulane law school who has written widely on the foreclosure crisis...

JoltinJoe wrote:Link?

The fact is that most banks do not actually have possession of the documentation needed to foreclose.

Keep this quiet, but tens of millions of notes showing on the books of our big banks as "secured" may well be unsecured.

kalm wrote:

JoltinJoe wrote:Link?

The fact is that most banks do not actually have possession of the documentation needed to foreclose.

Keep this quiet, but tens of millions of notes showing on the books of our big banks as "secured" may well be unsecured.

Here's the link: http://www.salon.com/2011/12/03/foreclo ... _new_hope/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

JoltinJoe wrote:Link?

The fact is that most banks do not actually have possession of the documentation needed to foreclose.

Keep this quiet, but tens of millions of notes showing on the books of our big banks as "secured" may well be unsecured.

danefan wrote:I hope people are buying title insurance and taking a market value rider on the foreclosure properties they buy.

blueballs wrote:

JoltinJoe wrote:Link?

The fact is that most banks do not actually have possession of the documentation needed to foreclose.

Keep this quiet, but tens of millions of notes showing on the books of our big banks as "secured" may well be unsecured.

Excellent point Joe... and that's the dirty little secret MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System) and the big banks have kept from everybody for the last 15-20 years...

Instead of actually recording assignments of mortgage as required by law and paying the recording fee and transfer taxes, servicers have used MERS to transfer unrecorded assignments among one another. Think about how many times a loan may be sold and multiply that on a nationwide scale for a couple of decades and you'll get an idea of how much money the banks and mortgage servicers have screwed local governments out of and the fraud they've perpetrated on the public.

JoltinJoe wrote:

blueballs wrote:
Excellent point Joe... and that's the dirty little secret MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration System) and the big banks have kept from everybody for the last 15-20 years...

Instead of actually recording assignments of mortgage as required by law and paying the recording fee and transfer taxes, servicers have used MERS to transfer unrecorded assignments among one another. Think about how many times a loan may be sold and multiply that on a nationwide scale for a couple of decades and you'll get an idea of how much money the banks and mortgage servicers have screwed local governments out of and the fraud they've perpetrated on the public.

I agree 100%. MERS was a trick to circumvent paying mortgage recording fees every time a mortgage was assigned ... now the chickens may be coming home to roost.

JoltinJoe wrote:Link?

89Hen wrote:

JoltinJoe wrote:Link?

http://www.rollingstone.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

89Hen wrote:

JoltinJoe wrote:Link?

http://www.rollingstone.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

About 50 people began occupying the home of Bobby Hull, 57, this week. Fletcher said he and other protesters plan to stay in the four-bedroom home of Hull, who is scheduled to be evicted from his home on Feb. 17.

"We're going to support Bobby until he has a sustainable mortgage that lets him stay in his house," Fletcher said. "We find it appalling that banks will not renegotiate with him but they will sell his house for pennies on the dollar to other banks."

Hull, who was an independent contractor but is unemployed after suffering from multiple heart attacks and surgery on his right rotator cuff, opened his living room and a pot of gumbo to about 50 protesters who offered to help him save his home.

89Hen wrote:http://abcnews.go.com/Business/occupy-h ... d=15097834

About 50 people began occupying the home of Bobby Hull, 57, this week. Fletcher said he and other protesters plan to stay in the four-bedroom home of Hull, who is scheduled to be evicted from his home on Feb. 17.

"We're going to support Bobby until he has a sustainable mortgage that lets him stay in his house," Fletcher said. "We find it appalling that banks will not renegotiate with him but they will sell his house for pennies on the dollar to other banks."

Hull, who was an independent contractor but is unemployed after suffering from multiple heart attacks and surgery on his right rotator cuff, opened his living room and a pot of gumbo to about 50 protesters who offered to help him save his home.

It's clear that the movement is preying on emotions and not reality. They won't sell the house to other banks for pennies on the dollar. They will sell it on the open market at the highest price they can get. Is his story sad? Sure. Is it the bank's responsibility to eat the mortgage because he's had medical issues? No.

homeowners saying, “I am here. I can’t afford my mortgage, but I can afford my house.”