Category: investment banking

The irrefutable logic at the foundation of all successful foreclosure defense narratives

February 2, 2023

The mortgage lien is designed to protect against financial loss — not to promote financial gain. If Wall Street wants to protect the financial gains it created from its crazy scheme using weapons of mass financial destruction, then the least it should do is share a little of that with homeowners, consumers, the government, and investors. * I continually get the same question, mostly because neither the homeowner nor the “investigators” understand anything about being a licensed, educated, experienced investment banker, lawyer, or accountant. If they were any of those, they would not ask the question. * The latest question

FCRA Might Be Fertile Ground for Individual and Class Actions Especially under CFPB Rules

May 3, 2022

if the CRC does not perform the investigation or performs it incorrectly, you can sue them. In a world where the ability to access credit matters more than the ability to access savings, nothing could be more important than these provisions under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Anyone who read the book or saw the film “The Firm” knows that it is often a boring statute that can take down the worst offenders. It was mail fraud in that story. For more information ask the descendants of Al Capone who died in prison of syphilis after being convicted of

Western Progressive LLC is named as Trustee or even Attorney on many forms, notices and recorded documents in foreclosures. Who is this Luxembourg LLC and Why do all paths lead back to Ocwen?

February 7, 2022

why such a company would ever be seen as a qualified party to (a) serve as a trustee on a deed of trust (b) make any claims whatsoever and (c) allow its name to be used by FINTECH service providers operating under contract with Merrill Lynch and its “successor” Bank of America. This is especially true because there is no beneficiary who executes the Subsitution of Trustee and no beneficiary named that is qualifeid as a beneficairy — i.e., the one to whom the udnerlying obligation is owed. And all this goes back to what I said somewhere around my

"Payment History" is not the loan receivable account

February 2, 2022

The payment history is not the loan receivable account by definition and it is never presented as such. Failure to recognize this obscure fact often results in failure. But those who do understand it, raise their chances of a successful defense from unlikely to very likely. A lawyer (Scott Stafne) shared with me a case that he is apparently working on. This case is interesting because the lawyer for the homeowner has filed the final round of motions in the discovery cycle, which is a Motion in Limine — i.e., a motion to limit testimony from the sole robowitness expected

Use of QWR and DVL is extremely important in counteracting the tracks laid down by securitization that fake a contractual relationship with the homeowner

January 31, 2022

If you are not willing to challenge the basic assumptions of the loan or debt, then you probably should not even start any challenge or defense. If you are willing to do that you will probably win or force the “dark side” into a settlement that you find favorable to your interests. You don’t need to understand how the debt vanished. You only need to know that if you challenge its existence and therefore its owner and agents, the dark side will fail. The inability of consumers to understand the securitization process is not a legal excuse for preying on

Getting a piece of the pie: How securitization can work FOR homeowners and not against them

January 19, 2022

There is no sale of the obligation, note or mortgage and so there is no securitization of debt. By splitting the attributes of behavior from the provisions of the executed documents and changing the description of the behavior, an investment bank could, in essence, sell the apparent debt an unlimited number of times without ever recording the sale of the debt, note or mortgage. In most instances, the “closing” of a transaction with a homeowner results in the issuance of a note and mortgage promising payment that is not supported by any reciprocal consideration. In most of the other cases, the “closing” results in very

How Those Refi's Were Turned Into Gold by the Investment Banks

January 12, 2022

Most people cannot conceive of why they should have been paid more at the purported “Closing” of their transaction than what they received or what they think was paid on their behalf. * But the bottom line is that in most cases, whether the transaction involved a resale of the home or “refinancing,” only a fraction of the money you thought was transacted was actually present. It’s not just that they should have been paid more — it is that the homeowner did not receive the money he or she promised to pay back. This fact is part of a

Homeowners need to understand that they are investors, not borrowers.

January 10, 2022

In nearly all cases that the amount of money paid to a “prior lender” is entirely or mostly fictional in all cases of refinancing and nearly all cases in purchase money mortgages. As long as the same underlying investment bank is the same for both the Buyer and Seller or the same for both the new “Lender” and the old “lender.” * But in cases where the Seller gets money (equity) at least some money is actually produced for closing. And as long as the refinancing produces cash to the homeowner, some money is actually produced at closing. So for

Why I Think Homeowners Are Entitled to Receive a Second Payment From Investment Banks

January 4, 2022

All homeowners who think they have a mortgage loan have received one payment at a “closing” — or a payment allegedly made on their behalf. For reasons explained elsewhere on this blog, such payments on their behalf are mostly fictional where the underlying investment bank is the same “director” of funds. * The significance is that a second tree springs up in which the scheme described below is duplicated — with little or no cost to the investment banks. Each time the myth of “refinancing” is employed a new securitization tree springs up with dozens if not hundreds of branches.

Stop Using the Labels: Homeowners Lose Foreclosure Cases When They Refer to the "Servicer"

December 27, 2021

You need to challenge the status of the company claiming to be a servicer by finding out what functions they really perform. * I know I have contributed to the problem, but I think it’s time to stop using the labels that are promoted by the banks. * Companies that are claimed to be the “servicer”, by all accounts, do not perform any functions normally attributed to that label. This it is against the interests of the homeowner or the lawyer representing the homeowner to accept the use of the term unless there is foundation testimony as to the actual

"Black Knight": Banks Are Peddling A False National Narrative of Declining Foreclosures

December 7, 2021

I’m busy today so I can’t publish my usual long analytical article. But one thing that is constantly staring at me is the fact that the national press and news releases are in basic conflict with local media. And the fact that local media is going out of business isn’t helping. Black Knight is a company whose size and reputation is entirely based upon preparation, presentation, and use of false documents and information that were forged, robosigned, and back-dated. Those were the days when it was called Lenders Processing Services in which DOCX was used to produce the false documents.

Magna Bank, N.A. as Trustee for registered holders of certificates issued under the name of the Macandcheese Acquisition Trust, Inc. an inactive corporation, for a nonexistent trust, series 2022-XL-1

December 6, 2021

So a friend of mine left her phone in my car. Here is what I wrote to her: Thank you for leaving your phone in my possession, which as you know is 9/10s of the law. That means that even though you paid for it and you received ownership from the seller, I can now claim it as my property. So by possessing the phone I was able to issue and sell several certificates based upon the possible rental income I would receive from you for access to the phone you already own. * I told the buyers you had scheduled payments

How Could This Not Be a Loan?

December 3, 2021

if the investment bank paid the homeowner as an incentive payment rather than as a loan, then there is no debt any more than salary or wages can later be called a loan. The fact that the consumer/homeowner thought or even wished it were otherwise makes no diffeerence. If I pay you money and you think it is a loan but I paid you for services you rendered, the substance of the transction is “fee for services” — not a loan — and there is no legal or ethical or moral obligation to pay it back. I think the one

Here is How Wall Street Smoke and Mirrors Works

December 1, 2021

The idea that some company bearing the label of “servicer” is performing financial functions and accounting on behalf of an investor, a trust, a trustee is completely false from end to end. Such companies do nothing and were never intended to do anything except act as a buffer, in name only, to prevent liability attaching to investment banks who had entered the lending marketplace without any intent to enter the business of lending money for profit. But when the homeowner admits that such labels and narratives are true, the law of the case becomes the false narrative and labels. As

How Likely Is It That a Homeowner Will Win a Foreclosure Case?

November 30, 2021

The answer to this question depends upon the homeowner — not the judge. * If the homeowner rigorously, aggressively and persistently seeks enforcement of the rules of civil procedure, the rules of discovery, the rules of evidence and enforcement of court orders, the chances of quite good that the homeowner role reach a very favorable result. * If the homeowner attempts to make a claim or state and affirmative defense that requires proof of malfeasance by the opposition (or anyone else), probability of failure is extremely high. * The general consensus has accepted the proposition set forth in the national

Unilateral Mistake: Equitable Defenses Explained — How homeowners can get the upper hand and defend against enforcement of contract that is different from the one they knew or intended

November 10, 2021

Homeowners are missing out on a huge opportunity for economic gain that balances the power between Wall Street and consumers. Courts of equity are courts of conscience, which should not be shackled by rigid rules of procedure,[51] and inherent in a court’s equitable powers is the authority to prevent injustice engendered by fraud, accident, or mistake.[52] Florida Bar Journal Novembert/December 2021 “Two, Three or Four Prongs? The Contractual Defense of Unilateral mistake in Florida” Second, there is a distinction between the equitable remedies of rescission and reformation that may further blur the lines. The Florida Supreme Court and a few others

Those letters from the lawyer for the "servicer": PHH

November 2, 2021

It is true that someone will execute a release of the lien. What is not true is that they have any authority to do so — nor is it true that PHH has any right to receive any money, whether it is a monthly payment or a payoff. In fact it is not true that PHH will receive any money. They won’t and they don’t. All payments are directed through lockbox contracts and FINTECH companies into accounts that may bear the name of a company claiming to be a serrvicer but which are owned by someone else. This is why

About that letter you receive from the company claimed to be your servicer: PennyMac

November 1, 2021

People keep getting letters and they tend to treat the information as real simply because it is in writing. That is the nub of the Wall Street scheme — send out written communication and documents without regard to the truth and people will assume that the document or letter would not have been sent if at least someone didn’t think it was true. SO I was recently sent a copy of a communication that was on PennyMac letterhead. People forget that you can create the letterhead of any company or person and pout it at the top of your document

Attack the "Successors"

April 6, 2021

In analyzing the paperwork in front of you, make sure you read every word and do not accept anything said at face value. A popular ruse by foreclosure mills is the use of the word “successor.” I have been saying that this word is used as a cover-up for “we don’t have title to the debt, note or mortgage.” That means they have no loss connected with a claimed scheduled payment that was not received by a “Servicer” who had no right to receive it in the first place. Hat tip to Gary Dubin, Esq. and Shelley Erickson. If they

TONIGHT! Why Lawyers Should Want Foreclosure Defense Cases and What They Are Missing $$$

January 21, 2021

Thursdays LIVE! Click into the Neil Garfield Show Tonight’s Show Hosted by Neil Garfield, Esq. Call in at (347) 850-1260, 6 pm Eastern Thursdays SHARE THIS POST WITH LAWYERS YOU KNOW!!! This show is devoted to convincing the lawyers who will listen that they are missing out on something very profitable and important. Representing homeowners faced with foreclosure papers can and does present an opportunity for large paydays, consistent victories in court, and playing a part in changing the trajectory of home finance in this country and around the world. In 2008 I presented a seminar that provided the essentials of

What Happened With Your "Loan" — By admitting that you received a loan you lose.

December 16, 2020

The plain truth is that homeowners are losing their cases through assymetry of information. They think they understand when they do not have a clue. They are admitting the obvious, which turns out to wholly untrue. In so doing they give the court no choice but to enter judgment aganst them. ApplicationForLoanProcessAndFundingOfServiceFees I am experimenting with new ways to present this. If you click on the above chart you will see that the application process is actually a dead end. Nobody actually agrees to lend any money. Nobody does lend money. Money arrives later at the “closing” table but unknown

Repurchase agreements only advance the myth that loans were purchased in the first place.

December 14, 2020

Investors would do much better if they stopped litigating the duty to enforce repurchase agreements. The repurchase agreement is void because there was no purchase. There are better claims to make that are more easily proven. Homeowner litigants need to have more courage and attack the existence and ownership of the underlying alleged obligation much more explicitly and directly. They will be pleasantly surprised. While they will never get an admission that the whole affair is a scam, they will be able to raise the inference and thus limit the evidence in court that would ordinarily be allowed to prove

Think You Have a Loan? Think Again! Don't allow the Wall Street "investment banks" to steal back money that was earned by homeowners.

December 11, 2020

What is obvious is false but only investment bankers know it. * Without knowing it, you are probably doing business with a Wall Street securities brokerage firm calling itself an “investment bank.” You didn’t know because they were never disclosed. And the money they paid to you was not a loan — at least not for them it wasn’t. They didn’t treat it that way on their own records and neither should you. That means they are attempting to collect back the money they paid to you even though it wasn’t a loan. * So what did they pay you

Sometimes the client figures it out better than the lawyer

December 7, 2020

The problem has always been how to present this counterintuitive reality to a judge who is convinced that securitization of a loan DID occur even though the transaction was not in fact a loan and no sale occurred. After decades of litigating and teaching litigation, the one common theme throughout my career has been the knowledge that often your best ideas come from the client, who is unencumbered by thoughts of what can’t be done. One such client of mine in the state of Hawaii asked a simple question. She asked whether the homeowner, post-foreclosure, could ask for surplus funds.