Category: politics

Beware of Financial Rescue Scams Including Modifications

August 17, 2020

The offer of modification is actually inviting you to formally join the securitization process without getting paid for it. I write often about the illegality of the Wall Street schemes that have defrauded investors and homeowners out of their money and investments. But there is also another aspect to this. The coming Tidal Wave of evictions and foreclosures is going to produce a tidal wave of scams that deprive homeowners and tenants of what little income or assets they have left. Some of the scams are very close to legitimate business propositions. There is nothing wrong with a risk sharing

The Best Article Yet on Illegal and Immoral Practices by Investment Banks Making False Claims About "Securitization of Debt" by Francesca Mari on Aaron Glantz Book "Homewreckers"

June 8, 2020

Francesca Mari in the JUNE 11, 2020 ISSUE of The New York Review of Books, has written a truly excellent piece on a book called “Homewreckers” by Aaron Glantz. If you ever had any doubt about whether homeowners have the moral high ground and whether the investment bankers have no moral or legal grounds for what they did, you should read the article and buy the book. ( I get nothing from sales of the book and I have not met either author — although I will contact them for interviews on my show). The only point that I think

No the Mortgages Are Not Securities, But the "Certificates" Do Not Qualify for Exemption As "Mortgaged Backed"

June 12, 2019

For those straining to find a way to categorize mortgage loans as securities I offer this based upon my licensing, training and experience as a Wall Street Broker and Investment Banker and as an attorney who has practiced law, including securities law for over 42 years. You are climbing the right tree but you are on the wrong branch, in my opinion. Despite possible legal and logical arguments for your point of view there is no way any court is going to take the common mortgage loan and say it is a security, and therefore was subject to regulation, registration,

Ocwen Admission Confounds Judges and Experts

January 17, 2018

This is a blatant attempt at deception — a deceit without which none of the Trusts would be recognized as legal entities much less the owner of loans. Ocwen is admitting that there is no single owner of the loan it is allegedly “servicing.” “There is no single owner of the account, but rather the account is one of many in a securitized investment trust.” For the uninitiated, this statement might suffice or at least be threatening enough as a challenge to their experience and intelligence to direct them away from the central false assertion that the trusts own any

George W. Mantor Runs for Public Office on "No More Dirty Deeds"

February 25, 2014

Mantor for Assessor/Recorder/Clerk of San Diego County Editor’s note: I don’t actually know Mantor so I cannot endorse him personally — but I DO endorse the idea of people running for office on actual issues instead of buzz words and media bullets. Mantor is aiming straight for his issue by running for the Recorder’s Position. I think his aim is right and he seems to get the nub of some very important issues in the piece I received from him. I’d be interested in feedback on this campaign and if it is favorable, I might give a little juice to

JPM Could Lose Its Charter for Criminal Responsibility in Madoff PONZI Scheme

October 25, 2013

From www.seekingalpha.com — JPM’s Madoff entanglement could prompt review of bank charter The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has reportedly told the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara that a criminal money laundering conviction of JPMorgan (JPM) for turning a blind eye to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme could trigger a review of the bank’s charter. Editor’s Note: practically every day we hear of new gross violations of law and intentional misconduct by the large banks who squandered their brand recognition on absurd situations. I have always said that it was impossible for Madoff to have stolen $60

Attorney Mark Stopa Shows Guts Confronting Appellate Court Bias

October 4, 2013

I have just received a copy of a daring and tempestuous motion for rehearing en banc filed by the winner of the appeal. The homeowner won because of precedent, law and common sense; but the court didn’t like their own decision and certified an absurd question to the Florida Supreme Court. The question was whether the Plaintiff in a foreclosure case needs to have standing at the commencement of the action. Whether it is jurisdictional or not (I think it is clearly jurisdictional) Stopa is both right on the law and right on his challenge to the Court on the

LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE

August 19, 2013

“We are still in the death grip of the banks as they attempt to portray themselves as the bulwarks of society even as they continue to rob us of homes, lives, jobs and vitally needed capital which is being channeled into natural resources so that when we commence the gargantuan task of repairing our infrastructure we can no longer afford it and must borrow the money from the thieves who created the gaping hole in our economy threatening the soul of our democracy.” Neil Garfield, livinglies.me We all know that dozens of people rose to power in Europe and Asia

ELIZABETH WARREN AND JOHN MCCAIN TEAM UP TO REIGN IN BANKS

July 12, 2013

Go to www.msnbc.com. CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN AND WOMEN. LET THEM KNOW THEY ALREADY HAVE YOUR SUPPORT FOR THIS LAW AND THAT THEY DON’T NEED TO SELL THEMSELVES TO GET SUPPORT FROM THEIR CONSTITUENCY. MSNBC had a segment today in which they interviewed Elizabeth Warren about a new set of laws reinstating the old style of Chinese walls. There are probably similar interviews on other channels with Senator Warren or Senator McCain and others. Just go to your favorite news channel and look it up. Their approach has bi partisan support because of its simplicity and its history. Historically

Another Small Fry Thrown Under the Bus

September 19, 2012

Another Small Fry Thrown Under the Bus Editor’s Comment: It is a familiar playbook in drug enforcement, police corruption, and now corruption arising out of the millions of faked, fraudulent Foreclosures — find a guy low down in the chain and throw him under the bus. This guy was making millions on False Inspections. But the government is complicit in an active way in public settlements like the Missouri settlement announced yesterday when they forgive and condone the continuing fraud arising from those who made False Appraisal Reports, false loan documents, false loan assignments, false Notices of Default, false monthly

What happened to Joe Nocera?

February 18, 2012

Sometimes you just have to wonder. Nocera has been an excellent, even if somewhat reluctant investigative reporter who brought almost as much daylight as Gretchen Morgenstern. Like others reporting on the mortgage mess, he has not yet attempted to quantify or even describe the financial damages to investors and homeowners, much less the total financial damage to our society. The amount of damage, as anyone knows, is hidden behind layers of denial and attempts to distance the banks from their own behaviour. Which is why I don’t understand Nocera in his article “3 Cheers for the settlement.” if we know

Bank of New York Slammed for Misrepresenting Standing

July 6, 2010

6.29.10Bank-of-New-York-v-Michael-Raftogainis[1] Judge Todd also stated that additional discovery is to be produced when the foreclosure involves a securitization, lost note claims, or a holder in due course challenge (which may arise in the context of the purported assignment of a toxic loan to a securitized trust prior to the trustee of that trust instituting a foreclosure action, as well as any predatory loan claims against the original lender). Judge Todd recognized that there are dozens of legal issues and inquiries where a foreclosure involves a securitization, and that a borrower has both the right to know who owns the mortgage

Ratings Arbitrage a/k/a Fraud

May 13, 2010

Investment banks bundled mortgage loans into securities and then often rebundled those securities one or two more times. Those securities were given high ratings and sold to investors, who have since lost billions of dollars on them. Editor’s Note: The significance of this report cannot be overstated. Not only did the investment bankers LOOK for and CREATE loans guaranteed to fail, which they did, they sold them in increasingly complex packages more than once. So for example if the yield spread profit or premium was $100,000 on a given loan, that wasn’t enough for the investment bankers. Without loaning or

Top New York Judge Urges Greater Legal Rights for the Poor

May 5, 2010

Editor’s Note: Judge Lippman is certainly onto something here. There is no doubt that the poor get the short end of the stick when it comes to legal matters. Whether this will have any effect on foreclosures is a question that cannot be answered as yet. With more people moving into the poverty level due to declining real wages and joblessness, it would certainly be a step in the right direction to provide legal assistance to people when it comes to having a roof over their head. With foreclosures the problem is getting an attorney who understands that most mortgages

Shareholders Sue Goldman, Blankfein Confirming Trusts Do NOT Own the Loans

April 27, 2010

Leo II bgitt47@verizon.net 2010/04/25 at 12:26 am Editor’s Note: I believe Leo is right. These suits allege that the SPV do not own the loan portfolios. They also allege directly that the Trust Assets included insurance — payments from credit default swaps. Two revealing lawsuits filed against Goldman-Sachs that I believe further support arguments that most, if not all Subprime securitized Notes that went into default should be considered as satisfied by virtue of default and the ensuing payment to holders of the Credit Default Swaps (Puts) created for each such Note. And then there’s the issue of TARP funds,

Foreclosure Prevention 1.1

April 22, 2010

Nobody ever thought that returning a lady’s purse to her after a purse snatcher ran away with it was a gift. So why is anyone contesting returning the purse to homeowners who had their lives snatched from them? The baby steps of the Obama administration are frustrating. Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and those who walk with Wall Street are using ideology and assumptions instead of reality and facts. First they started with the idea of modifications. That would do it. Just change the terms a little, have the homeowner release rights and defenses to what was a completely fraudulent and

Tax Apocalypse for States and Federal Government Can be Reversed: Show Me the Money!

March 31, 2010

SEE states-look-beyond-borders-to-collect-owed-taxes states-ignore-obvious-remedy-to-fiscal-meltdown tax-impact-of-principal-reduction accounting-for-damages-madoff-ruling-may-affect-homeowner-claims taxing-wall-street-down-to-size-litigation-guidelines taking-aim-at-bonuses-based-on-23-7-trillion-in-taxpayer-gifts payback-timemany-see-the-vat-option-as-a-cure-for-deficits As we have repeatedly stated on this blog, the trigger for the huge deficits was the housing nightmare conjured up for us by Wall Street. Banks made trillions of dollars in profits that were never taxed. The tax laws are already in place. Everyone is paying taxes, why are they not paying taxes? If they did, a substantial portion of the deficits would vanish. Each day we let the bankers control our state executives and legislators, we fall deeper and deeper in debt, we lose more social services and it endangers our

States Look Beyond Borders to Collect Owed Taxes

March 25, 2010

as more states catch on and start investing in more payroll auditors and data mining tools to get money back, the end result may be an arms race until every state comes out more or less evenly. Editor’s Note: There is no better place to start than the trillions in profits from securitized mortgages and the millions of off-record transfers and transactions based upon “interests” in real property located within each state. But who has the courage to take on Wall Street? see states-ignore-obvious-remedy-to-fiscal-meltdown March 21, 2010, NY Times States Look Beyond Borders to Collect Owed Taxes By CATHERINE RAMPELL

States Ignore Obvious Remedy to Fiscal Meltdown

March 23, 2010

without raising taxes one cent, many states could recover much or all of their deficit and perhaps some states could be looking at a surplus. The money is sitting on Wall Street waiting to be claimed through existing tax laws, regulatory fees, and even damage claims much like the Tobacco litigation. Editor’s Note: Bob Herbert of the New York Times correctly depicts the tragedy of the cuts to education, health care for children, and other essential services that we expect from government. And any economist would agree with him that budget cuts are the last thing a state or any

Man Sends Message to Banks-Bulldozes $350k House

February 21, 2010

Sending Banks a Message – Cincinnati OH – Click Here to View Video “The average homeowner that can’t afford an attorney or can fight as long as we have, they don’t stand a chance,” he said. Hoskins said he’d gotten a $170,000 offer from someone to pay off the house, but the bank refused, saying they could get more from selling it in foreclosure. Hoskins told News 5’s Courtis Fuller that he issued the bank an ultimatum. “I’ll tear it down before I let you take it,” Hoskins told them. And that’s exactly what Hoskins did. Editors Note – The borrower actually had equity

The Elephant in the Room – Well One of Many…

August 7, 2009

By Brad Keiser For those of you who have been to our seminars, (coming to Southern California next month) You have heard me ask about Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke…”Are they stupid or were they lying when they said everything was OK through out all of 2007 and most of 2008?” You have seen and heard why Neil and I declare we are of the belief that there is simply “not enough money in the world to solve this problem.” Fannie Mae’s (FNM) 8k has an interesting slide of their questionable assets in the supplement. It can be found below along with the complete 2009 Second Quarter filing. The report describes

Give me a little help here: Trusts, REMICs, and the Authority of the Trustee or Trustee's Attorney to Represent

June 25, 2009

When U.S. Bank comes in as Trustee for the the holders of series xyz etc., the use of the words Trustee and series certificates give it an air of legitimacy. But this is probably just another bluff. Reading the indenture on the bond (mortgage backed security) and the prospectus, you will see that the “Trust” may or may not be the the Special Purpose Vehicle that issued the bonds. And of course I remind you that the “borrower” (whom I call an “issuer” for reason explained in other posts) signed a note with one set of terms and the source

Wells Fargo Steps on A Rake (We Hope) — EGGS — a New Country

June 22, 2009

And when that rakes hits them in the head, it will hopefully start a domino effect with the rest of the pretender lenders. OH Sup Ct – Wells Fargo Appeal WF has decided to go for the brass ring by bringing an appeal from a case they lost. What they are saying to the Ohio Supreme Court is that if the borrower doesn’t raise the issue of “who owns the loan” early enough, they have waived it. They are also saying that when they finally record the assignment documents should have no effect on who can enforce the note and

Media picks up on evil business practices of servicers: Watch These Videos

June 6, 2009

HOMEOWNER FIGHTS AND WINS WITH ACORN: watch HOMEOWNER FIGHTS AND WINS ON PRODUCE THE NOTE: watch BLACKMAIL: NO LATE PAYMENTS? NO PROBLEM. GET OUT!: watch PRODUCE THE NOTE: WHEN THE BANK LOST OR DESTROYED THE EVIDENCE: watch “EVERYONE SHOULD PUT THE ‘LENDER’ TO TASK”: watch Servicers do everything they can to keep loans in default, make money on foreclosures too: watch FED BAILOUT BUYING DEFAULTED LOANS? Why servicers try to force homeowners into foreclosures: watch I WANT SOME TARP — THEY’RE GIVING MONEY AWAY FOR FREE: watch CHILLING PARODY: watch TAKE YOUR COUNTRY BACK: I WANT MY BAILOUT MONEY RAP: watch “THE