Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary: Lackey for the TBTF Banks

Get a consult! 202-838-6345

https://www.vcita.com/v/lendinglies to schedule CONSULT, leave message or make payments.

 *

It is reported that OneWest foreclosed on 40,000 homes. I have already described to you that Foreclosures sponsored or initiated by OneWest were very often done in the name of another entity. For example, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Those are not counted in the number of homes foreclosed by OneWest. My experience is that the number of homes foreclosed where OneWest was the party “pulling the strings” (not entirely accurate since control was centralized far from OneWest) is at least equal to the number reported for foreclosure cases in which OneWest was the foreclosing party.

 *

The average “originated” principal amount of debt in which a homeowner received financial benefit from a direct receipt of funds or funds paid out on behalf of the homeowners to pay off an old “loan” or to pay the seller is reported as an average of $225,000.

The rest is arithmetic. If you multiply the number of foreclosures reported (40,000) times the principal amount of debt that a rose from the origination of transactions with homeowners on refi or prospective homeowners who were buying ($225,000) then you get a total of $9,000,000,000.

 *

If you look at the deal between the FDIC, the US Bankruptcy Trustee for IndyMac, and OneWest, you will not find $9 billion in consideration for the purchase of loans by OneWest from the IndyMac estate. Both the FDIC and the US Bankruptcy Trustee were under a duty to maximize the return to creditors. They did not receive $9 billion for sold loans because there were no loans to sell. OneWest principals merely put up or promised to commit around $1-$2 Billion in capital to qualify as a bank and to take over the service contracts and brick and mortar locations of IndyMac. This is nearly identical to the Chase-WAMU deal.

 *

But there is more: under a very lucrative loss sharing agreement with the FDIC, OneWest submitted claims to the FDIC to cover 80% of the alleged losses on nonperforming loans and then, after getting paid, proceeded to foreclose for the whole amount. 

 *

There is no evidence of any particular loan or pool of loans being sold to OneWest for any consideration that traveled from OneWest to either the FDIC as receiver or the US Bankruptcy trustee for the state of IndyMac. Yet OneWest followed the industry practice of stepping AS THOUGH they were the creditor, claiming they were the holder of negotiable paper because the real creditors — investors who advanced money as though they were buying real MBS (which were bogus securities issued by a nonexistent entity that never did any business) — were unaware of the status of their claim against the REMIC Trusts that were ostensibly purchasing loan portfolios but lacked the funding to do so because the Trusts never received the proceeds of sale of the MBS. 

 *

Second, OneWest did not actually have any business records. They are all  fabricated or outsourced (or both) to a subdivision of several different “servicing” entities that are directed by LPS/Blacknight. LPS is tasked with (1) selecting the Plaintiff or beneficiary of a foreclosure (2) collecting and creating records (3) fabrications and forgeries (and robosigning) of assignments, endorsements etc.

 *

Bottom Line: OneWest foreclosed on loans in which it was neither the owner nor the servicer. While it acquired servicing rights from IndyMac, the real servicers were selected by “Master Servicers” (underwriters/TBTF Banks) of the nonexistent trusts. So while IndyMac theoretically had servicing rights for the most part the actual job of servicing was done elsewhere, under the watchful eye of LPS. Thus when OneWest acquired the IndyMac servicing “business” it was in a actuality acquiring nothing.

 *

Thus approximately $9 billion in foreclosures, as reported in the media resulted in windfall profits to OneWest of a percentage of the liquidated properties, estimated total at around $6 billion, around two thirds of which $6 billion) was given to the “Master Servicers” as “recovery” of “servicer advances” (which neither came from the servicers nor were they advances as the payments were taken from dynamic dark pools consisting mostly of investor money), netting $2 Billion to OneWest plus “servicing fees” despite the fact that they performed very little or no servicing.

 *

The organizers of OneWest were billionaires that went into it on the premise and promise that they would make a few billion dollars, although they were never entirely clear on where the profits were coming from. OneWest was then sold after the windfall the profit projections slumped because there were practically no more alleged IndyMac originated “loans” to foreclose. The PR spin was that they were getting out because their temporary agreement to operate OneWest was expiring. But the real reason was that there was nothing left to plunder and the founders were getting increasingly uncomfortable about where the money was coming from. OneWest could have easily slipped into the roles occupied by Ocwen, SPS, Bayview et al etc and “acquired” more loans in Re-REMIC deals, but the founders wanted no part of it.

 *

Homeowners lost their homes on the premise that they thought they had a legitimate loan from a legitimate lender. But IndyMac was originating loans under pre-sale agreements that were effective BEFORE even the applications for loans were received. The Purchase and Assumption Agreement provided that the actual lender’s identity would be withheld from the borrower (a direct violation of TILA). The money for the funding of the alleged loan transactions came from the dark pools, the constituents of which were robbed of their right to the notes and mortgages. The irony is that the counterparty to IndyMac’s Purchase and Assumption Agreements were mere conduits and in many cases sham conduits.

 *

Mnuchin was and remains “the guy between the guys.” Billed as the organizer of OneWest his role was to provide a layer between the founders and the rest of the world. His prospective appointment As Secretary of the US Treasury means that the TBTF banks would have a lackey to do what the banks wanted the US Treasury to do. This greases the wheels of false securitization. The banks have never stopped in their “perfect” crime wave and are if anything speeding up with false and sometimes true claims of securitization of just about anything — including “servicer advances.” That adds insult to injury in that they are using their scheme of theft from investors and selling rights to participate in the scheme to investors. In the end, it is simply a scheme to use other people’s money and then step into their shoes without them knowing it.