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The Home Equity Theft Reporter

Welcome to The Home Equity Theft Reporter, a blog dedicated to informing the consumer public and the legal profession about Home Equity Theft issues.
By r morris

Post Frequency: 25.7/day

Last Entry: September 06, 2017 at 04:02:00

Four Attorneys Face 'Robo-Signing' Allegations In Civil Suit That May Affect As Many As 10,000 Maryland Homeowners

Posted on October 15, 2010
In Baltimore, Maryland, WBAL-TV Channel 11 reports:A lawsuit accuses several Maryland attorneys of falsifying foreclosure documents. The suit was filed Wednesday on behalf of three Marylanders who have faced or could face foreclosure.***[The Lembechs] hired an attorney, who they said they found a common theme in their case and others: falsified documents...

Class Action Claims Loan Servicer Pocketed Payments From Financially Strapped Homeowners In Exchange For 'Bad Faith' Loan Modification Promises

Posted on October 15, 2010
In Los Angeles, California, Courthouse News Service reports:Indymac Bank and its successor, OneWest Bank, defrauded homebuyers by promising to modify their mortgages, but "never at any time possessed a good faith intention to perform on these loan modification agreements," a class action claims in Superior Court...

The Lionization Of The "Deadbeats" In The Bogus Foreclosure Documents Scandal

Posted on October 15, 2010
Some interest appears to be building about the 'lionization of the deadbeats' involved in the foreclosure "robosigner" scandal. However, there is some disagreement as to who exactly these deadbeats are.For opposing views, see:CNBC: Let?s Not Start Lionizing The Anti-Foreclosure Deadbeats,Firedoglake: Let?s Not Start Lionizing the Real Foreclosure Fraud Deadbeats ? the Banks.

Maryland Boots Six Notaries Over Robosigning Allegations In Foreclosure Actions

Posted on October 15, 2010
Buried at the end of a recent story on robosigners, The Washington Post reports:[S]ix notaries have been removed from office since August, said Rick Morris, director of charities and legal services at the Maryland secretary of state's office. All worked for law firms that handled foreclosures, Morris said...

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F'closure Mills Yield To 'Voluntary Masculation' To Win Loan Servicing Work; Industry Insider: "Law Firms Have Been Flat-Fee'd Into 'Vendor' Status!"

Posted on October 14, 2010
In a recent editorial, Housing Wire publisher Paul Jackson makes this observation on the relationship mortgage loan servicers have with their attorneys:I?ve seen first hand the sort of nonsense that passes as ?efficiency? in mortgage servicing, since I spent years working as part of the industry...

Use of 'Corrective Affidavits' in Foreclosure Actions Now Under Court Scrutiny In Prince George's County

Posted on October 14, 2010
In Prince George's County, Maryland, The Washington Post reports:A Maryland court has begun to review some of 14,500 foreclosure cases pending after finding that the documents were not always signed by the lawyers who claimed to have signed them.The Prince George's County Circuit Court is reviewing foreclosure cases that have a "corrective affidavit," said Judge Thomas P...

Media Reports Continue Shining Light, Applying Heat On Florida's Foreclosure "Rocket Dockets"

Posted on October 14, 2010
In Martin County, Florida, Bloomberg News reports:Home to more foreclosures than 47 U.S. states, Florida sought to clear out its backlog with a system of special court hearings that dispensed with cases quickly, sometimes in less than a minute.Homeowners like Nicole West now threaten to slow that system, Florida?s so-called rocket docket, to a crawl...

More On Mortgage Loan Servicers & Their Screw-Ups

Posted on October 14, 2010
Mike Konczal writes in the blog, Rortybomb, on how mortgage loan servicing companies fit into the robosigner foreclosure mess. An excerpt:[T]he first rule of mortgage lending is that you don?t foreclose. And the second rule of mortgage lending is that you don?t foreclose...

Wells Fargo May Added To 'Robo-Signer Scandal' List

Posted on October 14, 2010
The Wall Street Journal reports:Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) may be added to the list of big mortgage companies that use "robo-signers" to execute piles of foreclosures.In a deposition for a lawsuit in Palm Beach County, Fla., an employee in Wells Fargo's sprawling mortgage servicing business said she signed "hundreds" of foreclosure affidavits a day without verifying the documents' information, as

Foreclosures Gone Wild!: Understanding The Legal Issues Surrounding The Recent Foreclosure Freezes & Investigations

Posted on October 13, 2010
An email authored by South Florida foreclosure defense attorney Michael Wrubel appears on the Livinglies weblog in which Mr. Wrubel gives his take on a recent Citigroup information release entitled ?Foreclosures Gone Wild: Understanding the Legal Issues Surrounding the Recent Foreclosure Freezes and Investigations...

Northern Florida "Rocket Docket" In High Gear As Defenses In Homeowner-Contested Foreclosure Actions Get Flattened & Bulldozed Out Of 'Kangaroo' Court

Posted on October 13, 2010
In Jacksonville, Florida, The Florida Times Union reports:The cases go quickly through the conference room on the fifth floor of the Duval County Courthouse. That's where a special foreclosure court has been set up to hear foreclosures and nothing but...

Joint Law Enforcement Effort Bags Pair Running Northern California Alleged Loan Modification Racket

Posted on October 13, 2010
From the Office of the California Attorney General:Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced charges [] against two "callous con artists" who took thousands of dollars from dozens of struggling Northern California homeowners for foreclosure services never delivered...

Cal. AG Tags Forensic Loan Audit Firm, Others w/ $60M Suit; Says Litigation Mill "Littered Courts w/ 100s Of Suits That Have Scant Chance Of Success"

Posted on October 13, 2010
From the Office of the California Attorney General:Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. [] filed a $60 million lawsuit against a pair of Sacramento companies that lured desperate homeowners with a deceptive marketing scheme that promised to obtain mortgage modifications through the use of computer-generated "forensic loan audits...

"Foreclosure Warranties" May Be Required When Banks Unload Potentially "Crappy-Titled" REOs Onto Unwitting Public

Posted on October 13, 2010
Bloomberg News reports:Title insurers, banks and regulators are in talks to create warranties under which lenders assure they followed proper procedures before selling foreclosed homes, said Kurt Pfotenhauer, head of the insurers? trade group. ?Everyone sort of sees the same risks, and that?s the good part,? Pfotenhauer, chief executive officer of the American Land Title Association, said [] in a

Mortgage Industry Insider Acknowledges 'The Writing On The Wall' As Drumbeat Of Robosigning, Fraudulent Foreclosure Document Scandal Continues

Posted on October 13, 2010
Housing Wire publisher Paul Jackson writes:Believe it or not, mortgage servicing is a noble industry. Or, at least, it?s supposed to be. Even in managing borrower defaults and repossessing property, there is something noble to the work, underneath it all ? and it comes from following the law, enforcing contracts, ensuring that our nation?s system of property rights maintains its integrity for all

Robosigners: "What's A Mortgage ... What's An Affidavit ... What's A Complaint???" Some Acknowledge Lying When Signing Foreclosure Documents

Posted on October 13, 2010
The Associated Press reports:In an effort to rush through thousands of home foreclosures since 2007, financial institutions and their mortgage servicing departments hired hair stylists, Walmart floor workers and people who had worked on assembly lines and installed them in "foreclosure expert" jobs with no formal training, a Florida lawyer says...

CEO Dimon: Chase Stops Using MERS

Posted on October 13, 2010
ABC News reports:JPMorgan Chase's CEO says the bank has stopped using the electronic mortgage tracking system used by major financial institutions. Lawyers have argued in court proceedings that the system is unable to accurately prove ownership of mortgages...

Former Hairstylists, Wal Mart Floor Workers, Assembly Line Employees Among 'Suspects' Hired As Robosigners, Says Foreclosure Defense Attorney

Posted on October 13, 2010
Democracy Now! reports:On Tuesday, a Florida attorney representing hundreds of homeowners released depositions of bank employees describing the frenzy to approve foreclosures on a mass scale. The lawyer, Peter Ticktin, says he deposed 150 workers who say they signed foreclosure affidavits without looking at them...

GMAC Hired White-Shoe Firm To Target Maine Attorney For Release Of "Stephan" Deposition???

Posted on October 12, 2010
Mother Jones reports:Is GMAC Mortgage, the company under siege by numerous state attorneys general and members of Congress for its use of dubious foreclosure legal filings, trying to silence the lawyer who exposed the bank's practices? So says Thomas Cox, the Maine attorney whose case is at the center of GMAC's ongoing debacle...

Standing-Lacking Lenders To Bring In The 'White Shoes' To 'Pinch-Hit' In Effort To Clean Up Mess Created By Sloppy F'closure Mills In Contested Cases?

Posted on October 12, 2010
The Am Law Daily reports on the appearance that standing-lacking lenders are beginning to roll out the white-shoe law firms to take over foreclosure actions in contested cases:[A] review of state and federal cases filed in the last few weeks shows lenders are turning away from the "foreclosure mills" and to large law firms when homeowners fight foreclosure and challenge banks to prove their

Boiler Rooms and Foreclosure Mills: A Brief History of America's Mortgage Industry

Posted on October 12, 2010
Michael Hudson, staff writer with a nonprofit journalism organization, the The Center for Public Integrity, write in The Huffington Post:The news about the nation's foreclosure scandal has been coming fast and furious, fueled by tales of backdated documents, false affidavits and "rocket dockets" that push families into the street...

What Is A Note, & Why Is It So Important?

Posted on October 12, 2010
Mike Konczal writes in his blog, Rortybomb:The [Service Employees International Union] has a campaign: Where?s the Note? Demand to see your mortgage note. It?s worth checking out. But first, what is this note? And why would its existence be important to struggling homeowners, homeowners in foreclosure, and investors in mortgage backed securities?There?s going to be a campaign to convince you that

Florida AG Seeks Rehearing In Foreclosure Mill Probe; Earlier Court Ruling Quashed Subpoena Served On Law Firm

Posted on October 12, 2010
In West Palm Beach, Florida, The Palm Beach Post reports:Florida's attorney general wants a Palm Beach County judge to reconsider his ruling last week prohibiting it from investigating one of the state's large foreclosure law firms. The request for a new ruling or a rehearing in front of Judge Jack S...

CNN Interviews Central Florida Woman Victimized By Illegal Lock-Out Of Her Home By JPMorgan Chase

Posted on October 11, 2010
CNN's American Morning recently interviewed the Central Florida homeowner who suffered through a horrifyung experience with someone breaking into her home, only to learn that the perpetrator was actually someone hired by JPMorgan Chase to change the locks to her home:Nancy Jacobini was home alone in Florida when she heard what she thought was an intruder at the front door...

State AGs To Band Together In Joint Probe Into Banks' Use Of Sloppy Paperwork In Foreclosure Actions

Posted on October 11, 2010
The Associated Press reports:The attorneys general of up to 40 states plan to announce soon a joint investigation into banks' use of flawed foreclosure paperwork. A person briefed on the investigation said Saturday night that an announcement could come as early as Tuesday...

Massachusetts High Court Hears Arguments In 'Ibanez' Case That Threatens To Open The Door To Voiding Thousands Of State Foreclosures

Posted on October 11, 2010
In Boston, Massachusetts, the Boston Herald reports:Banks went nuts during the housing boom, so the state?s top court should uphold a ruling that potentially undoes the wave of foreclosures that followed, a pro-consumer lawyer says. ?This industry was insane in its underwriting practices and its foreclosure practices,? attorney Paul Collier told the Supreme Judicial Court [last week]...

Buying A Home That's Been Recently Foreclosed? Title Insurance Rider Covering Appreciated Value May Help Protect In REO 'Crapshoot'

Posted on October 11, 2010
The New York Times columnist Ron Lieber writes:[A]ll of the sudden, the importance of title insurance is becoming crystal-clear. In recent weeks, big lenders like GMAC Mortgage, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America have halted many or all of their foreclosure proceedings in the wake of allegations of sloppiness, shortcuts or worse...

Unwanted Attention Continues To Target South Florida Foreclosure Mill

Posted on October 11, 2010
The Palm Beach Post reports:A former paralegal for Florida foreclosure giant David J. Stern describes an office where signatures on notarized documents were regularly forged, legal papers were prepared en masse in Guam and the Philippines, and closed-door screaming matches erupted when files weren't moved fast enough...

Comedy Central's Stewart Chimes In On Mortgage Securitizations, Robo-Signers, Foreclosure Freeze, Illegal Lockouts, Recently-Vetoed Notary Bill & More

Posted on October 10, 2010
The Huffington Post notes:Last [week] on "The Daily Show," Jon Stewart lambasted the big banks for ignoring the fine print that they themselves came up with. "Wait, what? The banks weren't reading the fine print? You're the people who came up with the f**king fine print in the first place!" Stewart said in shock...

Obama Is Planning To "Accidentally" Not Veto Controversial Foreclosure Bill?

Posted on October 10, 2010
Clusterstock reports:Apparently there's this rumor going around of a scandal having to do with Obama's pocket veto of the HR 3808 bill, the one that would make it much easier for banks to foreclose upon houses and un-do the current mass stall in foreclosures...

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