Legal

This quiet title claim against U.S. Bank and BONY (collectively, “Defendants”) is based on the assertion that Defendants have no interest in the Plaintiffs’ mortgage loan, yet have nonetheless sought to foreclose on the subject property.

Currently before the court is Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment, arguing that Plaintiffs’ quiet title claim fails because there is no genuine issue of material fact that Plaintiffs’ loan was sold into a public security managed by BONY, and Plaintiffs cannot tender the loan proceeds. Based on the following, the court finds that because Defendants have not established that the mortgage loans were sold into a public security involving Defendants, the court DENIES Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment.

http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/hawaii-federal-district-court...

According to the information, co-conspirator Willie G. Manley, charged elsewhere, was an accountant who created false income documents, such as W-2 forms, paystubs, and Form 1040 income tax returns, which were submitted to lenders. Co-conspirator Eric Ponder, charged elsewhere, is alleged to have held himself out as a real estate developer and helped cause the submission of numerous fraudulent loan applications that resulted in mortgages being unwittingly issued by various banks by, making false statements on loan applications in his own name and helping secure mortgages in the names of others by recruiting straw buyers whose identities and fraudulent information were used to obtain the loans. 

http://mortgagefraudblog.com/another-defendant-charged-in-mortgage-fraud...

Bank of America Corp., the second- largest U.S. lender by assets, must face claims by homeowners that it took kickbacks from private insurers, a judge ruled. 

U.S. District Judge Berle Schiller in Philadelphia denied the bank’s request to toss the lawsuit because the statute of limitations had expired on the claims. Homeowners who sued should have the opportunity to develop their argument that the claims should be allowed because the bank intentionally concealed its behavior....

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-12/bofa-ordered-to-face-claims-ove...

A federal grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento returned a superseding indictment charging Andrew B. Katakis, of Danville, Calif., with obstruction of justice related to a federal investigation into conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions held in San Joaquin County, Calif., the Department of Justice announced. 

The added charge alleges that after Katakis received a letter notifying him that a federal grand jury had subpoenaed his bank account, he deleted and caused others to delete electronic records and documents related to the conspiracies. The superseding indictment alleges that Katakis also installed and caused others to install and use a software program that overwrote deleted electronic records and documents so that they could not be viewed or recovered.

http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/press_releases/2013/296523.htm

The United States can pursue parts of a civil lawsuit against Bank of America Corp over its sale of toxic mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, boosting a largely untested legal theory the government used in the case, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

Bank of America had sought to dismiss the lawsuit, which seeks penalties under two laws. One is the False Claims Act, which is often used to target fraud against the government, and the other is the 1989 FIRREA law.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/08/bankofamerica-firrea-idUSL2N0D...

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/05/08/us-lawsuit-bankofamerica-mortgages/

The result we see from bank policies and conduct is that people go into a declared “default” on a false loan because the bank representative who has no money in the game told them that the only way they can apply for relief is by being behind in their payments at least 90 days. Translation: We are advising you to breach your loan documents and go into debt on past due payments such that you won’t be able to reinstate.

People go into trial modifications on a false loan with a bank or entity with no authority to offer it during which they deplete their savings and retirement, go totally broke from paying the “offer of trial modification” thinking they are saving their home.

http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/the-pr-of-modifications-banks...

A former Los Angeles resident who fled to Canada and was a federal fugitive for 12 years pleaded guilty today to aggravated identity theft and bankruptcy fraud in connection with leading a nearly 15-year foreclosure-rescue scam that fraudulently postponed foreclosure sales for more than 800 distressed homeowners, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California André Birotte, Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Melinda Haag, Assistant Director in Charge Bill L. Lewis of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson of the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office, and Christy Romero, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP).

http://www.fbi.gov/losangeles/press-releases/2013/former-federal-fugitiv...

In a case that is bound to be watched and probably the first of many to come, a Federal Judge found that the constitutionality of the greased lightening judicial sale is probably unconstitutional and cancelled the sale of a home in foreclosure.

U.S. District Judge William Martinez issued a preliminary injunction against the sale of Lisa Kay Brumfiel’s four-bedroom home, scheduled for Wednesday in Arapahoe County, until the judge can decide whether parts of state law are unfair to homeowners facing the loss of their house.

The part of the law that the Judge finds troublesome and that the rest of us find is absurd is that in lieu of actually providing the court with evidence, lawyers can assert that their client has the right to foreclose, thus delegating the function of the Judge to the lawyer for the bank.

http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/finally-federal-judge-challen...