Foreclosure Mills: America's Newest Housing Nightmare (dupe)

[Omaha Steve]

Here is the original: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=389&topic_id=8897891&mesg_id=8897891

http://www.alternet.org/economy/147742/foreclosure_mills:_america%27s_newest_housing_nightmare/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet_workplace

Mother Jones / By Andy Kroll

Borrowers are getting screwed again as bailed-out banks send their foreclosure dirty work to con artists with a history of breaking the law.
August 7, 2010 |

LATE ONE NIGHT IN February 2009, Ariane Ice sat poring over records on the website of Florida's Palm Beach County. She'd been at it for weeks, forsaking sleep to sift through thousands of legal documents. She and her husband, Tom, an attorney, ran a boutique foreclosure defense firm called Ice Legal. (Slogan: "Your home is your castle. Defend it.") Now they were up against one of Florida's biggest foreclosure law firms: Founded by multimillionaire attorney David J. Stern, it controlled one-fifth of the state's booming market in foreclosure-related services. Ice had a strong hunch that Stern's operation was up to something, and that night she found her smoking gun.

It involved something called an "assignment of mortgage," the document that certifies who owns the property and is thus entitled to foreclose on it. Especially these days, the assignment is key evidence in a foreclosure case: With so many loans having been bought, sold, securitized, and traded, establishing who owns the mortgage is hardly a trivial matter. It frequently requires months of sleuthing in order to untangle the web of banks, brokers, and investors, among others. By law, a firm must execute (complete, sign, and notarize) an assignment before attempting to seize somebody's home.

A Florida notary's stamp is valid for four years, and its expiration date is visible on the imprint. But here in front of Ice were dozens of assignments notarized with stamps that hadn't even existed until months—in some cases nearly a year—after the foreclosures were filed. Which meant Stern's people were foreclosing first and doing their legal paperwork later. In effect, it also meant they were lying to the court—an act that could get a lawyer disbarred or even prosecuted. "There's no question that it's pervasive," says Tom Ice of the backdated documents—nearly two dozen of which were verified by Mother Jones. "We've found tons of them."

FULL story at link.

[KamaAina]

1. Tune in tonight for 24/7 coverage on Fox and CNN

:sarcasm:

Rachel or Keith, maybe.

[flvegan]

2. Slight correction to the article: the Assignment of Mortgage is the public record

document that shows who owns the NOTE, not the property.

Sterns office, btw, was also just charged in a class action RICO case.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/lawsuit-claims-that-floridas-largest-foreclosure-firm-faked-839393.html

Not that I'm surprised.

[lib2DaBone]

3. You must be talkiing about Bank of America's criminal activity in the foreclosure market..

Here's how it works.

1) Bank of America promises you a mortgage workout if you catch up your payments. (Guranteed by Federal Programs)

(So you go out and borrow every dime you can find from your friends and relatives)

2) Bank of America signs work-out papers and collects money from you, as well as from the Federal Government.

3) Bank of America calls you back and says they need more cash to make it happen.. so you give it to them.. every penny you have.

4) As soon as you make all your payments and catch up your loan, Bank of America says it "Lost" your paper work and sends the sheriff to kick you out... take control of your home. Sorry.. TOO LATE!

5) Of course you are pissed... you have used every penny to save your home. and they STILL fucked you... by design.. but that is what Bank of America does. It's the beauty of the plan! If you go to court.. the judge will uphold BANK OF AMERICA. They split the profits.. you sleep in your car... and nothing changes.

And of course Obama knows nothing, the Bank of America lawyers know nothing, the media knows nothing, end of story.. you lazy unemployed welfare freaks.. go take a drug test and get baptized in the river of Republican America...

[blue sky at night]

4. Hey this is america...

where we are all entitled to equal protection under....oh, that's right, this is america where only the poor and middle class smucks have to obey the law.