MERS 101

[chill_wind]

MERS has absolutely NO EMPLOYEES.

“Deposition of Secretary and Treasurer of MERSCORP- William C. Hultman“

Does MERS have any salaried employees?
A No.

Q Does MERS have any employees?
A Did they ever have any? I couldn’t hear you.

Q Does MERS have any employees currently?
A No.

Q In the last five years has MERS had any
employees?
A No.

Q To whom do the officers of MERS report?
A The Board of Directors.

Q To your knowledge has Mr. Hallinan ever
reported to the Board?
A He would have reported through me if there was
something to report.

Q So if I understand your answer, at least the
MERS officers reflected on Hultman Exhibit 4, if they
had something to report would report to you even though
you’re not an employee of MERS, is that correct?

MR. BROCHIN: Object to the form of the
question.
A That’s correct.

Q And in what capacity would they report to you?
A As a corporate officer. I’m the secretary.

Q As a corporate officer of what?
Of MERS.

Q So you are the secretary of MERS, but are not
an employee of MERS?
A That’s correct.



Q How many assistant secretaries have you
appointed pursuant to the April 9, 1998 resolution; how
many assistant secretaries of MERS have you appointed?
A I don’t know that number.

Q Approximately?
A I wouldn’t even begin to be able to tell you
right now.

Q Is it in the thousands?
A Yes.

Q Have you been doing this all around the
country in every state in the country?
A Yes.

Q And all these officers I understand are unpaid
officers of MERS?
A Yes.

Q And there’s no live person who is an employee
of MERS that they report to, is that correct, who is an
employee?

MR. BROCHIN: Object to the form of the
question.

A There are no employees of MERS.

MersCorp was created in the early 1990’s by the former C.E.O.’s of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Indy Mac, Countrywide, Stewart Title Insurance and the American Land Title Association. The executives of these companies lined their pockets with billions of dollars of unearned bonuses and free stock by creating so-called mortgage backed securities using bogus mortgage loans to unqualified borrowers thereby creating a huge false demand for residential homes and thereby falsely inflating the value of those homes. MERS marketing claims that its “paperless systems fit within the legal framework of the laws of all fifty states” are now being vetted by courts and legal commentators throughout the country.

The MERS paperless system is the type of crooked rip-off scheme that is has been seen for generations past in the crooked financial world. In this present case, MERS was created in the boardrooms of the most powerful and controlling members of the American financial institutions. This gigantic scheme completely ignored long standing law of commerce relating to mortgage lending and did so for its own personal gain.

That the inevitable collapse of the crooked mortgage swindles would lead to terrible national repercussions was a matter of little or no interest to the upper levels of America’s banking and financial world because the only interest of these entities was to grab the money of suckers, keep it in the form of ficticious bonuses, real estate and very large accounts in foreign banks. The effect of this system has led to catastrophic meltdown on both the American and global economy.

MERS, as has clearly been proven in many civil cases, does not hold any promissory notes of any kind. A party must have possession of a promissory note in order to have standing to enforce and/or otherwise collect a debt that is owed to another party. Given this clear-cut legal definition, MERS does not have legal standing to enforce or collect on the over 60 million mortgages it controls and no member of MERS has any standing in an American civil court.

MERS has been taken to civil courts across the country and charged with a lack of standing in reposession issues. When the mortgage debacle initially, and inevitably, began, MERS always routinely brought actions against defaulting mortgage holders purporting to represent the owners of the defaulted mortgages but once the courts discovered that MERS was only a front organization that did not hold any deed nor was aware of who or what agencies might hold a deed, they have routinely been denied in their attempts to force foreclosure.

In the past, persons alleging they were officials of MERS in foreclosure motions, purported to be the holders of the mortgage, when, in fact, they not only were not the holder of the mortgage but, under a court order, could not produce the identity of the actual holder. These so-called MERS officers have usually been just employees of entities who are servicing the loan for the actual lender. MERS, it is now widely acknowledged by the courts, has no legal right to foreclose or otherwise collect debt which are evidenced by promissory notes held by someone else.

The American media routinely identifies MERS as a mortgage lender, creditor, and mortgage company, when in point of fact MERS has never loaned so much as a dollar to anyone, is not a creditor and is not a mortgage company. MERS is merely a name that is printed on mortgages, purporting to give MERS some sort of legal status, in the matter of a loan made by a completely different and almost always,a totally unknown entity.

MUCH more at this site:

http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/

http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/mers-101/

"No. There's No Life at MERS"

http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/2010/09/22/no-theres-no-life-at-mers/

I'm posting this as a factual resource to keep in mind in light of speculation that Congress could be looking for a "fix" to the mortgage fraud fiasco.

Lameduck Congress may try to quietly pass a retroactive mortgage fraud immunity bill!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9557216

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Groucho Marx wrote this, right?

[chill_wind]

3. :-) Surreal, isn't it?

[EFerrari]

2. Kick

[chill_wind]

4. "Think of MERS as Dr. Frankenstein’s operating table.."

"The purpose of MERS was to help in the securitization process. Basically, MERS directed defaulting mortgages to the appropriate tranches of mortgage bonds. MERS was essentially the operating table where the digitized mortgage notes were sliced and diced and rearranged so as to create the Mortgage Backed Securities. Think of MERS as Dr. Frankenstein’s operating table, where the beast got put together. "

Gonzalo Lira On The Second Leg Down Of America's Death Spiral

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/14/2010 10:19 -0500

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/gonzalo-lira-second-leg-down-americas-death-spiral

Another helpful explanation of the mortgage fraud crisis for us non-finance types.

[BeFree]

6. heh

Ya have to hand it to them.. they created a monster and unleashed it on an unsuspecting world.

I mean, hey, they got billions of dollars, a president to preach their 'ownership' scheme and
got the banks to put a noose around their own necks, and there is no one who can be fingered.

It is the ultimate in capitalistic measures. S L I C K

[chill_wind]

10. Very, very S L I C K..... but

they have finally figured out they are in deep sh#t. CITI internally in Ocober:

12 October 201 7 pages
Foreclosures Gone Wild
Key Takeaways from Our Conference Call

What's New — Yesterday we hosted a conference call on the topic of
“Foreclosures Gone Wild: Understanding the Legal Issues Surrounding the Recent
Foreclosure Freezes and Investigations.” Our speaker was Adam Levitin who is an
Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University. Levitin emphasized that all
parties involved are still trying to get their arms around the legal issues in
question. Relative to other opinions which we have heard on these issues, Levitin
painted what we believe to be one of the bleaker portraits of these matters and
their ultimate resolution.

(snip - see the pdf for the rest)


Issues Concerning MERS

MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) functions as a centralized
electronic registry of mortgages and tracks ownership of mortgages. MERS
allows mortgage ownership to change hands efficiently and relatively quickly
since it is electronic and allows all parties to forgo making a filing in local land
records. Indeed, MERS was designed to function as a substitute for local land
records.

Although MERS was designed to enhance efficiency in the mortgage
assignment process, Levitin argued it may not conform with the law. “Slowly
but surely” courts are issuing decisions which “cast validity on the MERS
process.” Although ~60% of mortgages list MERS as the “nominee” which
owns the mortgage, a handful of recent court cases have ruled that MERS has
no standing in foreclosure actions either because (1) physical paperwork must
be transferred when a mortgage is assigned by one party to another or (2)
MERS has no true economic interest in the mortgage in question since it
collects no payments from the borrowers.

What Happens Next?

Our speaker predicted that more and more lenders are likely to stop their
foreclosure processes in both judicial and non-judicial states. He also expects
more states’ attorney generals to get involved. At the federal level, it is possible
than banking regulators might step in as there is legal and reputational risk for
the banks involved.

Ultimately, if these issues do in fact escalate, the Administration may try to
broker some sort of settlement. If such deal brokering does take place, Levitin
believes that “some payment” will be exacted from the lenders and servicers.
The Administration could bargain for more mortgage principal write downs.

http://mattweidnerlaw.com/blog/2010/11/foreclosures-gone-wild-leaked-secret-memo-the-lenders-know-they-are-in-trouble/

[BeFree]

17. It is deep alright

Like I say, MERS convinced the bankers to put a noose around their necks.

What matters now is how tight the rope gets.
I'd venture to guess Obama will cut the rope and save them again.

[laughingliberal]

5. K & R nt

[Catherina]

7. Rec'd. Ugh n/t

[glinda]

8. K & R n/t

[HCE SuiGeneris]

9. K & R

:wtf:

[me b zola]

11. K&R

[Missy Vixen]

12. K & R

Thank you for putting these links together as well.

[chill_wind]

13. Yes. There are no employees at MERS. But there ARE shareholders.

Let us look....

http://www.mersinc.org/about/shareholders.aspx

[glinda]

14. We called our bank today due to this post to request a copy of

our Promissory note. We were then told we were paying too much for our mortgage and that if we fronted money we could either get our monthly payments lowered by 50 or so dollars or if we fronted a larger amount, could get a five year 200 less a month with the opportunity to possibly refinance in five years as the rate is not fixed.
To be honest, none of them sounded good and we are living with a monthly budget deficit as is. Am just going to try to pay off CCs and sell personal belongings. I have had it with all this shit. Going to walk a "for sale by owner" sign out in front in the spring and attempt to do some minor repairs in order to make it presentable.

[ljm2002]

15. Who's on first?

Now the trick will be to keep an eye on Congress, as we know without question they will try again to make this all legal ex post facto.

It is up to all of us to pay attention and let our Senators and Representatives and the President know that we will not put up with their changing the laws to protect the biggest lawbreakers in the country.

Just Say NO!

K&R

[riderinthestorm]

16. Wow. Wow. Wow.

You know, there are a percentage of DUers who have "no mercy" towards people who are getting foreclosed on. They believe these folks defaulted and the consequence of that is foreclosure.

But if the shoe were turned, the banksters would squirm through any legal loophole in order to "help their case". Yet, the average Joe and Jane Public are supposed to honor these fraudulent contracts.

OP's like this one demonstrate that the greedy banksters have been working double time to enrich themselves at the expense of the common Joe and Jane. I say it's time for the rest of us to get as greedy and unscrupulous as the banksters have been. Why is it okay for the big corps to do illegal shit and (try to) get away with it but when a common Joe or Jane gets tough, they are supposed to roll over?

If the contract is fraudulent, and the fault is with the banksters, they are and should be SOL until that contract is renegotiated.

A big K and R for some astounding information. Thanks so much for this chill wind!

[chill_wind]

18. It's fraud. Pervasive fraud.

And if people saying the things you mention make time for nothing else on the subject at all, I hope they will make a few minutes for Alan Grayson's primer.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x511061

And so much more has emerged, even since, in documentations on the foreclosure fraud watch blogs and sites like Naked Capitalism, Zerohedge and Market Ticker, which continue to follow developments daily. Thanks, you and all here for the thread feedback.

[chill_wind]

19. 'This is the biggest fraud in the history of the capital markets'

Lest we forget.

'This is the biggest fraud in the history of the capital markets'
Ezra Klein interview- Janet Tavakoli in October


http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/10/this_is_the_biggest_fraud_in_t.html

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. This deserves to go into the economy forum.

Please consider cross posting it there.

:hi: :hi:

[Blue_Tires]

21. kick