After Forensic Investigation of Mortgage Documents
Massachusetts Official Declares Registry a “Crime-Scene”
Delaney Rohan
February 15, 2012
Massachusetts Southern Essex Register of Deeds John O’Brien is calling for a full-scale criminal investigation into forged and fraudulent foreclosure and mortgage documents that he says are filling the filing cabinets of court clerks and County recorders across the country.
After declaring his registry a “crime scene” recently, O’Brien sent copies of over 30,000 allegedly fraudulent documents, which had been recorded into the Salem, Massachusetts Registry, to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, US Attorney General Eric Holder, and US Attorney Carmen Ortiz. He calls on the officials to organize a Grand Jury panel to look into the documents, which he believes are fraudulent and contain the forged signatures of well-known “robo-signers.”
A flawed
mortgage settlement agreement
Delaney Rohan
February 13, 2012
After over a year and a half of negotiations, a national mortgage settlement agreement between state officials and five of the nation’s biggest lenders appears to have been finalized.
The settlement is between officials from 49 states and Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Ally Financial, and Citigroup. It addresses claims that banks routinely used fraudulent practices such as robo-signing to wrongfully foreclose on hundreds of thousands of mortgages. Accordingly, the agreement contains several provisions that entitle certain homeowners to $25 billion in relief. As Bloomberg News reports:
“The agreement will direct $17 billion to writing down debt to buffer about 1 million homeowners from foreclosure through mortgage forgiveness, forbearance or loan modification programs, according to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan. About 750,000 borrowers may get direct payments of as much as $2,000 to compensate them for servicing errors.”
Foreclosure Help:
Audit Uncovers Extensive Flaws in Foreclosures
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON Published: February 15, 2012
An audit by San Francisco county officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation, according to a report released Wednesday.
Phil Ting, the San Francisco assessor-recorder, found widespread violations or irregularities in files of properties subject to foreclosure sales.
Anecdotal evidence indicating foreclosure abuse has been plentiful since the mortgage boom turned to bust in 2008. But the detailed and comprehensive nature of the San Francisco findings suggest how pervasive foreclosure irregularities may be across the nation.
The improprieties range from the basic — a failure to warn borrowers that they were in default on their loans as required by law — to the arcane. For example, transfers of many loans in the foreclosure files were made by entities that had no right to assign them and institutions took back properties in auctions even though they had not proved ownership.
Commissioned by Phil Ting, the San Francisco assessor-recorder, the report examined files of properties subject to foreclosure sales in the county from January 2009 to November 2011. About 84 percent of the files contained what appear to be clear violations of law, it said, and fully two-thirds had at least four violations or irregularities.