Foreclosures Audit In San Francisco: 99% Have Flaws

Only in one in 100 foreclosures in San Francisco was properly conducted, according to an audit done there. In the vast majority of the cases, people or banks lacked the authority to foreclose on properties, clearly broke laws, or submitted fraduluent documents. Some of the corruption included making up documents with the wrong dates or people misrepresenting other companies. In the recent national foreclosure settlement, the State of California will get $18 billion to help homebuyers with mortgages above the values of their homes. In many cases, homeowners have trouble finding who owns their mortgage. This due to the fact that banks sliced up these mortgages and packaged them into securities and then sold them as credit default swaps or other dubious investments. Each of these individual mortgages probably have multiple bankster owners who fraudelenty profited off them and paid their executive management teams outrageously high salaries they did not earn. http://www.baycitizen.org/housing/story/sf-audit-finds-irregularities-99-percent/

Scott Walker Will Not Use Foreclosure Settlement Funds for Homeowners (For 2/12/12)

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will not use his State's allocated funds from the February 9th national foreclosure settlement of $26 billion to to help homeowners owing more than their home's value on fraudulent mortgages. The settlement is a penalty that mortgage lenders will pay for fraudulent practices. Wisconsin will receive $140 million, with $31.6 million going directly to Wisconsin State Government, which will use $25.6 million of it to balance its budget and the remainder to be determined later. Walker previously criticized this practice of using these one-time funds to balance his State's budget. He also said his controversial budget repair bill passed last year to bust unions was the key to the State's budget problems. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/02/10/422744/walker-settlement-budget/

Countrywide Settlement Lets Bank of America Off the Hook (for 12/29/11)

Bank of America's punishment of a $335 million fine to the Federal Government for overcharging more than 200,000 black or Hispanic borrowers is not an adequate reparation for this bank's actions. This fine does not match the massive profits Countrywide made in the boom before the housing market crashed. The bank pushed these otherwise creditworthy individuals into subprime mortgages. These practices expose racism in this company's lending practices. Banks foreclose on the homes of these minorities more frequently than whites. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57347259/why-the-feds-countrywide-settlement-settles-nothing/?tag=cbsnewsMainColumnArea

Salesman Pressured to Sell Predatory Mortgages (for 12/22/11)

Greg Saffer started working in Los Angeles for Washington Mutual (WaMu) Bank selling mortgages for them in 2007. He left in January 2008 after refusing to sell predatory mortgages to homebuyers and then filed a lawsuit in 2009 against JP Morgan, which bought WaMu in September 2008 after it became the largest U.S. bank failure ever. Half of all of WaMu's mortgages included borrowers of good credit. The bank tricked them with minimum payments below the interest charged to their loans, adjustable-rate mortgages which increased their balances and prevented homeowners from paying them off. These products were five times more profitable than regular mortgages. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-center-for-public-integrity/the-mortgage-salesman-who_b_1164703.html?ref=business

Mortgage Lender Ends Most Lending in Mass. After Lawsuit (for 12/3/11)

What happens when a bunch of mortgage lenders get sued by a State Attorney General? One of them ends lending in that state. That is what happened in Massachusetts when Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley sued five major banks for fraud and wrongful foreclosures. GMAC Mortgage, the nation's fifth biggest lender, ended most of its lending in Massachusetts as a result.

http://thinkprogress.org/special/2011/12/02/381115/mortage-lender-gmac-retaliates-against-mass-lawsuit-by-ending-most-lending-in-the-state/