Posted on 10/13/2010 11:34:10 AM PDT by Chunga85
WASHINGTON — Officials in 50 states and the District of Columbia have launched a joint investigation into allegations that mortgage companies mishandled documents and broke laws in foreclosing on hundreds of thousands of homeowners.
The states' attorneys general and bank regulators will examine whether mortgage company employees made false statements or prepared documents improperly.
Alabama initially did not sign on to the investigation. It reversed course after the joint statement was released.
Attorneys general have taken the lead in responding to a nationwide scandal that's called into question the accuracy and legitimacy of documents that lenders relied on to evict people from the homes. Employees of four large lenders have acknowledged in depositions that they signed off on foreclosure documents without reading them.
The allegations raise the possibility that foreclosure proceedings nationwide could be subject to legal challenge. Some foreclosures could be overturned. More than 2.5 million homes have been lost to foreclosure since the recession started in December 2007, according to RealtyTrac Inc.
The state officials said they intend to use their investigation to fix the problems that surfaced in the mortgage industry.
"This is not simply about a glitch in paperwork," said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is leading the probe. "It's also about some companies violating the law and many people losing their homes."
(Excerpt) Read more at palmbeachpost.com ...
What about the other 7 states?
~Obama
Hmmm.....I wonder what the bamster is going to do with this crisis....
monkey see, monkey do..
He is likely to blame Bush.... just a guess though.
The big story is that the marketers of mortgage backed securities lied to their investors about the quality of their title and their custody of documents—those lawsuits can break the banks.
It is interesting how the MSM always manages to take their eye off the curveball and strike out every time.
The situation is so much worse than what is being reported.
And our fearless leaders are out to busy trying to get re-elected.
Any mortgage note is now in question if it was part of any MBS derivative package.
Then any entity that invested in these derivatives probably holds worthless paper such as States, union funds, pension funds, GSEs, banks themselves, foreign countries...
Nothing to see here, please move along and go about your business.
The bond and security rating agencies might also come under legal scrutiny as they should.
When we did our re-fi several years ago we stood our ground saying we wanted a fixed rate or noting. We were pressured lender after lender, bank after bank to go with a variable or they couldn't help us. We finally found a fixed, and our payments have stayed the same, without worry of someone wanting to take our home away.
The congress will see to it that all of the illegal activities will be magically converted into honest accounting mistakes for the sake of the economy.
After all, they have to look after the little guy who would be harmed so much more than the perpetrators if all of the perpetrators were brought to justice.
/sarc
“Attorneys general have taken the lead in responding to a nationwide scandal”....it is bigger than 50 states.
The securitized (but not secured) mortgages were tranched up into big bags of $#@*)^*** and distributed the world over. It is an international problem. The Germans were among the first to detect it and attempt redress unsuccessfully in US Courts a few years ago (they could not produce title documents in Federal Court).
Limiting the problem to the US alone is not possible.
Whoa, please back up there for just a moment. Got a cite by any chance just so I can educate myself more?
I wonder what the reason was that the Germans failed to prevail in court... that perennial favorite, lack of standing, perhaps? I wonder what specific damages the Germans alleged in their complaint(s)? And by Germans is meant what, German banks? investment firms? insurance companies? (etc.)
Also I wonder if the Chinese are in a position analogous to the Germans on this, but on a bigger scale.
Waiting for the Freepers to assure me that the only reason 50 states are investigating is because Obama wants to give free homes away.
Waiting for the Freepers to assure me that perjury is just a technical defect in documentation and no big deal.
Just one of what were many references at the time to the German banks being among the first to be recognizably burned by the subprime mortgage meltdown. Interestingly, Obama, when he was a licensed attorney is the one who took the Bank of America to court in a Northeastern State and forced it to issue subprime mortgages in the first place.
A quote from a reference to the German bank recognition of fraudulent credit derivatives deriving from the inventive minds at Goldman Sachs and the cancellation of protective legislation preventing the banks from doing credit derivatives dating from the Great Depression (the Fed, the Banks and the Congress are all participants of the results we see today):
“Previously, I had mentioned the CDS exposure of the hapless German Landesbanks (banks owned by the individual German states or Länder – hence the term Landesbank). These same companies lost enormous amounts of money in the subprime meltdown – and apparently they have all sorts of other toxic exposure like Greek CDS still on the books.”
lol. Beat me to it!
Yes, and because of that there is a great tax liability to the IRS. Which ever party gets in front of this will hold power for a very long time...
I’m honestly wondering about now what BofA really has on my house. My originator sold my loan to Countrywide many years ago and BofA inherited it when they purchased Countrywide and knowing what we all know about Countrywide now, I have to wonder.... I’m not going to test it, but I stil wonder... title should be straightforward as we built our house on land we owned for many years..... but I’m curious, now.
wow. The whole sucker is going down in a five spiral crash if that happens.
I always wondered what happened with the MBSs when they changed hands, now we know the democrat schemers that thought up this plan had no idea what they were doing.
I had a friend that worked for Fannie Mae and he was telling me that he could not describe what he does for a living to his grandfather because no actual money changed hands. They created value out of whole cloth and thin-air and this has been going on for a very long time. Anyone that has been foreclosed on for the past ten+ years has standing in the lawsuits that will come out of this.
I winder if there is still time for us to get that dreamhouse and just never pay the mortgage in hopes we get it for free?
That's nice. Who owns the mortgage now?
How many times has it switched hands? Were the proper papers filed with the County Clerk every time?
Do you know who actually has title?
can you PROVE it?
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