Couple accuse Bank of America of predatory lending practices

Couple accuse Bank of America of predatory lending practices

CHARLESTON – A couple are suing Bank of America after they claim it participated in predatory lending practices and caused them damages.

Specialized Loan Services LLC was also named as a defendant in the suit.

On April 23, 2007, Roger L. Justice and Patty G. Justice obtained financing through Countrywide Home Loans to purchase real property located in Lincoln County with payments beginning June 1, 2007, according to a complaint filed April 16 in Kanawha Circuit Court.

The Justices claim the loan was assigned, sold or transferred to Bank of America in 2009 and in 2010, Bank of America began charging them for a Privacy Assist Premier Service without their authorization.

On June 2, 2010; July 14, 2010; and Aug. 2, 2010, Notices of Right to Cure Default were issued to the Justices by Bank of America and on Aug. 1, 2010, they began receiving collection calls from Bank of America regarding an alleged delinquency with their mortgage loan and they advised the defendant they were being represented by counsel, according to the suit.

The Justices claim in 2011 they were advised by Bank of America to “get ready for foreclosure” and on Nov. 23, 2011, Bank of America transferred the servicing rights of their home to Specialized Loan Services.

On June 20, 2012, a Notice of Default and Notice of Intent to Foreclose was issued by Specialized Loan Services to the Justices, according to the suit.

Error claims cast doubt on Bank of America foreclosures in Bay Area

Joji Thomas was desperate to save his home. The San Francisco mechanical engineer sold his car, tapped into his wife’s savings and begged friends for money. In July, to stave off foreclosure, he bought a $27,777.85 cashier’s check and mailed it to Bank of America.

A bank representative acknowledged receiving the check two days later, Thomas said. But the payment went missing later that week and was not applied to his mortgage. Bank of America foreclosed on his home and sold it at auction. He moved out April 13.

“I was forced into this,” he said as he cleared the furniture from his home. “I had no other choice.”

Thomas is one of thousands of Bay Area homeowners fighting in court to save their homes from aforeclosure system rife with mistakes, mismanagement and even fraud, a joint investigation by theCenter for Investigative Reporting and NBC Bay Area has found.

Rest here…

 

Notice of Default signed before assignment of lender 

Tina Sevillano signs on behalf of MERS 

Transfer of property to a trust that was previously closed 

Altered dates 

Property bought at auction 

 

H/T to Center for Investigative Reporting

 

 

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Idaho Supreme Court secures MERS role as beneficiary

Idaho Supreme Court secures MERS role as beneficiary

The Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems is empowered to transfer foreclosure rights as the rightful beneficiary of a deed of trust, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled in a decision this week.

The case essentially green lighted a foreclosure that has been on delay for months and gives MERS precedence to defend its ability to transfer foreclosure rights as the ‘named beneficiary of a deed of trust’ in Idaho. 

As the named beneficiary and a mortgage registry, MERS is often responsible for appointing all successor trustees to the original lender, ultimately resulting in the transfer of foreclosure rights to different parties.

In the Edwards v. MERS case, the homeowner pushed back after Pioneer Lender Trustee Services launched foreclosure proceedings.

The homeowner suggested that listing MERS as beneficiary of the trust was not enough to give MERS the authority to appoint Pioneer as a successor trustee with foreclosure rights.

The Idaho Supreme Court disagreed holding that “the beneficiary has the authority to appoint a successor trustee and MERS, as nominee of the lender, had the authority to appoint Pioneer as successor trustee.”

Subsidiaries handling foreclosures pay off for Bank of America

Bank of America has found a way to make money through foreclosures by using a complicated web of subsidiaries. The process begins with a company called ReconTrust, which handles 1 in 5 Bay Area foreclosures.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of America, the Simi Valley company serves as the foreclosure trustee for the bank. Bank of America relies on ReconTrust to file documents that initiate a foreclosure on its behalf. However, in some cases, ReconTrust substitutes itself on loans Bank of America did not originate, the Center for Investigative Reporting and NBC Bay Area found.

Mortgage servicers, such as BAC Home Loans Services – another Bank of America subsidiary – collect fees and late charges on behalf of the bank. Legal analysts Adam Levitin, Kurt Eggert andDiane Thompson say this business model creates built-in incentives for servicers to keep homeowners in default for extended periods of time, rather than agreeing to a loan modification or setting a foreclosure date.

“For servicers, the true sweet spot lies in stretching out a delinquency without either a modification or a foreclosure,” Thompson wrote in a 2011 law review article. “Late fees and other default-related fees can add significantly to a servicer’s bottom line, and the longer a homeowner is in default, the larger those fees can be.”

Read on.

 

Notice of Default 

Tina Sevillano signs on behalf of First Franklin Financial 

Sevillano signs for MERS 

 

H/T to Center for Investigative Reporting

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U.S. seizes on ruling to boost Wells Fargo mortgage fraud case

U.S. seizes on ruling to boost Wells Fargo mortgage fraud case

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Justice Department has promptly capitalized on a court victory to bolster a case before another federal judge, citing a ruling on Wednesday that endorsed the agency’s use of a little known financial fraud law to prosecute bank actions during the financial crisis.

In a letter made public on Thursday, the agency told District Judge Jesse Furman on Wednesday that the ruling is one reason why its mortgage-fraud case against Wells Fargo & Co should not be dismissed.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan made that ruling in a lawsuit against Bank of New York Mellon , which the Justice Department accuses of overcharging clients for trading currencies.

The government’s cases against Wells Fargo and BNY Mellon and a third lawsuit against Bank of America Corp rely in part on the Financial Institutional Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA).

TARP Oversight Official Says Banks Are Too Interconnected To Rule Out Future ‘Too Big To Fail’ Taxpayer Bailouts Of Nation’s Largest Banks

TARP Oversight Official Says Banks Are Too Interconnected To Rule Out Future ‘Too Big To Fail’ Taxpayer Bailouts Of Nation’s Largest Banks

The inspector general of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program that Congress initiated during the financial crisis of 2008 said in her latest report to Congress that the nation’s largest financial institutions are still too interconnected and that more needs to be done break up their exposure to each other.

“To let one of the largest financial firms fail requires regulators to have confidence that they can close down the firm without damaging the economy, and as a nation we are not there yet,” Christy Romero, TARP special inspector general, said in a quarterly report to Congress on Wednesday.

Financial Stability Oversight Council Moves To Abolish Libor

Financial Stability Oversight Council Moves To Abolish Libor

WASHINGTON — U.S. regulators led by the Treasury Department have targeted an oft-criticized benchmark interest rate as a risk to financial stability, putting further pressure on authorities overseas and the industry to discard a rate embedded in hundreds of trillions of dollars of loans and securities.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) recommended Thursday in its latest annual report to Congress that policymakers “promptly” identify other interest rate benchmarks that could replace the London Interbank Offered Rate, which the council said was “unsustainable in the long run.” The lending gauge, known as Libor, comprises a set of rates used to price financial instruments worldwide and is based on self-reported borrowing costs for unsecured loans between banks.

The regulators’ call to move from a regime in which banks self-report their borrowing costs to one anchored in actual, observable transactions would shake up the current underpinnings of the financial system. The recommendation is the first of its kind for FSOC, a collection of regulators ranging from the Federal Reserve to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was formed after the financial crisis to spot risks.

FSOC Warns On Too-Big-To-Fail Banks

FSOC Warns On Too-Big-To-Fail Banks

WASHINGTON — The biggest U.S. banks may be encouraged to take excessive risks due to assumptions they’ll be rescued by the government, a potential emerging threat to financial stability, a panel of top regulators warned Thursday.

The note of caution, contained in the Financial Stability Oversight Council’s latest annual report detailing risks to the financial system, comes as the debate over the market phenomenon “too-big-to-fail” grips Washington and Wall Street, three years after the problem was supposed to have been solved. The Obama administration and large banks are on one side; some regulators and lawmakers are on the other.

The nine government agencies that form FSOC, including the Treasury Department, said in their joint report that perceptions in financial markets that the U.S. government inevitably will bail out faltering financial institutions diminishes discipline at the biggest banks by allowing them to borrow more cheaply than other financial institutions.

Bankrupt Swedish Tycoon Had Fortune Stashed in South Pacific

Bankrupt Swedish Tycoon Had Fortune Stashed in South Pacific

Real estate mogul Hans Thulin built offshore maze as Swedish government and other creditors pursued him, secret records show.

STOCKHOLM — Bankrupt Swedish real estate tycoon Hans Thulin had as much as $17 million sheltered offshore at a time when the Swedish government was pursuing him in court for millions of dollars in unpaid debts, according to secret records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and reviewed by Fokus, Sweden’s leading newsmagazine.

The records confirm that Thulin built a tangle of companies, trusts, funds and accounts in the South Pacific, far away from tax authorities and creditors in Sweden.  

The documents don’t show the original source of the $17 million or how long the money was sheltered within his offshore network. But they do provide evidence that Thulin had a fortune held abroad in late 2008 as the Swedish government struggled to recover money from him.

Judge denies Deutsche Bank bid to dismiss claims over foreclosures, illegal evictions of poor L.A. tenants

Judge denies Deutsche Bank bid to dismiss claims over foreclosures, illegal evictions of poor L.A. tenants

(Reuters) – A judge has denied Deutsche Bank AG’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit by the city of Los Angeles accusing it of letting hundreds of foreclosed properties fall into disrepair and illegally evicting low-income tenants, a representative for the city’s attorney said on Wednesday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle allowed the 2011 civil enforcement action to proceed, according to the city attorney’s office. The ruling was made during an April 8 hearing and a written decision was issued late on Tuesday, the city said.

“This ruling will now allow our action to move forward to trial and ultimately to holding the bank accountable for its intolerable practice or perpetuating blight,” city attorney Carmen Trutanich said in a statement.