December 2009

New Yorkers at risk of losing homes surges 85% in month of November With city unemployment at 10.3%, the number of New Yorkers at risk of losing their homes surged 85% in November compared with November of last year, according [...]

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–Community groups are scheduled to meet with White House staff Monday to discuss ways to help the unemployed avoid foreclosure. Faith-based community groups belonging to the PICO National Network and some allied organizations will be meeting with White [...]

The good news: there are special crime fighting groups that are cracking down on these scammers. To find out more, KENS 5′s Stacia Willson sat down with Ozvaldo Alaniz, the Supervisory Special Agent of the FBI White Collar Crime Squad [...]

The proverbial loan modification $hit is hitting the fan for the thousands of unscrupulous mortgage brokers and loan officers (AKA Cock Brokers) across the US who are still operating outside the law. Simply put, these cockbrokers are being smoked out by law [...]

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Financial services company Wells Fargo says it’s helping more than 100 animals left behind on a foreclosed rescue farm in northwestern Rhode Island. Dan MacKenzie was evicted from Bonniedale Farm on Monday. He sought a court order forcing Wells [...]

Bailout watchdog head Elizabeth Warren gives the TARP a mixed review.   WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) — Was it worth it? Fourteen months and $700 billion dollars later, did the federal TARP bailout do the job?

“The money was used to pay his personal bills, including car payments on a Humvee and an Escalade,” said Duke Frost, the assistant county prosecutor. NEWARK, Ohio — A Newark man faces nearly 40 years in prison after admitting on [...]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s CEO said Tuesday that the bank sees additional losses on home loans next year even as the economy shows slight improvements. Jamie Dimon told investors at the Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services

(PORTLAND, OR) — Lee Howlett, a 46-year-old former broker at Portland, OR-based Taylor Made Mortgage, has been sentenced to 41 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, after he was found guilty in a $3.7 [...]

John Bariana, of Mullica Hill, is accused of taking part in a ring that obtained 35 fraudulent mortgages at the expense of distressed homeowners, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia. Also charged was Edward McCusker of New Hope, Pa., [...]

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision means that Miller, who has served his year-and-a-day prison sentence, will not be locked up again as long as he meets the terms of his probation. Miller owned Freedom Financial in Little [...]

Executives at Chase and Bank of America say they are struggling to get homeowners to complete the necessary paperwork for the Obama administration’s Making Home Affordable Loan Modification Plan. These banks are claiming that only a small percentage of homeowners [...]

The clock is ticking for unlicensed companies trying to entice home buyers to modify their mortgages. Or demanding an upfront fee to help them out. Come Jan. 1, anyone who provides loan modification services must have an active license from [...]

Based on those figures, the country’s now on track for 2.9 million foreclosure starts in this year alone. John Robinson, a management consultant, got a pink slip nearly a year ago and he’s still unemployed. For him it was the [...]

SCHUMER CALLS ON FHA TO ENSURE THAT ALL QUALIFIED AND APPROVED LEND AMERICA BORROWERS CAN SECURE NEW MORTGAGES AFTER COMPANY IS SHUT DOWN BY THE FEDS Long Island Based Lend America Was the Largest FHA Mortgage Lender in the NY [...]

New York based Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lender, Lend America was shut down by the Feds this past week for apparent fraudulent mortgage practices. Federal authorities revoked the firms license to originate mortgages insured by FHA. “We have no tolerance [...]

Newport Beach Police say Help Modify Now and Consumer Resource Law Center CEO has been arrested. The NBPD is informing the public that this man has allegedly ripped off more than 50 people nationwide who were hired his firm to perform a loan modification. [...]

But, also like many Americans, Leahy has hit a snag in converting her loan. The bank says she should qualify but has yet to process her paperwork. Now a collection agency has started to circle her home, saying she has [...]

“It’s really finally dawning on banks that they’re better off with a short sale,” said Richard Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. “I think banks were in denial.”

AG Cooper stops Kannapolis foreclosure scam – Release date: 12/4/2009 Raleigh:  A Kannapolis foreclosure rescue operation is barred from collecting any money from consumers for foreclosure assistance or loan modifications, Attorney General Roy Cooper announced Friday.   “Scammers entice struggling [...]

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said the administration is looking at a 25-year-old Pennsylvania program as one of the models it might apply toward helping unemployed homeowners avoid foreclosure. The Homeowners Emergency Assistance [...]

Just another day in the life of a Modesto County Sherrif Deputy Aviles has seen stripped houses before on the eviction beat, but never one so thoroughly denuded: Every cabinet, sink, toilet, light fixture and even light-switch faceplate was gone. Later, [...]

EDMOND, Okla. — An Edmond man has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for money laundering. Phillip Seibel, who pleaded guilty July 22, also was ordered Wednesday to pay $770,037 in restitution. Prosecutors say Seibel formed Homesavers LLC, which [...]

One of the most frustrated Chase employees I met was Domonique Perez, whose job was to round up the documents from borrowers who had been granted temporary modifications. It was, she said, not going well. She told of one man [...]

It looks like this loan modification firm that was sued by the FTC is still very much in business I wrote about the FTC actions against Crowder Law Group last month. The FTC is suing these people and companies below involved in this operation that [...]

Submitted by Homeowner & NACA Client, Vanessa Williams: I purchased my home in 2000 through NACA. I still reside in that home with a interest rate of 7.125. Through a friend I learned that the Save the Dream Tour was [...]