From the category archives:

Predatory Lending

How to look up your mortgage to see if it may be fraudulent

by Moe Bedard

Here is a “how to guide” on  looking up your mortgage in Florida via your county recorder. I am not cosigning everything said by the author in this link and will research further to see the validity of the mortgage claims made.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20916919/Foreclosure-Fraud-Guide-to-Looking-up-Public-Records-for-Fraud?ref=patrick.net

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Loan Karma: Feds bust 41 people for mortgage fraud scheme

by Moe Bedard

31 people were arrested yesterday for mortgage fraud in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and North Carolina. Federal prosecutors announced charges against 41 lenders, lawyers and others in the real estate industry.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in a statement that he found it “especially alarming” that lawyers, loan officers and mortgage brokers treated [...]

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MERS: Do Banks laugh at our state laws as they wreak havoc on our nation?

by Moe Bedard

Maybe our state Attorney Generals will have to take a look at this article and recent MERS cases. It looks like many state laws may have been violated on a massive scale in the sale of millions of securitized mortgages that were packaged, sliced, diced and then sold around the world.
Like these banksters did not [...]

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Predatory-lending lawsuits on the rise

by Moe Bedard

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — During the housing boom, mortgage lenders were doling out the dough, giving loans to people who could never have qualified before.
Now, homeowners and government officials are increasingly taking these institutions to court, alleging unfair and predatory practices. While many of these suits are still winding their way through the legal system, [...]

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Brothers, facing foreclosure, sue broker, attorney

by Moe Bedard

Now, the Fusaro sons might lose the homes Umberto worked so hard to buy.
The sons, Carmine, 46, and Biagio, 37, are suing their mortgage broker and the attorney who helped him for what they say were predatory lending practices, practices that led the Fusaros to refinance or take out loans every year from 2001 to [...]

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Woman Claims Fraud To Delay Foreclosure. Yes, An Attorney Can Help!

by Moe Bedard

There is a lot of misinformation in regards to foreclosure defense and loan modifications propagating the media these days. The confusion, crooks and lack of lender help has left many homeowners on Main Street paralyzed in making what would seem like a rational decision.
Many homeowners and consumers are facing situations that are not only placing their [...]

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PennyMac Saviors/Vultures Nothing More Than Ex-Countrywide Predators?

by Moe Bedard

“Not only are former Countrywide execs back in business, but they are making money off of the current housing crisis, they helped create. All this makes me wonder if Countrywide’s business model was just a sick massive mortgage ponzi scheme that makes ponzi-poster child, Bernie Madoff look like .25 cent lollipop bandit and Stanford Kurland [...]

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Housing Push for Hispanics Spawns Wave of Foreclosures

by Moe Bedard

Mortgage brokers became a key portion of the lending pipeline. Phi Nguygn, a former broker, worked at two suburban Washington-area firms that employed hundreds of loan originators, most of them Latino. Countrywide and other subprime lenders sent account representatives to brokerage offices frequently, he says. Countrywide didn’t respond to calls requesting comment.

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Ohio to Receive $4.39M in Countrywide Settlement

by Moe Bedard

Attorney General Nancy Rogers has announced the details of a final settlement with Countrywide Financial Corporation.

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The Economic Cartel: CEO’s Involved in the World Economic Melt Down

by Moe Bedard

Paid to Fail? An Inside Look At Compensation and Bonuses for Wall Street’s Worst
Since 2000, home mortgage lenders have made more than $2.5 trillion in “toxic” subprime loans and most all these mortgages are failing miserably. In fact, millions of homeowners, tax payers and investors around the entire world are losing billions (possibly trillions) and [...]

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Criminal Investigation of Angelo Mozilo Continues

by Moe Bedard

Below is a video by NBC that covers the investigation of Countrywide and their former CEO, Angelo Mozilo.
In the video they interview one of Mozilo’s right hand men, Robert Fienberg, who was in charge of the secret “FOA” (Friends of Angelo) program. Yes, there was a designated executive that handled these special deals and in [...]

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7 lawsuits against mortgage lender Countrywide to the Southern District of California

by Moe Bedard

“San Diego will become ground zero for mortgage fraud litigation,” a very happy Michael Aguirre, San Diego’s city attorney, said Wednesday.
San Diego, CA— All lawsuits filed across the nation against Countrywide Financial Corporation alleging
predatory lending practices were ordered today to be consolidated and heard in San Diego in the Southern Federal District Court. Lawsuits have [...]

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Trapped in American nightmare

by Moe Bedard

Here on LoanWorkout.org, I have been writing about the American Nightmare and the resistance homeowners recieve from their mortgage servicers when reaching out for help. And until this “serious issue” in our mortgage and housing crisis is addressed and these mortgage servicers are held accountable, Main Street and plumber Joe will continue to drown in [...]

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Does Your Lender Have the Right to Foreclose on You?

by Moe Bedard

By Moe Bedard (Filed Under Stop Foreclosures Effectively)
This is the question of the day floating throughout the legal blog sphere and I wanted to elaborate on this subject that we have covered extensively here “first” on LoanWorkout.org in the past.
In federal court, written proof of who holds the mortgage must be presented at the time [...]

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Bank of America Brand Seriously Infected by Countrywide Loans

by Moe Bedard

“Today, I’m announcing the biggest loan modification in American history,” California Attorney General Jerry Brown said at a press conference Monday morning. “Bank of America settled because their new entity, Countrywide, was guilty of massive irregularities.”
Thanks to the California Attorney General and 10 others states AG’s massive $8.4 million settlement, Bank of America has now [...]

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Bank of America has Agreed to the Nation’s Largest Loan Modification Program of Countrywide Predatory Loans

by Moe Bedard

“Countrywide’s greed turned the American dream into a nightmare for thousands of Californians who now face foreclosure,” said state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who led the negotiations for the states with Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general.
Countrywide was sued by a handful state attorneys general, who alleged that the Calabasas, Calif., company engaged in predatory [...]

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Attorney: Bailout Bill Fails Foreclosed Homeowners

by Moe Bedard

When Baron decided to become a homeowner a few years ago he thought he was doing the right thing. He says he went to the wrong person to make his dream of homeownership come true.
“What they told us is after three years we could come back and re-finance,” Baron, who didn’t want to share his [...]

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Ohio woman, 90, attempts suicide after foreclosure

by Moe Bedard

A 90-year-old Ohio woman, facing eviction from the home she has lived in for 38 years, shot and wounded herself this week, becoming a grim symbol of the U.S. home mortgage crisis.
Addie Polk was found lying on the floor of her home with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to her shoulder when [...]

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I did lose it all. I have no job, no car, no HOME, and no “AMERICAN DREAM!”

by Moe Bedard

Written by Jenzy. A 56 year old American woman, homeowner, and another mother who has lost her American Dream.
I once owned two businesses, and had a nice car and a roof over my head. I lost it all at age 55 yrs. old due to a very deceitful mortgage company. Things were fine in 2004, 2005, [...]

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Is Your Bank About to Implode? The FDIC is Hinting, YES!

by Moe Bedard

The lender carnage, death and destruction litter the home page of Aaron Krowne’s Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter like the beach at Normandy on D-Day. The infamous list has grown from September 2006 when Aaron started the website with approximately 10 failed lenders to a whopping 276 major U.S. failed lending operations today.
That comes out to about one failed [...]

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Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac Failure: The Lies, the Cover Ups and the Making of a Disaster

by Moe Bedard

Wall Street Journal October 4, 2004:
Fannie Mae isn’t an ordinary company and this isn’t a run-of-the-mill accounting scandal. The U.S. government had no financial stake in the failure of Enron or WorldCom. But because of Fannie’s implicit subsidy from the federal government, taxpayers are on the hook if its capital cushion is insufficient to absorb [...]

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Breaking Down Overcharges by Brokers: N.C. Takes a Big Step

by Moe Bedard

From the Center for Responsible Lending:
In all the ongoing analysis of the foreclosure crisis, one point should not get lost: mortgage brokers played a key role in making the abusive subprime loans that continue to wreck the U.S. economy. 
Today North Carolina became the first state to ban systematic overcharging by brokers.  Governor Mike Easley signed [...]

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Countrywide is trying to kill me

by Moe Bedard

By a Countrywide Home Loans Client, American homeowner and mother, Shauna.
I am a little nervous, as this is my first time posting….here is my story. Due to my 3 year engagement ending in Jan 08 and me assuming by ex-fiancé’s portion of the bills which included an additional car note (I have since returned the [...]

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Countrywide pact challenged by Justice Dept

by Moe Bedard

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Justice Department has challenged an agreement that Countrywide Financial Corp reached in a bankruptcy court in Pittsburgh, saying it would make it harder to investigate and sue the mortgage lending giant.
 
Last month, Countrywide agreed to pay $325,000 to the Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee in Pittsburgh, Ronda Winnecour, to cover [...]

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CA Attorney General Urged to Seek Injunction Halting Foreclosure on Deceptive Countrywide Mortgages

by Moe Bedard

The California Reinvestment Coalition and the Greenlining Institute today sent an urgent letter to California Attorney General Jerry Brown urging him to take immediate action against Countrywide Financial/Bank of America. The community groups are asking Brown to secure a foreclosure moratorium on mortgages that fit the profile of the deceptive loans and practices cited in [...]

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Testimony Urging Passage of Foreclosure Moratorium Where Financial Institution Fraud Occurred

by Moe Bedard

By Robert Gnaizda
No efforts by the banking industry, by the federal regulators or Secretary of the Treasury Paulson will protect the vast majority of those who live from paycheck-to paycheck from foreclosure. Hope Now’s failures are a classic example of the failure of voluntary action without the threat of effective action via either class action [...]

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US Attorney – Countrywide Home Loan Employee Arrested For Selling IDs of Loan Customers

by Moe Bedard

LAWFUEL – Legal Newswire – Two men were arrested today on charges related to the illegal access of computers containing personal identification information of Countrywide Home Loan customers and the illegal sale of the data, announced Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles, and United States Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien.
Rene [...]

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Frank calls for restructuring of the mortgage servicing industry if servicers fail to cooperate

by Moe Bedard

Finally! It looks like one of the peoples representatives, Barney Frank, has got hip to the fact that servicers have been giving a lot of lip service lately to everyone. From the homeowners reaching for help and to our government who has been asking them nicely to cooperate.
Thus far, servicers have been playing by [...]

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San Diego City Attorney Sues Countrywide for a “Pattern of Unlawful, Fraudulent or Unfair Predatory Real Estate Lending Practices”

by Moe Bedard

SAN DIEGO — City Attorney Mike Aguirre filed a civil complaint Wednesday against Countrywide Financial Corp. in an attempt to stop foreclosures in San Diego.
Aguirre said the suit targets subprime loans where homeowners face balloon payments after two or three years of the loan. City officials say San Diego saw 22,000 notices of foreclosure last [...]

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Thousands of Homeowners Plan to Storm Capitol Hill to Save the American Dream

by Moe Bedard

The line of eager people was wrapped around the Capitol Hilton in downtown Washington D.C. as my crew and I unloaded our gear out of our taxi. The crowd was thick and deep as a sea of yellow shirts offered smiles and encouragement to the children as they waited patiently with their mothers and fathers. [...]

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The FBI Investigates Indymac for Mortgage Fraud – Next Please!

by Moe Bedard

When it rains it pours and when a bank fails, the FBI is going to find out why.
The facts are that the fraud and financial crimes ran rampant from all sides of the mortgage and real estate equation.
From the loan officers, appraisers, Realtors, notary publics, underwriters, account executives, managers, investors, brokerages, borrowers and the list can go [...]

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Predatory Lending Begets Predatory Lending – Only in America

by Moe Bedard

Can’t afford your home or your loan? Heck, just put in on your charge card and forget about it.
Well, at least until your credit card bill comes due next month and now Guido wants his money. One more month with your head above the toxic water and a temporary plug in your foreclosure boat for a few more [...]

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Silence of the Lenders: Is Anyone Listening?

by Moe Bedard

Loan Safe & Moe Bedard in the New York Times By Gretchen Morgenson
DAN A. BAILEY JR. was desperate when he sat down on May 19 to send an e-mail message to his mortgage lender, the Countrywide Financial Corporation, pleading, yet again, for help.
Behind on his payments and fearful of losing his home of 16 years [...]

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5 Ways Wall Street & Washington Set Us Up for the Crash

by Moe Bedard

Nomi Prins, what are the five ways that Washington and Wall Street has brought us to this crisis?
NOMI PRINS: Well, it’s a historical matter, and basically there’s been a lot of legislation that has weakened the regulation of the housing industry and the lending industry and the trading that takes place with it that Wall [...]

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Loan Modification Myths and Facts

by Moe Bedard

There are a lot of myths surrounding lenders and servicers as to what they will and will not do during the loan modification process. 
The confusion and inaccurate data that is propagating the internet and the news is based on ill-informed bloggers or journalists who really have no idea what is going on in the loss mitigation arena. This [...]

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How we got into this mortgage mess

by Moe Bedard

By Paul Kiesel
Over the last 15 years, there have been five “avoidable events” stemming from Wall Street’s or Congress’ actions (or inaction), that led directly to the mortgage crisis.

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Paulson on US Housing Market Before the FDIC on Mortgage Lending

by Moe Bedard

July 8, 2008
hp-1070
Remarks by Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. on U.S. Housing Market before FDIC’s Forum on Mortgage Lending to Low and Moderate Income Households

Washington, DC–Good afternoon. Thank you Chairman Bair for convening this forum, and thanks to all of you for your interest in encouraging responsible lending to low and moderate income households.

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Bring Down the Banks with these Foreclosure Defense Tactics

by Moe Bedard

Get your gloves on and start training for the fight of your life because foreclosure defense is going to be no easy battle. Make no bones about it, you are definitely fighting against one of the toughest and most powerful opponents in the world. The banks
Let’s get one thing straight here ladies and gentleman. The [...]

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Illinois attorney general advises homeowners to review Countrywide loans

by Moe Bedard

I have been advising homeowners to do this for the past year online and I even started a company (Loan Safe Solutions) to assist attorneys and homeowners in reviewing their loan documents for legal violations.
Now, it appears that the Illinois attorney general feels that it is a great idea to have your current mortgage examined for federal, [...]

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Boiler Room 2.0 – Investors Press Lenders on Bad Loans

by Moe Bedard

Two bad loans go around the outside, around the outside, around the outside……………………
Two fraudulent loans go around the outside, around the outside, around the outside. Now, dosie doe your investor.
Looks like investors have finally got hip to the fact that they bought a bunch of fools gold on Wall Street.
Imagine that? These gigantic investment brokerages [...]

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Your Loan Documents May be the Secret Key to Obtaining a Loan Modification

by Moe Bedard

Homeowners Warning: Beware of new scams using this as a tool to fight lenders by scammers and out of work mortgage brokers everywhere!!! This post is from early 2008 and the times have changed folks. Yes, it can work and help, but when used with a lawyer who can properly represent you.
I have studied and [...]

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You have to jail the source. Wall Street, then the Banks/Lenders, then the brokers and maybe some consumers

by Moe Bedard

Reader Contributed – Chris the Mortgage Broker - In response to this post
I’m a broker and let me lend a little light on who should go to jail first. And yes, JacMac is right; you will be attack for your comments before the day is over. Get ready
You have to jail the source. Wall [...]

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Home Loan Failure in the US Will Turn Into a World Economic Crisis

by Moe Bedard

We are in the midst of one the biggest business model failures in our nation’s history. The snake oil subprime business was great over the last few years and up until about 6 months ago, you could find this cure all medicine at about every corner in America. This snake oil can’t be found and production [...]

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Predatory Lending Advice and Tips

by Moe Bedard

Predatory lending will be the new buzz word along with loan modifications over the next few years as more and more homeowners realise the laws that protect them. So I wanted to touch on what you can do to stop foreclosure if you are the victim of predatory lending.
Examples of Predatory Lending Practices from the [...]

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Can a Mortgage Professional be a Victim of Predatory Lending? The Answer Will Suprise You!

by Moe Bedard

Don’t think for one second that predatory lending just affects lower income and minority borrowers. It affects everyone and no one is immune from the scammers and fraudsters. Even an industry professional who is an account executive for Chase Bank can become a victim.
As I mentioned in earlier posts. I founded this website for the [...]

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