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Predatory Lending

Foreclosures crisis caused by investors. And lenders. And politicians. And buyers.

But a St. Petersburg Times analysis of thousands of foreclosures in Hillsborough County, which has one of the highest default rates in Florida, shows individual homeowners are getting too much of the blame.
The truth is that real estate speculators and revenue-hungry local governments bear just as much of the responsibility — and maybe more — [...]

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Mortgage Crisis to be Investigated by the US Government

Chairman Towns’ Statement on Committee Investigation into Mortgage Crisis

Washington, DC – Chairman Edolphus “Ed” Towns (D-NY) today made the following statement on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigation into the role of mortgage lenders in the financial services crisis and the economic recession.
“The actions of mortgage lenders contributing to the foreclosure and financial [...]

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New Homebuyer Program Already Seeing Signs of Mortgage Fraud

While government officials said many suspect claims could turn out to be simple errors, the report found examples of claimants who already owned homes or had not yet bought one. Some 582 taxpayers were under 18 years old — as young as 4. Of the 1.4 million people who have claimed nearly $10 billion in [...]

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Loan Karma: Feds bust 41 people for mortgage fraud scheme

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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Turning the tables on the bankers

Particularly mind boggling are mortgage servicers who plunge ahead with foreclosure filings, and then, when called on it my activist groups, say they have no power to stop the proceedings since they don’t own the real estate!
Now it appears the legal system may slam the brakes on this runaway corporate train wreck.
A pending decision in [...]

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Predatory-lending lawsuits on the rise

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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Banks abuse borrowers

The Government Accountability Office – GAO – in July found that the Treasury was short staffed and had hired only half of the employees necessary to monitor the loan modification program.
Taxpayer dollars bailed out the banks from bankruptcy, now they’re back on track to pay out big bonuses while at the same time they are [...]

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SENIOR LOAN OFFICER SENTENCED IN MORTGAGE FRAUD SCHEME

Greenbelt, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow sentenced Winston Thomas, age 43, of New Carrollton, Maryland today to 37 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for failure to file federal tax returns and for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme in which he and his [...]

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Brothers, facing foreclosure, sue broker, attorney

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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SEC Charges Countrywide CEO, Angelo With Fraud

Ladies and gentleman, the infamous CEO from Countrywide Home Loans, Angelo Mozilo and three of his partners in financial crime have finally been sued for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
I think Mr. Mozilo recieved email training from the cast of a dumb and dumber because it looks like Angelo’s poor handling of [...]

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An Unbalanced Equation

By Moe Bedard
Major banks except Citi have formally cut off all negotiations with the Senate in an effort to limit even further the scope of the cramdown bill. Senators from both sides of the isle have given up hope on further developments as well. Bloomberg’s report on the cramdown bill today seems like the last [...]

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

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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Financial Fraud Is Focus of Attack by Prosecutors

I am sure that many of these Wall Street financial fraudsters were not thinking about spending the rest of thier lives in a 8×8 prison cell for ripping off Main Street to the tune of billions of dollars. I guess going from a penthouse to a concrete house with 25 to life will give you some time to think [...]

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Predatory Lending by Mortgage Brokers Magnify the Foreclosure Crisis

Many of these OC brokers operated for years in the wide open and most recently (from 2005-2007), selling nothing but negative amortization mortgages (AKA Pay Option ARM or Pick a Pay) throughout the Golden State to borrowers that should have never, ever been placed in that loan.

$20-30,000 commission checks for a loan in 2004-2005 were as common as foreclosures are today….

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Housing Push for Hispanics Spawns Wave of Foreclosures

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

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

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Millions of Predatory Loan Modifications: Homeowners Left to Suffer in Their Toxic Assets

Predatory lending begets predatory servicing, begets predatory loan modifications, begets predatory foreclosures. You simply cannot have one without the other.
You cannot have millions of predatory loans without having millions of predatory foreclosures because they are all inherently bound together in a tangled web of unfair, deceptive and fraudulent business acts and that is exactly [...]

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Countrywide & Bank of America Watch: The 11 State Attorney General Settlement in Context

Homeowner Relief? The Recent Countrywide Settlement in Context
A recent settlement between the California Attorney Generals office, joined by 10 additional states, resulted in one of the widest reaching predatory lending settlements in US history.
Under the landmark agreement, Countrywide Financial’s new owner, Bank of America, agreed to proceed with loan modifications on nearly $8 billion [...]

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

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

“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

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 (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

“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

“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

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

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!

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

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

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 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

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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The Enronization of America & the Economic Cartel

Kenneth Lay, CEO of Enron is lead in handcuffs after Lay was found guilty on all six counts of conspiracy and fraud by a jury of eight women and four men. In a separate bench trial, Judge Lake ruled Lay was guilty of four counts of fraud and false statements. Will we see similar indictments [...]

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

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 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

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

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”

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

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!

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

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?

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

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

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 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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