Matt Weidner – Fighting For The American People

Posts Tagged ‘david j stern’

First, thing you need to do is download the ALEXA toolbar. Alexa is the Neilsen ratings of the internet.  The lower the Alexa ranking, the higher the number of people that travel on a site and the greater the credibility of the information on the site.  You need to consider a site’s Alexa ranking whenever you’re reading information and checking sources….Download the Alexa Toolbar Here

Next, you need to understand that we’re all being lied to again and again and again.  The big lie that we’re all feasting upon are the mortgage and housing numbers that are broadcast and transmitted by all the usual mainstream sources….all the numbers are lies and the economic circumstances are really much worse than most anyone is prepared to let on.

Now click on over to Naked Capitalism and read the latest post by Micheal Olenick…this post digs into the very real reality that the numbers don’t add up.  Now the real question is just what happens when the rest of the world wakes up from their drunken stupor and is forced to face the sickening reality that we’re all living in……

The turn of the year is the time to make predictions and projections. I’m optimistic that the tide will finally turn for the American middle-class, suffering silently in a one-sided economic war. I don’t think this will be because of altruism, or even justice, but rather simple pragmatism. Specifically, I believe that parasitic financial institutions have pushed the boundaries so far that they’ve put their host, the middle-class itself, at risk. One new bit of information suggests the housing front is in more perilous shape than most pundits believe.

MICHAEL OLENICK

The federal government are burying all of us and all of our children and all of our grandchildren and children not yet born underneath mountains of lies.  They are flying in so fast and furious that we cannot possibly keep up with them. They lie about the poison that is our food and water. They lie about the wars and the cost of wars, both financial and otherwise. They lie about the corruption that they are all part of and how our formerly free nation is owned by the corporations.

But the lie that I want to focus on for the last post of 2011 is one that is real clear and real direct and real, real easy to see…the lies about just how big  the housing Apocolypse is and the bigger lie that they just don’t know how big it is or how to do anything about it.

A few weeks ago Congressman Elijah Cummings wondered how it was that Fannie and Freddie’s lawyers were getting away with such monstrous conduct.  It was sort of an aside in a much more contentious debate that no one payed any attention to…the debate over Fannie and Freddie execs pocketing millions of our money while the plane called the American financial sector is being flown straight into the ground.

The ugly, ugly truth that the Congressman got right on the verge of really asking about is laying right there in the wide open for all the world to see. The conduct of Fannie and Freddie’s has been know for a very, very long time.  Read carefully the documents that are attached to this post and understand all the allegations made in them….they are just the tip of the iceberg.  What are even more compelling are the facts that are contained within the depositions that I am currently studying.  I wonder how the good congressman’s questions might have been a tad bit more pointed if he had read the documents at the end of this post…

The question we all must be asking and the question that every single man, woman and child in this country better start asking real loudly and real persistently is just how in the hell did our government allow this whole universe of FIRE (Finance, Investment/Insurance, Real Estate) burn so wildly out of control for so long?  Mind you the case profiled below started in 1999 and settled in 2002….a settlement that included payment of millions.

There is so much more here than meets the eye…perhaps it will be revealed at some point in time.  Maybe reporters will pick up on this and start digging deep.

I have already suffered because I dare to speak of these things publicly.  Just think about that for a moment…what I’m really frustrated about and what I keep screaming about is the hundreds of millions of dollars that continues to be stolen from the American people and a crime spree that continue unabated and I’m the one getting strung up for heresy.  I’m going to be paying the debts and the penalties of the banking criminals that caused this economic Apocalypse and the mere fact that I dare to protest subjects me to attack.

Well, I only hope that the good Congressman Cummings and others continue the inquiry.  It’s a long and complicated and deeply corrupted worm hole that everyone is avoiding going down, but we’re all going down it one way or the other.

Tomorrow I will release a post, my first of 2012 where I will predict that FIRE will burn all across this world. The FIRE that started by these villains of Finance, Investment/Insurance and Real Estate, unglued from any law or regulation or responsibility will rage like an inferno in 2012.

For now, the most compelling thing to read and think about is how the allegations contained within the following attachments were not enough to get someone, anyone to stop what has transpired since….

sterncomplaint

sternbrief

sternresponse

sternsettlement

sternstatement

Hat tip to Nye Lavalle….not just for this article….but for first reporting the abuses of foreclosure mills as far back as 2003.  The truly staggering issues presented by these revelations are just why no one did anything about this.  Even more mind blowing by far is the fact that none of the parties who are responsible for this have ever been held accountable.  Not even today.

Not even today, an astonishing eight years after problems were first reported and a full year after the full blown crisis erupted and nothing, not a single thing has happened to these wrongdoers.  Not the Florida Bar, not the Florida Attorney General, not the FBI or the feds.  No one. Nothing.

The report itself is so mind blowing because it details so many abuses then admits that even today….nothing. No punishment, no immediate shutdowns or supervisory efforts.  And what about the hundreds of thousands of homeowners who suffered under these abuses?  And what about the hundreds of thousands who continue to suffer even today?  Where is the justice for them? When they examine their experience with “our” court system will they believe they have been treated fairly?  Will they believe the scales of justice are balanced fairly?  Of course they won’t and with good reason.  Just pile this report on to the stack (actually it’s more like a warehouse now) of other reports and evidence of the abuses Americans have suffered at the hands of the 1% and their minions who operate all across this country.  And for those struggling to understand what the people in Occupy Wall Street (and Tampa and Miami and Chicago and Seattle) are protesting against, I will suggest to you that they are protesting because of the information that is printed in this report.  One of the fundamental issues being protested is the fact that there is no accountability.  As detailed in this report, the banks and their law firms have been permitted to abuse homeowners….and desecrate our legal system…with impunity for years. And nothing has been done about it.  Even today.

From the Report:

In December of 2003, a Fannie Mae shareholder began alerting Fannie Mae to foreclosure abuse allegations, and in 2005 Fannie Mae hired an outside law firm to investigate a variety of allegations regarding purported foreclosure processing abuses. In May 2006, the law firm issued a report of investigation in which it found that:

[F]oreclosure attorneys in Florida are routinely filing false pleadings and affidavits…. The practice could be occurring elsewhere. It is axiomatic that the practice is improper and should be stopped. Fannie Mae has not authorized this unlawful conduct. Further, the report observed that Fannie Mae did not take steps to ensure the quality of its foreclosure attorneys’ conduct, the legal positions taken in the attorneys’ pleadings, or the manner in which the attorneys processed foreclosures on the Enterprise’s behalf.

Also From the Final Report:

For example, when Fannie Mae terminated the Stern Law Firm, it estimated it would incur approximately $5.5 million in total costs. The costs include $4.6 million in file transfer fees (this estimate represents $200 per transfer for approximately 23,000 loan files). Fannie Mae estimated all other associated costs at approximately $900,000.

There were indicators prior to August 2010 that could have led FHFA to identify the heightened risk posed by foreclosure processing within Fannie Mae’s RAN. These indicators included significant increases in foreclosures, which accompanied the deterioration of the housing market; consumer complaints alleging improper foreclosures; contemporaneous media reports about foreclosure abuses by Fannie Mae’s law firms; and public court filings in Florida and elsewhere highlighting such abuses. Although FHFA’s management has yet to publish the results of its special review of Fannie Mae’s RAN, the examiners’ preliminary findings confirm that at least one of these indicators – deteriorating industry conditions – should have provided adequate warning of the increased risk associated with default-related legal services.

FHFA has not developed formal policies to address poor performance by law firms that have relationships – either directly through contract or through its loan servicers – with both of the Enterprises. FHFA-OIG identified instances where Freddie Mac terminated for poor performance law firms that processed foreclosures on its behalf, but Fannie Mae continued to use the firms. FHFA did not specifically review such terminations and, therefore, lacks assurance that law firms with histories of performance deficiencies do not jeopardize the safety and soundness of the Enterprises.

Federal and state regulators and law enforcement officials subsequently initiated probes into whether banks and foreclosure law firms improperly seized homes using fraudulent or incomplete paperwork. For example, in August 2010, the Florida Attorney General announced that his office had launched investigations into allegations of unfair and deceptive foreclosure practices involving three Florida law firms. The three law firms were part of Fannie Mae’s RAN and included the Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A. (the Stern Law Firm).

And now the New York Times Article:

Fannie Mae, the mortgage finance giant, learned as early as 2003 of extensive foreclosure abuses among the law firms it had hired to remove troubled borrowers from their homes. But the company did little to correct the firms’ practices, according to a report issued Tuesday.

Only after news reports in mid-2010 began to describe the dubious practices, like the routine filing of false pleadings in bankruptcy courts, did Fannie Mae’s overseer start to scrutinize the conduct. The report was critical of that overseer, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and was prepared by the agency’s inspector general.

In one notable lapse, even after the agency reported problems to Fannie Mae in late 2010 about some of the approved law firms, it did not request a response from the company, the report said.

“American homeowners have been struggling with the effects of the housing finance crisis for several years, and they shouldn’t have to worry whether they will be victims of foreclosure abuse,” said Steve Linick, inspector general of the finance agency. “Increased oversight by F.H.F.A. could help to prevent these abuses.” New York Times

FHFAAUDIT

This nation is collapsing under the weight of a flawed, fraudulent and criminal economic and political system. The epicenter is indeed Wall Street, that den of sin and inequity where the wealth and wages of an entire nation are sucked in and concentrated then swirled around before it all goes disappearing down some drain and flushed into a world unknown.

We don’t know where the money goes or why because the traders and the bankers and the hedge fund managers and executives consistently used a portion of their ill-earned gains to pay off the elected and appointed “leaders” and convince them either not to inquire where the money was going or to accept absurd and/or complex explanations that defy our understanding.  Geithner, Paulson, Bernake, Johnson, Bush, Bush, Clinton and every elected member of Congress and every elected official who sits in any seat in this country.  They are all responsible.  At some point in time perhaps some of them understood where this was going and what they were doing.  Hank Paulson spent his entire career at Goldman Sachs and Geithner was born, bred and baptized by the banks…no surprise that their worldview is entirely focused on supporting these institutions.

And what’s going on closer to home, down where all this trouble manifests itself in our daily lives?  More unemployment, extraordinary inflation, a further collapsing economy and all of this laid on top of a seething anger and discontent that is bubbling all across this country.  It is beyond dispute now that extraordinary abuses of our financial, economic and legal system were occurring all across this state….we see some people taking to the streets in New York.  But Florida?  It’s been years now since the public first learned of all the investigations.  And what has come of those investigations?  Nothing.  They all still walk free….it’s time to wake up.

A former colleague, friend and top manager of fallen foreclosure titan David J. Stern complains in a new deposition that she was laid off via email, lied to about her position in the law firm and ignored when she voiced concerns about the feverish pace at which foreclosures were processed.

Cheryl Samons, the former second-in-command of Stern’s Plantation-based firm, was deposed in April in relation to a class-action lawsuit filed by former Stern employees. The suit alleges workers were terminated last fall without the 60 days notice required by federal law .

A Miami federal judge approved class-action status for the case Monday.

The deposition, which was posted on a foreclosure defense attorney’s blog Thursday, offers some insight into how the firm grew to become the largest so-called “foreclosure mill” in the state before falling apart amid allegations of robo-signing and the announcement of the Florida attorney general’s investigation. Palm Beach Post

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris pulled out of settlement negotiations with the nation’s biggest banks over alleged foreclosure abuses, calling the proposed deal “inadequate for California homeowners.”

The decision by Ms. Harris delivers a serious blow to efforts by the Obama administration and 50 state attorneys general to forge a $25 billion settlement with the nation’s largest banks over “robo-signing” and other questionable foreclosure practices.

Her actions follow the withdrawal of New York from the talks. Without the participation of California and New York in the negotiations, banks will be far less likely to agree to the multibillion dollar settlement that federal and state officials have spent months pursuing.

California remained a critical constituent for any deal because it has more borrowers who are underwater, or owe more than their homes are worth, than any other state. California also has more borrowers that are behind on their mortgages or in foreclosure than any other state but Florida. Wall Street Journal

The news is reporting that a Florida attorney just walked away from hundreds of thousands of cases that are pending in Florida courts.  This action places hundreds of thousands of defendants in legal jeopardy and will cost our court system millions of dollars in additional work hours that are directly related to protecting the interests of all who are impacted.

Fanne/Freddie, who paid for most of this (with my money) and who should have been supervising, did nothing.

What’s most maddening about this is it happened back in April 2011, we’re all still paying the price for this and no one, no one has done anything at all the parties who are responsible for this…

Nothing from the feds (remember Fannie/Freddie paid millions in advance attorney’s fees and knew long ago about these problems.)

Nothing from the Florida Attorney General (what exactly is happening with all the investigations?)

Nothing at all from any of the many groups or agencies that could do something about this train wreck.

From Today’s Palm Beach Post:

A report issued Friday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General said an outside law firm Fannie Mae hired to investigate allegations of wrongdoing confirmed “unlawful” practices and stated that foreclosure attorneys were sacrificing accuracy for speed by filing false documents.

After learning of the attorney misconduct in 2006, Fannie Mae failed to make any improvements in its oversight of the firms.

Palm Beach Post

Remember:

“The judges are the gatekeepers to jurisprudence, to the Florida Constitution, to access to the courts and to due process,” said attorney Chip Parker, a Jacksonville foreclosure defense attorney who was recently investigated by the Florida Bar for his critical comments about so-called “rocket dockets” during an interview with CNN. “It’s discouraging when it appears as if there is an exception being made for foreclosure cases.”

Palm Beach Post

It’s been more than a year now since evidence of widespread fraud in Florida courtrooms was first broadcast in national news. And has anything changed?  Well yes, interestingly enough….Florida’s “leadership” wants to just moonwalk away from all the wrongdoing…sort of act like nothing at all has happened…..but let’s just review some of the details:

Foreclosuregate as some have dubbed the crisis, may ultimately force David J. Stern to unload a few of his Ferraris. (SORRY, NOT SO MUCH)

Stern’s people were foreclosing first and doing their legal paperwork later. In effect, it also meant they were lying to the court—an act that could get a lawyer disbarred or even prosecuted. (NOT EVEN CLOSE)

“The execution date and notarial date,” the judge wrote in a blunt ruling, “were fraudulently backdated, in a purposeful, intentional effort to mislead the defendant and this court.” (OH WELL)

“This was done to cover up fraud,” Tom fumes. “It was done precisely so they could try to hit a reset button and keep us from getting the real goods.” (AND IT WORKED VERY WELL, THANK YOU)

“Thousands of final judgments of foreclosure against Florida homeowners may have been the result of the allegedly improper actions of these law firms,” Said Florida Attorney General Bill McColllum…right before he launched investigations….that are dead….

READ THE FULL MOTHER JONES ARTICLE HERE