Matt Weidner – Fighting For The American People

Posts Tagged ‘one west’

I currently represent hundreds of homeowners who are fighting every bank you’ve heard of (and some you’ve never heard of) in foreclosure.  Virtually all of my clients have the ability (and the desire) to pay close to the full amount of the mortgage they signed up to pay.  Virtually all of my clients got into financial difficulty for reasons that were outside their control like job loss, divorce or illness.

Some are on fixed income and got pinched when an adjustable rate mortgage shot through the roof.  Some of my clients did not have the capacity to understand the nature of the loan they were getting into and many clients were outright mislead about the terms of the mortgage they were sold.

Whatever the case when I’m fighting for a client, the first thing I’ve got to figure out is what that client wants then determine whether they have any hope of achieving that goal.  Many want to stay in their home.  Although they’ve got income problems, they want to pay a mortgage and do their part.  Some have recognized they cannot maintain the home or they just want to sell it and get on with their lives.

The most frustrating thing about defending homeowners in foreclosure is the solution that works for the homeowner (i.e. a modified mortgage or a short sale/deed in lieu) is often times the best possible outcome for the lender.  There was a time when a lender could foreclose then sell the property and cover the debt.

In this market, I don’t think it’s possible for a lender to conclude a foreclosure and not lose more in the foreclosure than they could get from working with the lender.

With this in mind,

I cannot understand why lenders refuse to accept the payments my clients are trying to send….they may be partial payments and even if the lender accepts them, they can still proceed with the foreclosure, absent a formal agreement to the contrary.

I cannot understand why lenders ignore persistent, diligent, obsessive efforts from realtors who offer these banks short sale contracts that net the lender a significant amount of the debt owed…if the lender takes it back, they’re going to net far less in a sale.

I cannot understand why lenders will not enter into formal or extended modifications that at least provide them payments every month.

I cannot understand why the attorney of record for the the lender has no authority or leverage with his client to advocate for a settlement.

I cannot understand why lenders cannot keep track of paperwork or communications they receive from their customers.

I cannot understand why a guy who lost his job here in the US has to beg for a solution to keep his home from an operator in a far away, foreign land.

I cannot understand why the lenders who received bajillions of taxpayer dollars can use that money to dump lavish bonuses on their staff.

I cannot understand why the assets of big lenders like Indymac and Countrywide were sold so cheaply with my money and now the purchasers of these assets are making massive profits. (One West/BofA)

The Countrywide/Indymac situation really fires me up.  Countywide engaged in gross and abusive fraud and was essentially shut down as a result. The assets were purchased for cents on the dollar using taxpayer money, but try getting a reasonable deal out of BofA. (Try getting any deal out of BofA)  Same situation with Indymac….bad conduct on their part, bailed out with my money.  Now the millionaire owners of the Indymac assets are making bajillions of dollars in profits…(Try getting a deal out of Indymac)

I cannot understand any of this, but I’m hard into litigation on all these cases….and with several cases against Indymac in particular…I’m going to figure it out.

You Can’t Have An Omelet If The Chicken Hasn`t Laid The Egg Yet!

A reader of my blog emailed me three short YouTube Videos that shows in black and white in papers filed in courts across the country how employees of law firms and lenders are creating false affidavits and assignments then submitting these in courts as part of the Bank`s campaign to take borrower`s homes even though they have not established the legal right to do so. I love his quote, which I have printed above and give him great credit for pulling together video and documents that demonstrate some of the notary\affidavit fraud that is rampant in foreclosure cases around the country.  For those of you that have other examples, please send to me for posting.  If you are an attorney or someone interested at all in foreclosure and the fraud being perpetrated in courts across the country, take a few minutes to watch the video.

What these clips demonstrate is how law firms file foreclosure cases on behalf of lenders but then don`t bother to have the proper paperwork they need to file the case created until after the case if filed.  I have previously posted information about a woman named “Erica A. Johnson-Seck”.  According to a deposition transcript taken of Ms. Seck and posted on this blog elsewhere, one of Ms. Seck`s primary job functions is to sign the Assignments of Mortgage that banks use to throw a borrower out of a home.  What these videos demonstrate is that there are a handful of people like Ms. Seck whose job it is to sit in offices across the country, signing documents allegedly on behalf of lenders and MERS, which documents then form the basis for the lender to throw the borrower out of the home. Examples of Affidavit Fraud Several problems are developing with these affidavits.  First, an affidavit must be based on a person`s personal knowledge.  As detailed in the depositions of these “Robo Signers” their knowledge is limited to scribbling something that resembles a name on a piece of paper.  They cannot possibly have personal knowledge of the facts they are swearing to given the volume of papers they are signing and the multitude of companies they are signing allegedly on behalf of. Next, as is demonstrated in the YouTube videos these documents, particularly the Assignments of Mortgage, are typically created after the lawsuit was filed.  Such post-dated assignments are becoming increasingly problematic for the banks and their shady lawyers because when an Assignment is dated after the case has been filed, that is an implicit admission that it did not exist (and thus the Plaintiff did not have a right to file the lawsuit) before the Assignment was executed.  Now, the shady lawyers and banks are trying to get around this pesky problem with creative language in the Assignments such as “This Assignment Occurred Prior to When This Document Was Drafted”, and they will eventually draft their pleadings so that they are not bothered by these pesky details, but for the millions of post dated assignments that currently exist and the tens of thousands of final judgments of foreclosure out there that such posted dated assignments were based upon, they are a real problem. Next, there are real questions about where the affidavits were physically signed and whether the witnesses and notary publics were actually present when these documents were signed.  Signatures which must be notarized must be physically signed in front of the Notary Public in order for that Notary Public to affix their notary seal and signature to that document.  We know from depositions and other evidence that in many cases, the Robo Signer sits in one room or one office while the Notary Public is in another office or building completely. And finally, we come to one of my favorite examples of affidavit\evidence fraud.  Years ago I was in a final hearing before a judge when I noticed that an Affidavit was signed by an attorney that worked in the law office of the Plaintiff who was prosecuting the foreclosure.  The attorney admitted that the affiant worked in the office and in fact told the judge and I that they did it all the time. After the judge`s stern warnings, I sort of naively believed the practice might have stopped, but that belief was plain foolish on my part.  I`ve recently learned that this practice has picked up again with attorneys of Plaintiff`s law firms signing the critical affidavits their firm needs in order to prove up their case.  This is highly questionable behavior for advocates who have a duty to be truthful to the courts, but we`re learning every day that ethics, honesty and the integrity of the court systems are taking a back seat to the lenders and the institutions that are continuing to wreak havoc in communities across the country.

So what`s an attorney or consumer to do?  Subpoena.  If you`re in a foreclosure issue a subpoena to every person who has submitted an affidavit or executed an assignment or other document.  In many cases I think you`ll find that neither the lenders or the attorneys will allow that affiant to testify about their “personal knowledge” under oath.  For those of you out there with other examples…..please send them my way!

The Baajillioin Dollar Bailout Bonanza

Across the country more than 9 million Americans either have loans that were originated by Countrywide or which were serviced by Countrywide which had a portfolio of loans that totaled $1.5 trillion (according to Bank of America’s website) at the time Countrywide’s assets were purchased by Bank of America in an all stock deal on January 11, 2008.

Bank of America “paid” $4 billion in a stock transaction for the assets of Countrywide which at that time were valued at $208 billion.  I say “paid” because as an all stock deal which was backstopped by the taxpayers, Bank of America didn’t stroke a check as much as taxpayers actually did.  Anyway, while some value for Countrywide’s assets was given to the more than 1,000 field offices and sales force of nearly 15,000, clearly the primary asset being purchased by Bank of America was the portfolio of mortgages (many of them troubled or toxic) that Countrywide held just before Countrywide’s market value has plummeted 85 percent to $3.66 billion during the past 12 months as the lender reported its first quarterly loss in 25 years. At the time of the purchase the combined companies would handle 25 percent of U.S. mortgage originations and a 17 percent share of servicing, which involves billing and collections.  (See Wall Street Journal Article here.)

How Much Did Consumers Pay to Save Bank Of America?

Before we can determine what Bank of America paid for Countrywide assets, it’s important to remember that taxpayers paid somewhere north of a Bajillon dollars to bail out Bank of America.  God only knows what the actual cost has been thus far, but a January 2009 article in Business Week pegged the taxpayer bailout of Bank of America at $138 billion.   This bailout, when combined with all the other preferential payouts received by Bank of America in the form of taxpayer dollars in the preceeding months, represents a huge windfall BofA received at the expense of taxpayers.

So Here’s The Math:

A Bajillion Taxpayer Dollars To Buy Out Countrywide Mortgages

+

A Bajillion Taxpayer Dollars Pays Back Bank of America

=

Consumers Don’t Owe Anything on Countrywide Mortgages!

Now obviously that math isn’t quite right, but nonone really knows what kind of numbers were dealing with anymore.  The reality is if a homeowner has a $200,000 Countrywide loan on her home and Bank of America receives $100,000 in proceeds from a short sale transaction, it is clear that Bank of America would be making a net profit on that “short sale” because Bank of America didn’t pay anywhere near $100,000 for that loan.  As Wall Street annonces record profits, profits that were realized as a direct result of taxpayer intervention, it’s critically important to realize that the banks have already profited tremendously on the backs of the consumers and taxpayers who are now seeking modifications or short sales from these very institutions.  With this in mind, it’s important that we all start to re-consider what it means when we talk about a “short sale”….the truth of the matter is even the shortest payoff short sale represents a huge windfall for the institution that receives those proceeds!

Up next…..the next biggest boondoggle….OneWest purchases Indymac!

For more information visit my website at www.mattweidnerlaw.com!