Do you sometimes feel like the deck is stacked against you?  That nothing is fair, including (especially) our laws, our court system, our entire system of government?  Do you feel like no matter what the rules or the laws say, they can just be bent, twisted or ignored by the banks whenever they care to?

Those aren’t really questions anymore, they’re bold statements of fact.

I certainly experience this every single day.  Especially when I dare to kick the lion that is our nation’s banking and financial services industry, which are synonymous with “our” government.

(It of course is their government)

But don’t just listen to me and all my rantings, have a look at this fancy report produced by OurFuture.org…..

Findings from the report:

• 243 lobbyists for six big banks and their trade associations used to work in the federal
government – 202 in Congress, the rest in the White House, Treasury, or at a relevant federal
government agency. That’s equivalent to 40 revolving-door lobbyists per bank.

• This includes 33 chiefs of staff, 54 staffers to the House Financial Services Committee
and Senate Banking Committee (or a current member of that committee) and 28 legislative
directors. Many of the revolving door lobbyists were key architects of financial deregulatory
legislation during their time as congressional staffers, including the Financial Services
Modernization (Gramm-Leach-Bliley) Act of 1999 and the Commodity Futures Modernization
Act.

• The six big banks and their trade associations have spent close to $600 million since the first
major federal bailout of Bear Stearns in March 2008 on lobbying, trade association activity
and political contributions.

• Citigroup employs 55 revolving-door lobbyists, more than any other big bank or financial
industry trade association. The federal government was until recently Citigroup’s largest
shareholder. Other banks are also employing huge lobbying armies: Goldman Sachs with 45,
JPMorgan Chase with 32, Morgan Stanley with 19, Wells Fargo with 14, and Bank of America
with 12. The top big-bank lobbies, the Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association
and the American Bankers Association, have hired 84 revolving-door lobbyists.

• The top big-bank lobbying firm in Washington is Elmendorf Strategies, founded by Steve
Elmendorf, former chief of staff to Rep. Dick Gephardt. Elmendorf’s financial team includes
former top staffers to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Maryland Sen. Paul Sarbanes,
and Gephardt. The firm represents the most powerful Wall Street banks and associations,
including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, the Financial Services Forum, and the Securities
Industry and Financial Markets Association. Other top lobbying firms include the Podesta
Group and Porterfield, Lowenthal, & Fettig.

• Senate Banking Committee chair Christopher Dodd (D-CT) leads all current members of
Congress, with five former staffers now working as big bank lobbyists. Banking Committee
ranking member Richard Shelby (R-AL) and members Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Tim
Johnson (D-SD) each have four.

• Big banks are hiding lobbying activities in a burgeoning shadow industry of generic
business associations, ad hoc coalitions and front companies. Government bailouts and
partial federal ownership have made it difficult for big banks to ramp up direct lobbying;
instead, they are routing their dollars through this shadow lobby.

• Sullivan & Cromwell, the firm defending Goldman Sachs in its Securities and Exchange
Commission fraud suit, secured the most lucrative big bank lobbying contract in 2009, a
$520,000 deal with Clearing House Payments Co. – a company owned by JPMorgan Chase,
Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, and several other banks. The firm also lobbied on
behalf of Goldman Sachs during the same period. In a past financial reform fight, lawyers at
Sullivan & Cromwell lobbied on behalf of Enron, and appear to have helped craft the “Enron
loophole.”

THE BANKS OWN AMERIKA

So let’s say you uncovered evidence of a massive conspiracy to play fast and loose with evidence that was being submitted in Federal bankruptcy court.  Little stuff, like you know forging signatures, not complying with notary laws, swearing under oath to evidence that was not present.  Little things like that.

When such things are presented, in thousands upon thousands of cases, for years, do such patterns and practice damage the integrity of the Federal court process?  I know, I know, I know, you’re thinking, “MEW, whoodlie, doodlie, whatcha gonna do?”  Hire teams of lawyers billing at $600 an hour, produce binder after binder and dance in a most refined and polished way.  After hours and hours of argument and years of beating down anyone who dares to challenge the processes of the banks and institutions, you pull a massive game of distraction and get the whole world to believe, and in fact get the Federal Court to believe,

“MEW, whoodlie, doodlie, whatcha gonna do?”

Huh? Fraud on the court?  What? Hey, look over there, Did you see that bird?

This is an impossibly long transcript of a hearing held in a Federal Bankruptcy proceeding.  It took me quite a while to get through it….doing so just made me queasy.  The thing that really just boggles my mind is how, through crafty lawyering, and mountains of paper and pounding, pounding, pounding, you can start to see alchemy and sorcery and black magic being put to work right in the middle of a court proceeding.

The truth is simple.  It’s easy, my brain doesn’t hurt with the truth.  But lies become so complicated.  And when the lies become so big and monstrous, I suppose in this country now, we just walk away from such things.

To give you some idea just how hard fighting these battles is, I want to share with you a case against the banks that has been raging on since 2004…..Here are some excerpts from a recent court ruling:

The evidence shows that two law firms handled all or substantially all of the bankruptcy cases in this district from 1996 – 2008 for Wells Fargo – the Brice Vander Linden firm and the McCalla Raymer firm. The Brice Vander Linden firm has admitted it filed “presigned” affidavits and has provided a list of many of them. Those affidavits are included in plaintiff‟s list of 631 affidavits. The affidavits it handled also included affidavits that exhibited most if not all of the other infirmities listed. The McCalla Raymer firm does not admit to filing any presigned affidavits. However, all of the other infirmities appeared in its affidavits.

The Brice Vander Linden firm commenced its representation of Wells Fargo no later than 1996. From 1996-2003, it used (at least part of the time) presigned affidavits from Wells Fargo representatives which it filed in conjunction with relief from stay motions. These presigned affidavits were provided by Wells Fargo and were sanctioned by Wells Fargo‟s own Guidelines dated May 27, 20032 which authorized the procedure. It is not clear how long the presigned affidavit process was used except that Hillary Bonial, the lawyer from Brice in charge of bankruptcy operations, knows it ended on April 15, 2003 when the Brice Vander Linden firm sent an email to Wells Fargo stating that the firm was terminating the procedure. The Brice firm itself terminated the process, at least in part, because a bankruptcy judge in California called the process into question. Another Brice client, Mitsubishi, had been providing presigned signature pages to Brice and an affidavit with a presigned signature page was discovered to have been filed in Judge Klein‟s court. Wells Fargo never told Brice Vander Linden to stop using the procedure. After terminating the policy, the Brice firm provided full affidavits to Wells Fargo by email, using what it called the “corrected execution” procedure. Wells Fargo employees were responsible for reviewing, signing and notarizing the affidavits and returning them by overnight mail to the Brice firm. The Brice firm did not attach any documents that an affidavit stated were attached unless it determined it was not a document available on Wells Fargo‟s computer system. If a document came from a third party, some evidence indicated that the Brice firm forwarded it to Wells Fargo.

Employees signed numerous affidavits every day. One employee described receiving and handling 80-100 affidavits before lunch each day. She averaged about 2 ½ – 3 minutes per affidavit for collating, stapling, checking content and signing. One employee admitted she didn‟t read any of the affidavits she signed. Others testified they read the financial information. When confronted with affidavits with wrong names, wrong job titles, missing or incorrect attachments, they expressed surprise. If the affidavit stated that the debtors‟ bankruptcy schedules indicated a property value of a certain amount, the employees testified that they did not verify that fact because they had no access to PACER.

Many affidavits had mortgage and note attachments which appeared to be attached after the preparation and signing of the affidavit. Many affidavits had Lost Note affidavits attached that said a copy of the mortgage and note were attached. Other affidavits stated that the Mortgage and Note were attached to the motion for relief from stay but were not.
The employees signing affidavits testified in numerous instances that the date of their signing of the affidavit was not filled in by them. Notary employees also often testified that they did not fill in the dates on their notarizations. Someone else had done it. Employees signing affidavits did not always sign the affidavits in front of a notary. The affidavits were placed in a file folder and delivered to the notary by the affiant or another employee

Wells Fargo employees, high and low, and its attorneys testified that they saw nothing wrong with their affidavit preparation, signature and notarization procedures. If the financial data in the affidavit was correct, they testified that the affidavit was okay. Their focus was solely on the financial data. The rest was “technicalities.”

But in the end, the real relief sought by the warriors for truth and integrity and the rule of law was denied.  The machine prevails, yet again.

brannanOrder

WELLSFARGOBRANNAN

This is a great, very great explanation of fraudclosure that I encourage everyone to read in its entirety from the blog listed below:

The untold story in the foreclosure crisis unfolding across America is that, following a foreclosure perpetrated by one of the October 2008 Bailout Banks (e.g. Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo) Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac suddenly appear as the record owner of Average Joe’s home. These federal government sponsored entities then go into local housing court and get a court order authorizing them to evict Joe. If Joe resists, these supposedly charitable institutions obtain a writ ordering the local sheriff to forcibly remove Joe from his home.

Newt Gingrich recently admitted to accepting $1.8 million from Freddie Mac ($25,0000 to $30,000 a month during one span of time) for advising this proto-fascist entity. Gingrich claims that he supports Fannie and Freddie because he believes the federal government “should have programs to help low income people acquire the ability to buy homes.” But Fannie and Freddie don’t do this and never have. When government “helps” someone by subsidizing the purchase of something (through easy credit or lower-than-market rates), it makes that something more expensive. Helping someone buy something that is overpriced because of your help is not help. Fannie/Freddie subsidies not only hurt the low income people they intend to help, they hurt everyone by subsidizing, and therefore distorting, the entire housing market. Fannie/Freddie’s charity has now taken a dark turn. Like their Depression-era New Deal predecessor the Regional Agricultural Credit Corp., Fannie/Freddie are now repossessing homes at an increasing and alarming rate.

Mr. Gingrich either does not understand economics – government subsidies make things more expensive, not less expensive, and therefore hurt their intended beneficiaries – or he is a vain, selfish, and cynical man with no interest in actually helping his neighbor.

You decide.

THE OCTOBER 2008 BAILOUT PAID OFF THE HOLDERS OF MORTGAGE BACKED SECURITES AND DERIVATIVE INSUREDS

The facts indicate that the Federal Reserve “printed” at least 16 trillion dollars as part of the 2008 bailouts. The bigger questions, however, who got it, why and what did the Fed get in return? The Fed doesn’t just print money. It prints money to buy stuff. Most often this is U.S. Treasuries. That changed in October of 2008. In and after October 2008 the Fed printed new money to buy mortgage-backed securities (MBS) that were defaulting at a rapid rate. Want proof? Here is a link to the Federal Reserve balance sheet which shows that the Fed is holding over a trillion dollars in mortgage backed securities that it began acquiring in 2008.

Why is the Federal Reserve holding all these MBS? Because when “the market” collapsed in September of 2008, what really collapsed is the Fannie/Freddie/Wall Street mortgage “daisy chain” securitization scheme. As increasing numbers of MBS went into default, the purchasers of derivatives (naked insurance contracts betting on MBS default) began filing claims against the insurance writers (e.g. AIG) demanding payment. This started in February 2007 when HSBC Bank announced billions in MBS losses, gained momentum in June of 2007 when Bear Stearns announced $3.8 billion in MBS exposure in just one Bear Stearns fund, and further momentum with the actual collapse of Bear Stears in July and August of 2007. By September of 2008, the Bear Stearns collapse proved to be the canary in the coal mine as the claims on off-balance sheet derivatives became the cascading cross defaults that Alan Greenspan warned could collapse the entire Western financial system.

Part of what happened in October 2008 is that the Federal Reserve paid AIG’s and others’ derivative obligations to the insureds (pension funds, hedge funds, major banks, foreign banks) who held the naked insurance contracts guaranteeing Average Joe’s payments. To understand this, imagine that a cataclysmic event occurred in the U.S. that destroyed nearly every car in the U.S. and further that Allstate insured all of these cars. That is what happened to AIG. When the housing market collapsed and borrowers began defaulting on their securitized loans, AIG’s derivative obligations exceeded its ability (or willingness) to pay. So the Fed stepped in as the insurer of last resort and bailed out AIG (and probably others). When an insurer pays on a personal property claim, it has “subrogation” rights. This means when it pays it has the right to demand possession of the personal property it insured or seek recovery from those responsible for the loss. In Allstate’s case this is wrecked cars. In the case of AIG and the Fed, it is MBS. That is what the trillions of MBS on the Fed’s balance sheet represent: wrecked cars that Fannie and Freddie are now liquidating for scrap value.

Thank you Mr. Gingrich. Great advice.

BUT FANNIE/FREDDIE WASN’T MY LENDER AND WASN’T MY MORTGAGEE, SO HOW CAN THEY TAKE MY HOUSE?

To understand how it came to be that the Fed has paid Average Joe’s original actual lender (the MBS purchaser) and now Fannie and Freddie are trying to take Joe’s home, you first have to understand some mortgage law and securitization basics.

Fraudclosure Fraud

The 49 State Attorney General Sellout is the biggest legal sellout this nation has ever seen.  I think it borders on treason.  That’s right, treason.  The conduct outlined in the OIG Audit Reports undermines our nation’s entire financial system and this poses grave and systemic risks to our nation’s national security.  The servicers and banks were permitted to engage in gross and systemic fraud at 1)origination; 2)servicing; 3)modification; 4) foreclosure/bankruptcy; 5) post foreclosure REO claims.

They made claims totaling billions and collected God knows how much in actual claims.

THE AG SELLOUT IS NOT ABOUT ROBOSIGNING.  THE ROBOSIGNING IS A SIDE SHOW, A DISTRACTION

THE AG SELLOUT IS THE WORLD’S LARGEST INSURANCE FRAUD CASE!

The servicers were permitted to file and collect on false insurance claims and pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars.  The sellout asks them, pretty please, can you give a few nickles back?  Ignore the $25 Billion number, most of that is walking away from underwater mortgages they will never collect on and that don’t exist anymore.

Most insulting, read each of the OIG reports carefully and see how the banks lawyered up, told the Office of Inspector General and Department of Justice to

GO SCREW YOURSELVES, WE’RE NOT PROVIDING YOU ANY DOCUMENTS!

And they got away with it!  Great job!  This is the most direct and specific example of the corruption, the tyranny, the absolute lawlessness that exists in this country that has yet been divulged to us.  The banks truly are above the law.

Read a bit of this:

The five banks that agreed to a $25 billion settlement to resolve fraudulent foreclosure claims consistently hindered a government watchdog’s investigation into those practices, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general’s office.

The findings, based on a review of foreclosure practices at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial over a two-year span from October 1, 2008 to September 30, 2010, essentially confirm what has been reported extensively for nearly two years. Bank employees, in order to speed foreclosures, signed hundreds of legal documents a day without reviewing the accuracy of the foreclosure information, notarized signatures on documents that purported to verify a bank’s legal right to foreclose without ever checking whether that was true, and hired law firms that forged signatures en masse — all with the encouragement of management. HUFFINGTON POST

Note the date on the article when you read….

“We have Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Chase openly admitting to what they’re trying to say are irregularities — but are actually fraud upon the courts,” said Lisa Epstein, a housing activist who regularly attends foreclosure hearings in South Florida.

The following article appears in today’s edition of Market Oracle.  It’s a pretty clear and straightforward explanation of how one of America’s cornerstones….private property ownership, is being utterly decimated…and how homeowners all across this nation will soon be nothing more than slaves eking out their meager existences on a nationwide plantation called the unUnited States of America. I don’t know the author Bill Butler, but he nails the facts and his conclusion seems spot on:

The untold story in the foreclosure crisis unfolding across America is that, following a foreclosure perpetrated by one of the October 2008 Bailout Banks (e.g. Bank of America, Citibank, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo) Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac suddenly appear as the record owner of Average Joe’s home. These federal government sponsored entities then go into local housing court and get a court order authorizing them to evict Joe. If Joe resists, these supposedly charitable institutions obtain a writ ordering the local sheriff to forcibly remove Joe from his home.

MARKET ORACLE