Their most recent lender, American Brokers Conduit, transferred custody of the loan to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, a digital database owned by huge lenders such as Bank of America (BAC). When the Hassells defaulted in 2008, MERS kicked the debt to American Home Mortgage Servicing, a company that specializes in handling subprime mortgages. AHMS filed a foreclosure suit against the Hassells””admitting in court papers that the couple’s promissory note had been “lost, stolen, or destroyed.”
Yet Matthew Weidner, the Hassells’ lawyer, is still fighting the claim. “This is a microcosm of the financial crisis,” he says.
