This is a repost of an entry entered in January 2010…..consider where we are today….
The Mortgage Mafioso Hijack the Judiciary
The theme that is developing on this blog is that the regular Americans are getting screwed in this foreclosure crisis while the institutions and Fat Cats on Wall Street party on and get fatter. The screw job began when the lenders jammed mortgages down the throats of Americans that could never afford them. Now the screw job has moved into courtrooms across the country as judges are being asked to ignore basic law and rules on evidence so that front companies or shadow entities acting on behalf of the mortgage cartels can take back homes and throw families out on the street. In Florida, the Supreme Court Residential Task Force Report identified several distinct practices that the Mortgage Mafioso are engaging in as part of their campaign to hijack the judiciary. Some courageous judges around the country, particularly some federal judges in bankruptcy courts, are beginning to push back against these blatantly improper practices. (For one example, type here.) At some point in time, appellate court decisions are going reverse many of these improper and fraudulent practices and the ensuing fallout will be an even bigger mess. Bottom line is, the Mortgage Mafioso and their hired guns are creating and then submitting false evidence to the courts to support their foreclosure, then demanding courts accept that evidence even though the judiciary and all parties involved know the Mortgage Mafioso are committing widespread fraud in courts across the country.
The Mortgage Mafioso How High Does it Go?
Certainly some of these borrowers knew they had no business taking out these loans and the consumer was complicit, lying about income and otherwise doing whatever was required to get an inflated loan, but the average consumer was no match for the sophtisticated and high pressured marketing machine that was the American Mortage Industry. It was not just industry policy, it was the expicit policy of the government of the United States of America that every American needed to take out the largest mortgage possible, then refinance and do it again and again and again. The fact that this was government policy is evidenced by the absurdly generous terms given on money the larger players used to fund the purchase of multi million dollar pools of loans, low or no taxing of those polls and profits and almost no regulation of this entire industry. This paper that was being slung by Wall Street and the major players was the gas that fueled the American economy begining in 2000 and ending with the crash that is the Great Recession.
Case Study in the Mortgage Mafioso Series- Indymac Now OneWest, Americans Suffer While Fat Cats Lap Up Yummy Cream
I keep intending to detail one particularly good example of a cartel deal that results in massive profit for the top of the pyramid at the expense of those at the bottom, and that example is the OneWest purchase of Indymac assets. In 2008, the FDIC closed Indymac and estimated that the closure would cost the FDIC’s insurance fund $8.5 billion to $9.4 billion. In 2008 a seven-member investor group including affiliates of the billionaire George Soros and of Michael Dell, the founder of Dell, agreed to purchase IndyMac Bank, a failed lender and one of the largest casualties of the U.S. housing bust, for $13.9 billion. IndyMac had $32 billion in assets when it was seized in July and included 33 branches, mostly in the Los Angeles area, with about $6.5 billion in deposits, as well as loan and securities portfolios of about $23 billion. IMB HoldCo is also buying a mortgage servicing portfolio with unpaid principal balances of more than $175 billion. (See article here.) This purchase was apparently one hell of a sweet deal because not even one year after the purchase, One West reported that it had generated a $182 million dollar profit. Now profit is generally good, but when the profit comes on the backs of everyday Americans, who funded the purchase and now receive none of the benefit, it’s fair to say something is way out of line.