Who's Who In The Foreclosure Mess?

The ProPublica Blog
Who’s Who in the Foreclosure Scandal: A Primer on the Players
by Marian Wang
ProPublica, Oct. 18, 2010, 10:57 a.m.24 CommentsRepublishE-mailPrint

Photo by Flickr user nzlawyer.

The unfolding foreclosure scandal just keeps expanding. Scrutiny first fell on the “robo-signers” who rubber-stamped banks’ foreclosure paperwork, but they’re one of the many players who may have contributed to the mess.

To help sort it all out, we’ve drawn up a cast of characters. Let’s start with the basics:

Loan Originators/Mortgage Issuers – Banks make mortgage loans to homeowners, which homeowners must repay. The home serves as collateral in case the borrower defaults on the mortgage.

Mortgage Servicers – Mortgage servicers collect mortgage payments and foreclose on delinquent loans. These are usually the nation’s biggest banks, which all have mortgage servicing units.

As we’ve noted, these servicers have also been charged by the federal government with helping eligible homeowners avoid foreclosure through the government’s Making Home Affordable loan modification program.

The discovery of robo-signing (see our entry for robo-signers below) by employees at major servicers — including GMAC, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo ($) — has initiated a joint investigation by the attorneys general of all 50 states. GMAC, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Litton Loan Servicing, a mortgage servicer owned by Goldman Sachs, have all temporarily halted all or some foreclosures and are reviewing procedures. Wells Fargo, which the Financial Times has also flagged as using robo-signers, so far has not halted foreclosures.

Other contractors – Lender Processing Services, as we’ve noted, helps servicers manage data. When loans fall into default, servicers sometimes transfer the loan information to these processing firms, effectively outsourcing management of the foreclosure process to companies like LPS.

LPS is one of the largest firms doing such work. It has been accused in court of being involved in illegal fee-splitting arrangements with law firms it hires, though an LPS spokeswoma told the Journal that the allegations are false, and that mortgage servicers decide which law firms to hire.

A subsidiary of Lender Processing Services is currently the subject of a federal probe into how it handled foreclosure affidavits. LPS has acknowledged it once had problems, but says they were quickly addressed.

“Foreclosure Mill” Law Firms – In states that require judges to vet a foreclosure, law firms execute affidavits certifying a number of facts key to the foreclosure case.

As financial blogger Barry Ritholz has explained, these signed affidavits attest to: “Ownership of the note, who the borrower is, the property in question, the date of last mortgage payment, amount of delinquency, tax escrow owed, other payments (such as homeowners insurance).” They must also be notarized, or signed in the presence of a notary public, which allows them to be used as evidence in court.

Some foreclosure law firms, however, often take shortcuts and have been known to foreclose first and finish the paperwork later by backdating documents. According to the Washington Post, document processing companies often rewarded law firms with additional bonuses if they met deadlines for finishing the legal paperwork. (LPS confirmed to the Post that it had paid these bonuses in the past, but said it no longer does so.)

In Florida, the state attorney general initiated an investigation into the practices of several foreclosure law firms believed to process paperwork in this fashion, but a judge halted that investigation. The Florida attorney general this week requested a rehearing.

Mother Jones tied the origins of these “foreclosure mill” law firms back to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which bought up mortgage debts en masse and had thousands of foreclosures to process when loans started going bad:

In the 1990s, the market expanded into subprime territory to feed the securitization beast, and borrowers began defaulting at increasingly higher rates. Hiring lawyers on a case-by-case basis was burdensome, so Fannie and Freddie put together a stable of law firms, prime contractors prepared to litigate large bundles of foreclosures quickly and cheaply. They urged these handpicked firms to bring in-house all of the related services — inspections, eviction notices, sales of repossessed properties, and so forth — or at least to retain a suitable subcontractor to handle the tasks. Thus emerged the foreclosure supermarket.

Robo-signers – The term “robo-signers” has been defined on a New York Times blog as a “nickname for those who processed large numbers of foreclosure affidavits.” Robo-signers earned this nickname not only for the large volumes of paperwork processed, but also for processing these affidavits without fully verifying the information they were claiming to have knowledge of.

The problems with robo-signers have emerged in a series of depositions by employees of servicers, in which servicers admitting to signing thousands of documents — often without even basic knowledge about the documents they were signing. From the Times:

The depositions paint a surreal picture of foreclosure experts who didn't understand even the most elementary aspects of the mortgage or foreclosure process — even though they were entrusted as the records custodians of homeowners' loans. In one deposition taken in Houston, a foreclosure supervisor with Litton Loan couldn't define basic terms like promissory note, mortgagee, lien, receiver, jurisdiction, circuit court, plaintiff's assignor or defendant. She testified that she didn't know why a spouse might claim interest in a property, what the required conditions were for a bank to foreclose or who the holder of the mortgage note was. "I don't know the ins and outs of the loan, I just sign documents," she said at one point.

Most of the robo-signers who’ve lately been in the news have been employees at mortgage servicers, but that’s not always the case.

Often servicers outsource some work to foreclosure document companies such as LPS. And those companies have also been accused of using robo-signers.

The Washington Post, for instance, found that one employee at LPS had for years claimed to be an executive of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank and other lenders. Her signature also varied, suggesting they were forged by several different employees.

Foreclosure law firms have also been accused of using “robo-signer” practices and signing documents on behalf of lenders. From The Palm Beach Post:

Banks that have not pulled back on foreclosure sales and evictions, such as lender CitiMortgage, gave firms power of attorney to sign documents on their behalf. In turn, some firms created assembly-line signing systems to keep up with bank deadlines on foreclosure cases.

The operations manager for the Plantation-based David J. Stern law firm said in a deposition last year that she signed foreclosure papers for two hours a day on behalf of financial institutions without reading the documents.

And, when the manager wasn't available, employees would forge her signature, according to a sworn statement taken last month by state investigators of a former Stern paralegal. Stern's attorney has refuted the employee's allegation.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – Fannie and Freddie are government-controlled mortgage giants that buy up qualifying mortgage loans and guarantee them to investors. They were essentially independent companies until they exploded spectacularly during the financial crisis, and were bailed out by the feds to the tune of $148 billion so far.

As the Wall Street Journal explained, Fannie and Freddie also help manage the foreclosure process by providing lists of approved vendors to handle “everything from issuing foreclosure filings to selling homes."

Some of those vendors have included alleged “foreclosure mills.” Fannie and Freddie recently suspended referrals to one vendor, the Law Offices of David J. Stern, a Florida “foreclosure mill” law firm caught up in a probe by the Florida attorney general, but the firm appears to still be on Fannie’s list of retained attorneys (PDF).

Like many of the players in the foreclosure system, Fannie Mae had an interest in speeding the process along. The Post reported that to get bad loans off its books, Fannie imposed fees and penalties on contractors for failing to move quickly:

Fannie declined to comment on these fees. But in a memo to loan servicers dated Aug. 31, Gwen Muse-Evans, Fannie Mae's chief risk officer, warned mortgage servicers that fees may be imposed based on "the length of the delay and any costs that are directly attributable to the delay."

MERS (Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) – MERS is a confidential electronic registry that banks created in 1997 to more efficiently “track” mortgage paperwork. It saved banks time and money by cutting down the paper shuffle and helping banks avoid paying recording fees to government recorders, who traditionally kept track of mortgage sales. The increased convenience for the banks helped enable securitization of mortgages.

“It’s like a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, only bigger. It doesn’t have images of documents, it doesn’t have signatures in it. It doesn’t have copies of original documents,” explained Christopher Peterson, a law professor at the University of Utah who has written several research papers on MERS.

“Members of the MERS system can put info on database if it feels like it,” Peterson said. “MERS uses the word ‘track,’ they say they track servicing rights or ownership rights, but that’s not really what they do. They’re more of a passive information receptacle.”

In addition to its function as a record-keeper, MERS has also been used as an agent to enforce foreclosures on behalf of servicers in order to further streamline the foreclosure process. Critics contend that impedes transparency and makes it harder for homeowners fighting foreclosure to know who they're dealing with.

The company continues to assert that it has the right to foreclose, and says that “courts have ruled in favor of MERS in many lawsuits.” (On its website, the company has a legal primer touting such cases.) However, that assertion is increasingly facing challenge.

The supreme courts of Arkansas, Kansas and Maine have all ruled that MERS doesn’t have the standing to foreclose on homeowners, according to The Washington Post. The company currently faces class-action lawsuits in California, Arizona and Nevada.

A MERS spokeswoman told the Post that lawyers have increasingly alleged wrongdoing on the part of MERS in order “to stall or prevent foreclosures.”

MERS itself is a small firm (according to The New York Times, in 2009 it had 44 employees) but has a process by which employees of other companies — mortgage servicers or firms working for mortgage servicers — can sign off on behalf of MERS and transfer the mortgage back to the servicer trying to initiate foreclosure.

Investors – Pension funds, hedge funds, and mutual funds (even those complex investments known as CDOs) are possible investors in securities backed by mortgages.

They’re quite removed from the front-end players — the mortgage originators, the servicers, the law firms and the robo-signers therein — but confusion over the true ownership of the underlying mortgages in a security could cast doubts on investors’ true ownership of the security. Some investors may use the situation to try to recoup their losses on mortgage-backed securities by suing the banks that issued them. From The Washington Post:

Now, some of the pension systems, hedge funds and other investors that took big losses on the loans are seeking to use this flaw to force banks to compensate them or even invalidate the mortgage trades themselves.

… The Association of Mortgage Investors is pressuring trustees to investigate the transfer of loans in the securitization process. The trade organization has said big lenders should be liable for losses due to their negligence.

Tweet 69E-mail Print
Previous
Watchdog Finds Treasury's Reliance on Contractors Shielded Bailout Work from Scrutiny
October 14, 2010
Next
Doctors on Pharma Payroll: What Our Partners Found
October 19, 2010
24 comments
savetheusa
Oct. 18, 11:33 a.m.
Excellent piece Pro Publica!

Louis Paul Hebert
Oct. 18, 5:43 p.m.
An important point should be added. None of the mortgages/promissory notes are assigned by the trustee or by MERS (I am not sure which) to any individual investor until after the borrower defaults. This apparently blocks any foreclosure, as the mortgage/promissory note must be assigned to the plaintiff, i.e. the investor, before they can begin the foreclosure process.


Another question comes to mind. If the banks involved in this fiasco are found guilty of racketeering under the RICO laws, will the employees who received such generous bonuses have to return the money ?

Dominick Mastroserio
Oct. 18, 6:13 p.m.
Its obvious that this administration doesn’t want to do its job.

The financial elite who Obama kow-towed to saying that the American people were ‘grudgingly admiring’ of them after they were handed over trillions of dollars of our money now laugh in everybody’s face and rob us as they please…

They don’t acknowledge our largesse, Obama.

We know they couldn’t care less, do you? - Obama.

We begged you to come over to our side - the people’s side, Obama…

But you must’ve sworn your fealty to them, the money elite, Obama - Long, long ago…

Your silence on these things is telling, Obama.

We didn’t know it then but we elected you so you could turn your back on us to kneel with our money in hand when you gave it all to them with no strings attached, Obama - not a stinking skinny string attached, Obama.

Flushed with confidence from that criminal victory you’re letting them take our homes instead of jailing them for fraud, Obama.

They rob us with eager indifference confident with the expectation of privileged impunity, Obama.

When and how will this all end, can you tell us, Obama?

cheyennebode
Oct. 18, 6:14 p.m.
A STABLE ECONOMY IS POSSIBLE…WHEN COMPOUND INTEREST IS CRIMINALIZED..AND CREDIT CARDS ARE ONLY ISSUED WITH SIMPLE INTEREST..UNTIL THEN THE ECONOMY WILL BE IN FLUX..BECAUSE USURY IS BUILT IN INFLATION..PLUS TWO RELIGIONS HAVE RAILED AGAINST IT..

Lise2cc
Oct. 18, 6:24 p.m.
I have a somewhat stupid question : i would like to know what’s going to happen to those poor people who were wrongly pushed into foreclosure ?
Do they have any chance to recover their house, by the end ?

Robert
Oct. 18, 6:35 p.m.
On the news here in New Orleans, Louisiana they are moving forward with the foreclosure process. They are not waiting for the courts or anything else.

Were are the attorneys that will represent the people. I cannot find one atty. here in New orleans with balls enough to want to take the case.

John B.
Oct. 18, 6:48 p.m.
Nice article; however, what is the default homeowner suppose to do right now-join a class action lawsuit, see if they can find who actually has their contract, stop paying the mortgage and stay in the home until?????

Barbara Ann Jackson
Oct. 18, 7 p.m.
LIKE AMERICA NEED JOBS, FORECLOSURE MILLS NEED INVESTIGATION!

It is imperative to investigate foreclosure mill firms who clearly intentionally fabricated foreclosure documents; and some are SELF-DEALING FORECLOSURES. Underhanded and fraudulent illegalities surrounding foreclosures has caused thousands of people to be UNLAWFULLY evicted and homeless –while unscrupulous lawyers became CRIMINALLY ENRICHED.

LONGSTANDING foreclosure frauds incorporate falsified CIVIL as well as BANKRUPTCY court pleadings; repetitive and illegal property flipping (thus blighted neighborhoods); “simulated auctions” and “straw buyers”; FALSE “lift stay” motions and FALSE “proof of claims;” and “fee-splitting.” Certain lawyers achieve extra benefits from litigating against foreclosure defense lawsuits, as they MISREPRESENT to their mortgage-clients property owners are delaying foreclosures, but actually its continual deceptive foreclosure lawyers’ activities while billing $$$$ to mortgage clients and actually committing MALPRACTICE + fraud upon the courts + fraud & illegal exploitation of homeowners!

Because fraudulent foreclosures include many facets, culmination can take years while arranging cash cow “PAWNS” needed for big pay-offs. [Super Future Equities Inc. v. Wells Fargo, et al., @ http://www.bankruptcy-lawnetwork.com/2007/05/11/what-are-those-mortgage-servicers-doing/. To repeat, LIKE AMERICA NEED JOBS, FORECLOSURE MILLS NEED INVESTIGATION. State Attorneys General everywhere need to recognize the ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM –which has been for a long time, hiding in plain sight: foreclosure mill fraud!

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA on Foreclosure Crisis (concerning WELLS FARGO)
http://www.pr-inside.com/open-letter-to-president-obama-on-foreclosure-crisis-r1505916.html

lawgrace: part 1 of 3 CASE IN POINT: FORECLOSURE MILLS, JUDICIAL FRAUD, CONSUMER EXPLOITATION, GOVERNMENT SHAMS (an abstract)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/lawgrace/weekly-audit-foreclosure_b_677068_57349461.html

IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT FORECLOSURE AND MORTGAGE FRAUD
http://www.lawgrace.org/2010/09/30/important-facts-about-foreclosure-and-mortgage-fraud/

mh
Oct. 18, 8:51 p.m.
@Lise2cc

What happens to the house depends a lot on what state and if the house sold at auction or went back to the bank.

In California, if you buy a house on the steps of the county seat, you are pretty much guaranteed to keep the house. The other home owner (you are now one of two home owners) more or less is allowed to sue for treble damages. If a bank paid credit for the house, the sale can probably be reversed. This is also dependent on if the homeowner sued before or after the sale, and if the lawsuit was noticed before the sale.

So basically, Some people may get their homes back, most wont, and more people will get money than their homes back.

sierra
Oct. 19, 11:35 a.m.
This economic mess story is one that just keeps on giving, and giving, and giving!
Another good job ProP at continuing the explanations for they we continue to sink into economic oblivion!

William R Neil
Oct. 19, 12:03 p.m.
Thank you very much for this overview. Other recent commentators have called attention to the importance of the actual physical documents behind foreclosures, especially the summary note, and the actual files themselves, which would contain even more information. So who actually holds them in this extensive chain that Ms. Wang has sketched out for us?

Just how important they are was broached in public way back in the spring of 2009, by William K. Black, writing on Huffington Post in his article “The Two Documents Everyone Should Read to Better Understand the Crisis,” (Feb. 25, 2009).

Here’s how I put it in context in my own posting, “A ‘Fireside Chat’ on ‘The Cusp of History,’” from March 29, 2009:

• “Confused as to where to start, Chairman Frank? (That’s Barney Frank) William K. Black, who teaches law and who has a background as a “white-collar criminologist and former financial regulator,” has some suggestions in his article “The Two Documents Everyone Should Read to Better Understand the Crisis,” which appeared on the Huffingtonpost.com on Feb. 25th, 2009. He starts off by stating that the “FBI has been warning of an ‘epidemic’ of mortgage fraud since September of 2004.” Yes, that’s right, 2004. The agencies named by Mr. Frank above might want to check with the FBI on that. Just trying to be helpful, here. The first document to look at ought to be the Email which a senior manager of S&P, the ratings firm, sends to one of his credit raters who apparently has had the temerity to ask to examine the actual mortgage loan files behind the derivatives he is supposed to grade. Manager to curious rater: “‘Any request for loan level tapes is TOTALLY UNREASONABLE!!! Most investors don’t have it and can’t provide it…’” Second document: the Fitch rating service conducted a close examination “of a small sample of subprime loan files” after the disaster was apparent. Black quotes from Fitch’s findings: “‘The result of the analysis was disconcerting at best, as there was the appearance of fraud or misrepresentation in almost every file.’” Should we mention, as a “passing by this way” comment, that Black points out that the major banks still don’t have the actual loan files and that therefore the upcoming “stress test” so talked about will not be an accurate reading of how their mortgage-backed-securities will behave – a crucial factor in determining their solvency, we might add? And what are the implications for Sec. Geithner’s new plan, which is going to put these shaky things back on the market (he hopes)? “

Commentators today, I’m thinking especially of some at Naked Capitalism, have stated that this - the appearance of a high level of fraud or misrepresentation - is the reality that is most feared by the major parties in the mortgage/foreclosure “system”...now whether Fitch’s sample holds up across the board is another question…but the broader notion that our nation under a Democratic President is about to preside over some 10 million people losing their homes over what Mr. Black has suggested here…is astounding and very troubling. It’s certainly no New Deal for the American people.

Bill Jones
Oct. 19, 1:40 p.m.
“As we’ve noted [3], these servicers have also been charged by the federal government with helping eligible homeowners avoid foreclosure through the government’s Making Home Affordable loan modification program.”

The real purpose of this HAMP scam is to cure defects in the liens the banks claim by having the home-owners re-sign all the documentation that went missing. The number of loans actually modified is negligible.

Junious Ricardo Stanton
Oct. 19, 3:06 p.m.
The criminality in this scandal is systemic and deep rooted. We mustn’t forget the government agencies like the SEC and Department of Justice whose job is to protect the public who turned a blind eye to the massive fraud on Wall Street. They looked the other way as the large investment houses, mortgage companies, bond rating agencies, mortgage brokers, banks, the media, real estate agents and as we are seeing now the land title insurance companies colluded to rip us off. Just like with 9-11, the government was alerted years ago to sytemic fraud in the mortgatge industry but the higher ups ordered a stand down and Wall Street and the corporate media made ex-NY Govenor Elliot Spitzer an example to prevent future whistle blowers or prosecution. Now its all coming out in the wash.

Tony Cisneros
Oct. 19, 5:32 p.m.
Marian Wang: The EVIL Bankster-Gangsters Tried To Pin All The Blame For The Foreclosure Crisis On Former HUD (Housing & Urban Development) Secretary, Henry Cisneros, Since Before This Last 2008 Presidential Election.

When That Failed They’ve Been Looking For Other Scape-goats & “Judas”-goats—But Haven’t Been Able To Find Any “Credible” Ones.

The Chickens Are Coming Home To Rooste; Including Here In Chicago: As Mayor Daley Has Decided NOT To Seek A New Term In His OVER 20 YEARS Service (Read: NWO CONTROL) As Mayor Of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. !

Expect The Evil Bankster-Gangsters To Lay It All Now On “President Obama”—As He Has Chopped Off The Heads Of MANY NWO Bankster-Gangsters From His Very Own Administration.

Can This Mean ANOTHER Modern Political-Presidential ASSASSINATION Of The U.S.A.‘s Chief Executive Since President JFK ?

ONLY TIME WILL TELL !

Tony Cisneros
Oct. 19, 7:08 p.m.
Oh, By The Way, In Case You’ve Been Duped By The Major Media & Press; Rahm Emanuel WAS Fired By “President Obama” As Was His Political Guru David Axelrod !

And Guess Who’s Running For Mayor Of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. ?

None Other Than Former INVESTMENT BANKER:

RAHM “RAHMBO” EMANUEL !

These EVIL “Investment” Bankster-Gangsters Will Stop At NOTHING To Continue To Politically, Economically & Domestically RAPE The U.S. Constitutional Loving Citizens Of The United States Of America !

I Say Bring These “Foreign” & Domestic U.S.A. DEVILS Justice:

Before They All Send US To The POOR HOUSE

And/Or

HOME & HOUSE FORECLOSURE ! ! ! ! !

Tony Cisneros
Oct. 19, 7:34 p.m.
To Whom It May Concern (Especially Junious Ricardo Stanton):

Long Before “Removing” Eliot Spitzer From The Governor’s Seat In New York, These Bankster-Gangster DEVILS “Removed” NY Governor Mario Cuomo Because He Challenged & Gave A “Black Eye” To These FINANCIAL “FAUSTS” !

Albeit, Long Before This Present Foreclosure Fiasco, There Was The Devil’s Spend-Thrift & Print-Thrift SPAWN Named THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK (SYSTEM, GOVERNORS & ETC.) Who Are The REAL Profiteers Of This Housing-Halabaloo:

1913—When “FED” Founded, An Average House Cost By The End Of That Decade (& Every 40 Years Or Generation Since):

1920: $ 1,000.00
1960: $ 10,000.00
2000: $ 100,000.00
2040: $ 1,000,000.00
2080: $ 10,000,000.00 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

You See Folks, The “FEDERAL RESERVE” BANKSTER-GANGSTER “FIX” WAS IN SINCE 1913 AD ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

END THE “FED”:

BEFORE THEY END US & WE’RE ALL HOME

&-OR

DOMESTICALLY DEAD ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

John Castle
Oct. 19, 11:12 p.m.
Add the residential property appraiser to the list of participants. A recent appraisal report on my home was so riddled with incorrect and inaccurate data and the appraiser would not respond to my written inquiries so I had to file a formal complaint with the local licensing board. The appraisal report can produce ANY number that’s wanted. Educate yourself; learn how how to read the report!

acmodspecialists
Yesterday, 2:49 a.m.
Property rights are being violated in this country by these Banksters, Property rights are the core of the American capitalism and the core of American freedom, Now more than ever property rights appear to be in question thanks to these Bankters, their business practices and their fraudclosures !

125000 + Fraudclosures just for the mont of September a record high.that means that another 125000+ families without a home in the USA These Banksters are getting worse and the worse part is, this is only the tip of the iceberg

David
Today, 5:42 p.m.
The issue is denial…

The foreclosures occurring are illegal.

The reasons there millions of Fraudulent Assignments, False Affidavits, Forged Docs, Forged Notaries, missing docs, is ALL because the LENDERS failed to comply with State Real Property Laws.

These NOTES had to be Transferred to the TRUSTS no later than the CLOSING DATE of those TRUSTS. In most of the foreclosure cases today that DATE was 2 to 5 Yrs ago.

The lenders did it Deliberately - KNOWING the consequences because they were AVOIDING the TAXES & FEES. They would have gotten away with it but the bottom fell out of the market and triggered more defaults than they could keep up with…

The LENDERS clearly cannot foreclose because their illegal acts WAIVED their rights to the collateral.

That is what they are attempting to cover up. This is HUGELY SERIOUS because NO COLLATERAL - NO FORECLOSURE - NO SECURITY - NO SECURITIZED ceePOOL - NO INVESTMENT.

These jackasses took all the rope - tied the knot - stood on the chair to set up the borrowers - then figured out the damn NOOSE was around their necks…

That is why they have paid these FORECLOSURE MILLS tons of backroom money to GET THE DAMN HOUSES BACK - NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES…

Bullsmith
Today, 6:31 p.m.
Looks like “racketeering” will have to join “torture” as word for things American institutions simply do not do. Because the whole MERS and securitization scams to hide who owns what is the very definition of organized crime.

connor
Today, 7:36 p.m.
What will happen to the people whose homes were foreclosed on? Will the banks be forced to return money to homeowners? No one is talking about that-no attorney will take the case- where do we send our documents to show what was done to us? The person who =bought my home at auction paid $322,000. cash- -I paid out over $220,000 including my $78,000 down payment-together, that is $60,000. over the original note- a profit was made-

sppurmdonor
Today, 9:17 p.m.
Here’s an idea. Get the @%#& out of the house if you can’t pay your morgage. Get a better job or a smaller house. Don’t blame the banks because you lost your job after voting for Bush twice.

george harter
36 minutes ago
The worst part of this mess is not that many foreclosures are illegal by the letter of the law. It is simply that the banksters and their allies have broken the capitalist and American system of property rights.

You got a car? Where’s your title? A big boat, same question. A home??????? The scum at the top don;‘t believe in property rights, the concept of title is now meaningless: if they want what you’ve got—THEY STEAL IT!!! And, OBAMA applauds no less.

I used to snicker at all the corruption in S. America-now we have two antagonistic sets of crooks in charge who are simply fighting over our carcasses. As The Great Buffet was quoted “I am on the rich team, the winning team!” and he milks the country in ways that would astound a typical American.

GOD SAVE US!

Ron Jakimchuk
5 minutes ago
The system is obscenely sick.If the perpetrators ie people who knew better are not found and prosecuted,America is in more trouble than most people realize,and a great country will be brought down.

Add a comment
You can also register to post a comment.
Please use your real name.
Name
E-mail address
Comment
Email me when someone responds to this article.

Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. See our terms and privacy policy
Tweet 69

Buzz up! (1)

BP Gulf Oil Spill Slideshow
Safeguard the public interest.
Support ProPublica’s award-winning investigative journalism.

DONATE

podcast
Latest Episode
We sit down with Senior Editor Tom Detzel who coordinated the multilateral "Dollars for Docs" investigation to discuss the power of collaborative journalism.
Listen »
Get Updates
Stay on top of what we’re working on by subscribing to our e-mail digest.

e-mail
zip codeoptional

Follow ProPublica
E-mail
Facebook
Twitter
iPhone App
Podcast
RSS
OUR HOTTEST STORIES
Most ReadMost E-mailedMost Commented
Dollars for Docs
Docs on Pharma Payroll Have Blemished Records, Limited Credentials
Loan Modification Progress Chart
Investigations
Dollars for Docs
Who’s Who in the Foreclosure Scandal: A Primer on the Players
Dollars for Docs
Mortgage Investors Join Outcry Against Banks
How the Drug Companies Say They Screen Their Speaker Docs
This Year, Contractor Deaths Exceed Military Ones in Iraq and Afghanistan
INVESTIGATIONS ELSEWHERE
Inside Google’s $1 Billion-a-Year Tax Cutting Strategy—Bloomberg
A Creeping Effect: Contamination Spreading From Old Soda Ash Plant—Hutchinson News
Commodities Regulator Says Colleague Biased Against Complainants—Washington Post
New York Fed Faces `Inherent Conflict’ in Mortgage Buybacks—Bloomberg
As Injuries Rise, Scant Oversight of Helmet Safety—New York Times
Campaign Ads Are Bountiful but Sprout Inaccuracies—Post Star
See more Suggest a link
DON'T MISS OUR LATEST STORIES