More Illegal Foreclosure Bank Break-Ins

When banks burglarize
When Bank of America bought Countrywide, did it know that as a consequence it would start being associated in the public mind with meltwater reeking of rotten halibut? In Texas, Bank of America had the locks changed and the electricity shut off last year at Alan Schroit’s second home in Galveston, according to court papers. Mr. Schroit, who had paid off the house, had stored 75 pounds of salmon and halibut in his refrigerator and freezer, caught during a recent Alaskan fishing Vacation. “La...

More on the FDICs Fight Versus Other Bank Regulators on Servicer Abuses; Rep. Miller Backs More Aggressive Action
We’ve mentioned that the FDIC has been pushing to reform the securitization process, including imposing standards on servicers. That has put it at odds with the bank-friendly Treasury and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (the SEC has proposed securtization reforms but of a much more modest nature than the FDIC’s). This behind the scenes battle is heating up further because Dodd Frank calls on bank Regulators to draft new rules to improve the operation of the Mortgage secur...

In a Sign of Foreclosure Flaws, Suits Claim Break-Ins by Banks
Source: New York Times By ANDREW MARTIN TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words “Together Forever,” that contained the ashes of her late husband, R

Banks to Homeowners: Were In Ur Houses, Changin Ur Lockz
Photo: iStockPhoto Bank of America might be on edge about what would happen if BrianMoynihanSucks.com gets into the wrong hands, but they're not afraid to look like the bad guy. According to a federal Lawsuit, Bank of America not only wrongfully foreclosed on Mimi Ash's ski home, but they also broke in, changed the locks, and threw out all her possessions, including a wooden box inscribed with the words Together Forever that held the ashes of her late husband, Robert. Alan Jaffa, chief executi...

Bank Break Ins Leading to Litigation
Even though banks piously insist that every one of their Foreclosure actions is fully justified, evidence in the court system continues to prove that claim to be false. We pointed out this sorry development in October, that of banks entering and changing the locks on homes they had not foreclosed upon. Per a report from the Sarasota Herald Tribune: The process of banks hiring people to break into homes, even when occupied, is just the latest oddity of the messy Foreclosure crisis in Florida. S...

Banks Accused Of Breaking Into Homes
Arriving at her home in Truckee, Calif., Mimi Ash found it had been cleared of her possessions New York Times: TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the word...

Wells Fargo agrees to modify California ARM loans
Wells Fargo Bank has agreed to make $2 billion in loan modifications for California Homeowners with risky pay-option, adjustable-rate Mortgages that Wells purchased from other banks, and to pay $32 million to 15,000 borrowers who had similar loans and lost their homes to Foreclosure, according to an agreement with the California Attorney General's office. "Customers were offered adjustable-rate loans with payments that mushroomed to amounts that ultimately thousands of borrowers could not aff...

Banks Accused of Illegally Breaking Into Homes
TRUCKEE, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend Ski Trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks. Arriving at her home in Truckee, Calif., Mimi Ash found it had been cleared of her possessions. When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words &ldquo...;

Preeti Vissa: An Ebenezer Scrooge Christmas?
This time of year conjures up traditional images of family gatherings, cozy fireplaces, shared meals and happy exchanges of presents -- images of home, security and friendship. But millions of Americans who have had their homes foreclosed or who are in imminent danger of Foreclosure have no such sense of security, and in many cases no real home. Far too little is being done to help them. It seems like Ebenezer Scrooge is running Christmas this year. But it doesn't have to be this way. I've wri...

Janice Hermsen's "Stop paying your mortgage?"(1) politically incorrect but true.
"Stop paying your Mortgage?"(1), Janice Hermsen's take on the future of Nevada's Homeowners, may sound a little crazy to some. Yet, the title itself is the only solution many owners are left with. The author begins with a mention to the new year, although she is not wishing you happy holidays. She rather throws in your face the sad reality awaiting around the corner. Recent data does not support the idea of any improvement any time soon. Janice's depiction of Bank of America's unfair play(2) is ...

U.S. expects foreclosure probe results next month
WASHINGTON | Mon Dec 20, 2010 5:12pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Obama administration Task Force examining allegations of Fraud in the Mortgage Foreclosure process will deliver its findings next month, two Top Officials said on Monday. "We expect the results of the investigations will be presented to us next month," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said in a joint statement after meeting with the task force. "The Task Force will t...

Banks Break Into Homes, Not Always Legally
Banks have made the occasional huge mistake in the massive home Foreclosure crisis of the last decade, including illegally ordering home break-ins once in a while. When Homeowners are behind on their Mortgage payments, or attempting to modify their home loan, or even on occasion fully paid up but lost in the bureaucratic shuffle, they are in danger of having their home broken into and their possessions removed by the banks. A New York Times report details the occasional terrible mistakes banks h...

Federal Reserve Blocks New Foreclosure Regulations
WASHINGTON -- Top policymakers at the Federal Reserve are fighting efforts to rein in widely reported bank abuses, sparking an inter-agency feud with the FDIC and the Treasury Department. The Fed, along with the more bank-friendly Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is resisting moves to craft rules cracking down on banks that charge illegal fees and carry out improper Foreclosures. The FDIC supports such rules, according to an FDIC official involved in the dispute. The new regulations ...

Florida Home Sales and Prices Slide in November
Existing Home Sales fell 15 percent in November compared to a year ago, and prices dipped along with them, according to a report released Wednesday by the Florida Association of Realtors. The median sales price for a home was $132,700 last month, down 5 percent from November 2009. The voluntary Moratorium on Foreclosure filings imposed by Mortgage companies in recent months delayed closings on some properties and impacted sales activity, the FAR report states. Companies like JP Morgan Chase and ...

Weekly Audit: Republicans Poised to Declare War on Welfare State
Senate Republicans scuttled a Bipartisan $1.2 Trillion dollar spending Omnibus Bill last week. Now, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is scrambling to pass a temporary funding bill to keep the Federal Government’s lights on. The GOP abruptly pulled the plug on the omnibus, a massive piece of Legislation that Republicans and Democrats had collaborated on for months. Why? Because the Republicans want to start over in the next session of Congress when they will control the House and pick up...

Misc: Ernst & Young accused of fraud, Banks accused of illegal break-ins
by CalculatedRisk on 12/21/2010 10:14:00 PM Two stories: Lehman's Accounting was fishy. The other is a real fish story ... • From the NY Times DealBook: Cuomo Sues Ernst & Young Over Lehman The New York Attorney General on Tuesday sued Ernst & Young, accusing the Accounting Firm of helping Lehman Brothers, its client, “engage in a massive Accounting Fraud” by misleading investors about the Investment Bank’s financial health.• From Andrew Martin at the NY ...

Washington, American Samoa are worst U.S. markets for insurers
American Samoa and Washington, D.C. were the worst U.S. markets for insurers in 2009, as Foreclosures and a Tsunami in the South Pacific triggered customer payouts. Insurers in Washington spent 49 percent more on claims and other expenses than the $1.6 billion they collected in premiums last year, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners said today in a report. In American Samoa, a U.S. territory in the South Pacific, carriers paid out more than 13 times the $85,000 of premiums they ...

Wells Fargo Agrees to $2 Billion in Loan Modifications
Source: Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. agreed to provide loan modifications worth more than $2 billion to California Homeowners who have “pick-a-pay” loans, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said. Wells Fargo, the largest U.S. home lender, also will pay $32 million to borrowers whose homes were lost in Foreclosure, Brown said today in a statement. Pick-a-pay, or pay option adjustable-rate Mortgage loans, allowed borrowers to make payments at various levels, according to Brown. The highest l..

"I Wish the Law Had Worked": A Dispatch from the Land of Unintended Consequences
Once upon a time, people seeking Loan Modifications got screwed by lawyers who promised to save their homes, took a few thousand dollars, and disappeared from the face of the Earth. Then the light of Regulation shone upon California and a Task Force was convened, Legislation was devised, and everyone smiled when it passed by an overwhelming 36-4 in September 2009. Now, this: Lawyers throughout California say they have no choice but to reject clients [seeking help with Mortgage modifications] be...

Home sales rise 5.6% in November
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Existing Home Sales picked up steam in November, though they are still down nearly 30% from this time last year. Sales of previously-owned homes jumped 5.6% in November to an annual rate of 4.68 million, the National Association of Realtors reported Wednesday. The rate was down 27.9% from 12 months earlier, when a homebuyer Tax Credit helped lift sales to a two-year high of 6.49 million. Email Print Comment The report came in slightly better than expected. A consensu...

On self-regulation in banking
I spoke to Max Keiser recently about a number of issues in a wide-ranging interview featured below. In the video, Max and Stacy Herbert talk about some of the hot button issues of the day like the banking sector in Ireland and the lack of criminal prosecutions in the US for the first 13 minutes or so. In the last half of the video I talk to Max about a lot of topics including gold, Mortgage Fraud, Wikileaks, currency revulsion, and Sovereign Debt. Let me focus on one: fraud. It is astounding whe...

New group steps in to save Bucks County Playhouse
The curtains are going up on a brighter future for the Bucks County Playhouse. The New Hope landmark, a symbol of the county's artistic and literary heritage where luminaries such as Grace Kelly and Neil Simon cut their teeth, has been rescued by a consortium of Broadway professionals and community leaders, it was announced Tuesday. "The entire theater community was aghast at the idea of permanently losing this legendary venue and picturesque piece of theater history," said the Broadwa...

Existing Home Sales Come At 4.68 Million, Miss Estimates Of 4.75 Million, Home Inventory At 9.5 Months Supply
home sales, which came at 4.68 million units, a slight improvement to the almost all time lowest number posted in October (4.43 million), a miss to expectations of 4.75 million, and 27.9% off the cyclical peak of 6.49 million from November 2009, when the first-time buyer Tax Credit expired, and was shockingly not extended. The data follows this morning atrocious MBA numbers which showed a plunge of 18.6% in Mortgage applications, and 24.6% drop in refinancings. But if you listen to Goldman, the ...

Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr's kin in dire need: lawyer
Kenneth Starr stole millions from the rich and famous but his ex-wife and Children are living on welfare in an unheated apartment in danger of Foreclosure, his lawyer wrote in court papers Wednesday. Starr, 66, is countering government claims that he is estranged from his family, said lawyer Flora Edwards. The Ponzi scammer is also trying to show Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin he wouldn't run if his $10 million bail was reduced and he was released before his February sentencing. "Ind...

Newsprint and Transcendence
There were wonders to be discovered in New York on a recent cold, clear, brilliant December day. Eykyn Maclean, an elegant new gallery with space on two floors of a narrow building on East 67th Street, had mounted an exhibition of work by Alberto Giacometti. While there was a great deal of sculpture and much else to see, what I found myself thinking about was Giacometti’s curious habit of drawing on the pages of books or on Newspapers and magazines, effacing an author’s w...