1. KABABABOOOOM! | Lender Processing Services’ DOCX, Lorraine O. Brown, Indicted on Criminal Forgery Charges
2. Fraud Digest | DocX, LLC., a Subsidiary of Lender Processing Services (“LPS”) & Lorraine O. Brown Indicted on Criminal Forgery Charges
3. Opinion Journal: Making a Mortgage Disaster with Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner VIDEO

1. Fraudclosure | Beau Biden, Delaware AG, Moves To Join Bank Of America Mortgage Deal, Signaling Concerns
2. D D D Delaware – Attorney General Biden Calls on Three Banks to Halt Delaware Foreclosures
3. State of Delaware v. MERSCORP Inc. Press Release | Biden: Private National Mortgage Registry Violates Delaware Law

1. Nevada AG, Catherine Cortez Masto, Joins States Balking at Bank Releases in Foreclosure Practices Deal
2. Nevada AG Masto Opposes Provision of Settlement with Big Banks
3. Bloomberg | Proposed 50-State Fraudclosure Accord Deadline Set for Feb. 3

1. Naked Capitalism | Mortgage Settlement Term Sheet: Bailout as Reward for Institutionalized Fraud
2. Naked Capitalism | Banks Win Again: Weak Mortgage Settlement Proposal Undermined by Phony Consent Decrees
3. Naked Capitalism | Is Schneiderman Selling Out? Joins Federal Committee That Looks Designed to Undermine AGs Against Mortgage Settlement Deal

1. NY Times | Agency Failed to Refer Complaints About Freddie and Fannie (Report)
2. Fraudclosure | Inside Fannie Mae: Confidential Records Show how Fannie Mae Breaks the Rules
3. Whistleblower Lawsuit: Fannie Mae Bungled HAMP Anti-Foreclosure Program – Caroline Herron v Fannie Mae et al Case 110-Cv-00943-Rmc

1. Action Alert – Taking the Foreclosure Fraud Fight to Des Moines to Meet with Attorney General Tom Miller
2. Action Alert – Foreclosure Fraud – Tell your Attorney General “Don’t Sit Down with the Banks! Stand up Against Fraud!”
3. Press Release | Nadler and NY Delegation Assail Iowa Attorney General for Excluding NY Attorney General from Mortgage Settlement Talks

When it comes to defending homeowners against wrongful foreclosure, or suing banks on behalf of homeowners, Attorney Nathan Fransen, of the firm Fransen & Molinaro in Corona, California is a very smart, experienced and dedicated attorney.  This I know for a fact.

How do I know this?  It’s simple.  Over the last few years, I’ve watched him literally bang his head against the wall as California’s courts have unabashedly approved of MERS, disregarded flaws in the securitization process, not cared one bit who signed what, and in general ignored everything having to do with foreclosure cases except the fact that the borrowers hadn’t made mortgage payments in so many months.  He argued complex legal theory and simple fraud… he was honing his approach, and although he had his share of frustrating days, he was careful which cases he took on, never following an unproductive path twice.  I’d refer potential clients to him fairly often, and in most cases, he’d talk them out of filing suit against whoever they had thought they had wanted to file suit against.

Don’t tell him I said it, but he’s also just generally a very smart person, you know, paid attention in school kind of person… fairly well-read… knew about things outside his area of expertise… the whole bit.  He also had both the patience and ability to explain things about the law to me when I was frustrated over how things weren’t working.  When someone can keep complicated things simple, you know they understand them inside and out… and when they can hold their own in a debate with me… well, I’m sorry but that’s saying something.

So, he called me a few weeks back and told me quite nonchalantly that he’d had a very good week.  I was happy to hear that someone had.  What was so good about it?  Well, he had won two of his cases and at least one would result in his client getting a “free house.”  The other might be a free house too, or maybe just a pretty good size pile of money.  It’s true… Nathan had gone in front of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals… his first time, by the way… and beaten US Bank, hands down… in Causey v. US Bank.

It seemed to me to be an impressive win, because he was appealing after losing in the lower court.  He’s smart, patient and methodical… three things that tend to pay off eventually, but he wasn’t just going up against US Bank… no, he was going up against the dreaded “free house,” meaning that if the court ruled in his favor, his client would no longer have a mortgage secured by real property.  At best, the amount owed would be unsecured debt, like credit card debt, and that would mean it could potentially be discharged in bankruptcy.

But, don’t jump to conclusions because it’s not what you’re thinking.

He showed me how I could actually listen to him argue the case in court, the 9th Circuit has audio files of the courtroom proceedings online, and listening to it was fascinating.  So I figured out how to download it and then convert it to a file format that I could put inside a podcast.  Then I asked him to comment before and after the case so listeners would really get valuable information and be able to learn from his experience.

I don’t want to spoil it, so I won’t say anything more… well, okay I’ll say one more thing.  As I listened to him argue his case in court, one thing came through loud and clear: Judges hate the dreaded “free house.”

This is one Mandelman Matters Podcast that you definitely don’t want to miss.  Nathan sets it up in the beginning, then you hear the audio of the actual courtroom arguments, both his and the lawyer for US Bank… and then he and I argue various topics such as whether robo-signing should be prosecuted and by whom, along with several other things that I know are frustrating homeowners today.

This is the real deal… you could call it “reality podcasting.”  Turn up your speakers, sit back, relax, and listen as three justices from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struggle to balance the rule of law against the dreaded “free house.”  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did… 

CLICK BELOW:

Mandelman Out.

1. Guess the Money is too Good to Pass Up – Introducing the Cullaros New Replacement – Expert Witness for Reasonable Attorneys Fees for FDLG Florida Default Law Group
2. Foreclosure Fraud Video Tutorial 5 Part Series – HOW THEY STEAL YOUR PROPERTY
3. Helping Big Banks Help Themselves…To Your Money! (VIDEO)

1. On Foreclosure Fraud, Bondi Comes Up Short
2. Par for the Course | Floriduh Attorney General, Pam Bondi, Bashes States that Rejected Nationwide Foreclosure Settlement
3. Will Pam Bondi Give Big Banks a Pass?

1. Abigail Field | What a Strong Servicer Settlement Looks Like
2. Nevada AG Masto Opposes Provision of Settlement with Big Banks
3. Abigail Field Open Letter | Dear AG Masto: Thank you For Your Courage, Leadership & Common Sense

1. Bulldoze It | BofA Donates Then Demolishes Houses to Cut Glut of Foreclosures
2. New York Fed Brownshirt Jason Barker Urges Police to Crack Skulls of #OWS
3. This is NOT About Free Houses – Market Ticker Foreclosure Fraud Update: Weekend Condensed Edition

1. Rally in Tally | National Foreclosure Awareness Day Febuary 16, 2012
2. “Rally in Tally”- Lawyers for Homeowner’s Rights Rally in Tallahassee
3. Fraudclosure | Second Annual RALLY IN TALLY! Participate! Get involved!

1. Mitt Romney Talks With Florida Foreclosure Victims, Encourages Strategic Defaults and Principle Reductions
2. Mitt Romney on Fraudclosures | Do Like Bondi Does and “Prosecute the institutions where there has been fraud”
3. NY Times Editorial | Mitt Romney on Fraudclosures

1. You’re FIRED AGAIN | Foreclosure Mill Lawyer Extraordinaire Steven J. Baum Dropped by Fannie Mae
2. Daily Finance | Foreclosure Fraud in Maryland: Banks’ Lawyers (Shapiro & Burson) Accused of Forging 1,000+ Deeds
3. You’re FIRED | Foreclosure Mill Lawyer Extraordinaire Steven J. Baum Dropped by Freddie Mac

1. KABOOM | Illinois Attorney General MADIGAN ISSUES SUBPOENAS Against Lender Processing Services (LPS) & Nationwide Title Clearing (NTC)
2. Illinois Attorney General Madigan Demands Meeting with Ally’s GMAC Unit at Center of Foreclosure Fraud Controversy
3. Standard & Poor’s | In a First, SEC Warns Rating Agency It May Bring Financial Crisis Lawsuit

1. U.S. SECURITIES COMMISSION v CITIGROUP GLOBAL MARKETS INC | $285 Million Citi Settlement With SEC Rejected by Judge Jed Rakoff
2. Unsealed Complaint | Citi Tried to Pass Off Madoff Exposure – Irving Picard, Trustee for the Liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC v Citibank and Citigroup Global Markets Limited
3. JPMorgan’s Independent Foreclosure Review Firm Deloitte & Touche LLP Recenly Sued for Failing to Detect Fraud that Led to more than $7 Billion in Losses

1. Attorney General Bondi Unveils Legislative Initiative to Protect Consumers from the Number One Complaint of the Past Two Years
2. Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray Selected to Head the Enforcement Division of the New Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
3. Bondi’s Crackdown on Florida Timeshare Fraud Causes Rift

1. A Must See – Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) Hearing on Foreclosure Fraud and Robo-Signers
2. Warren Out, Cordray In | Cordray is Obama’s choice to lead Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
3. Obama Defies Republicans, Plans to Bypass Congress and Install Richard Cordray as Head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

1. Mitt Romney Talks With Florida Foreclosure Victims, Encourages Strategic Defaults and Principle Reductions
2. Mitt Romney on Fraudclosures | Do Like Bondi Does and “Prosecute the institutions where there has been fraud”
3. NY Times Editorial | Mitt Romney on Fraudclosures

1. NY Times Editorial | Mitt Romney on Fraudclosures
2. Mitt Romney Fund-raiser,T. Martin Fiorentino Jr, Lobbied for Foreclosure Firm, Lender Processing Services
3. Kathleen “Blame the Victim” Passidomo Endorses Presidential Candidate Mitt “The Foreclosurer” Romney

1. Naked Capitalism | Banks Win Again: Weak Mortgage Settlement Proposal Undermined by Phony Consent Decrees
2. Naked Capitalism | Mortgage Settlement Term Sheet: Bailout as Reward for Institutionalized Fraud
3. Naked Capitalism | Obama Pressing for a “Shock and Awe” Mortgage Mod Program, 3 Million in 6 Months

1. Open Letter to Sheila C. Bair of the FDIC from Lynn Szymoniak (60 Minutes) RE Compensation for Foreclosure Fraud
2. Sheila Bair Said to Be Top Pick for Foreclosure Fraud Monitor
3. Opening Address by FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair, Summit on Residential Mortgage Servicing for the 21st Century

1. Foreclosure Fraud – Some Quotes from the Report of Three S. Fla. Law Firms Target of Probe – South Florida Business Journal
2. NY Times | Bank of America to Create Troubled Loans Unit
3. HUSH MONEY – Wells Fargo pays $24M to End Mortgage Probe

1. Check It Out! Diana Olick of CNBC Gets It! Foreclosure Fraud: It’s Worse Than You Think
2. Academic SHILL goes all SHRILL for the Banksters in Forbes Magazine | OP/ED It’s Time To Finalize The Robo-Signing Settlement
3. The Homeowner’s Bottom Line | Baseline for a Strong Settlement Against the Big Bankers

1. Check It Out! Diana Olick of CNBC Gets It! Foreclosure Fraud: It’s Worse Than You Think
2. Academic SHILL goes all SHRILL for the Banksters in Forbes Magazine | OP/ED It’s Time To Finalize The Robo-Signing Settlement
3. The Homeowner’s Bottom Line | Baseline for a Strong Settlement Against the Big Bankers

"I think it's difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history."

For years, the Left has asked why the Obama administration hasn’t pursued prosecutions against lenders who arguably engaged in fraud when foreclosing on mortgages in the wake of the housing-bubble collapse.  It turns out that these lenders had friends in high places in the Department of Justice.  Reuters reports that both Attorney General Eric Holder [...]

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1. Tammy Baldwin WI Stands Up for Middle Class Homeowners, Tells Holder Consumers Must Have Path to Recover Losses
2. Settlement FAIL | Banks Get Edge in Talks on Foreclosure Penalties as Feds Settle
3. Arkansas | Hot Springs County Clerk Mayme Brown Sues Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) Banks for Tax (Filing Fee) Evasion