- Subprime Standardization: How Rating Agencies Allow Predatory Lending to Flourish in the Secondary Mortgage Market
- 2004 Report on Predatory Lending & Servicing Practices & Their Effect on Corporate Compliance, Conduct, Ethics & Accounting
- Predatory Grizzly “Bear” Attacks Innocent, Elderly, Poor, Minorities, Disabled & Disadvantaged With Predatory Lending Scams & Frauds!
Nov
15
2004 GAO Report | Federal and State Agencies Face Challenges in Combating Predatory Lending
Executive Summary Purpose Each year, millions of American consumers take out mortgage loans through mortgage brokers or lenders to purchase homes or refinance existing mortgage loans. While the majority of these transactions are legitimate and ultimately benefit borrowers, some have been found to be “predatory”—that is, to contain terms and conditions that ultimately harm borrowers. … Read more
Related posts:
Nov
06
A Must Read | The Collapse of Our Corrupt, Predatory, Pathological Financial System is Necessary and Positive
“This is how we get hundreds of trillions of dollars in “notational” derivatives: every hedged is hedged with another “instrument,” “products” are bundled and insured, and so on. The system is based on the principle that risk can be reduced to zero, and so there is no need for capital.” ~ If anyone who reads … Read more
Related posts:
Nov
06
A Must Read | The Collapse of Our Corrupt, Predatory, Pathological Financial System is Necessary and Positive
“This is how we get hundreds of trillions of dollars in “notational” derivatives: every hedged is hedged with another “instrument,” “products” are bundled and insured, and so on. The system is based on the principle that risk can be reduced to zero, and so there is no need for capital.” ~ If anyone who reads … Read more
Related posts:
Nov
06
A Must Read | The Collapse of Our Corrupt, Predatory, Pathological Financial System is Necessary and Positive
“This is how we get hundreds of trillions of dollars in “notational” derivatives: every hedged is hedged with another “instrument,” “products” are bundled and insured, and so on. The system is based on the principle that risk can be reduced to zero, and so there is no need for capital.” ~ If anyone who reads … Read more
Related posts:
Nov
06
A Must Read | The Collapse of Our Corrupt, Predatory, Pathological Financial System is Necessary and Positive
“This is how we get hundreds of trillions of dollars in “notational” derivatives: every hedged is hedged with another “instrument,” “products” are bundled and insured, and so on. The system is based on the principle that risk can be reduced to zero, and so there is no need for capital.” ~ If anyone who reads … Read more
Related posts:
Jul
12
Why 99% of All “Forensic Audits” are Scams
Ok, it really bothers me… I’ve been wanting to write this post for a very long time. I’ve just been so stinkin’ busy it’s been put on the shelf several times. I’ve just tried to address this issue one by one as homeowners call me. But I cringe every time I hear the words “forensic audit” and I hate having to even say the words but sometimes I have to in order to help a homeowner or attorney understand what I (and a very select few others) do versus what the vast majority of these other individuals/companies out there are doing. That is why I have a category on this blog called “Forensic Loan Audits…” because the scammers that used to be in the “Loan Modification” business got put out of business by most Attorney Generals around the US after they saw millions scammed on that cottage industry. Nearly overnight, a new cottage industry of “retired” shall we say loan mod experts became “forensic auditors.”
Let me say this from the outset… there is a wide range of people and companies out there (including even some attorneys) who are selling “Forensic Audits.” They vary from outright scam artists to slick salespeople performing some [overly simplistic] level of some sort of a mortgage loan transaction audit but who charge exorbitant prices for the services and, ultimately, the work product they produce rises to the level of a scam as well because their fee and what they produce are universes apart – so I deem that a scam as well – that’s just my humble opinion of course.
There is one fairly high profile retired attorney out there operating a very popular blog selling extremely high-priced garbage [in my opinion]; unfortunately, many of his victims, I mean clients, have purchased this “audit” are left with many pages of virtual nothing-ness that they will never be able to use in a court of law. Quite ironic that it’s coming from an “attorney” or “counselor at law” – so to speak.
But, I don’t think any of you reading this right now are actually surprised of the story of another attorney or ex-banker taking advantage of people because they have a license, degree or bar number and using that “credential” to sell people on a scam. There are many prisons with such people calling those places home for these types of crimes.
So, now that I’ve spent a minute on the soap box, let me get to work to explain the difference between a “Forensic Audit” and a “Mortgage Loan Compliance Analysis” because there is a difference – like night and day. I think it’s a good place to start to say that I come from the mortgage banking industry and I have over a decade in actual experience in the inner workings of this industry and I have had to demonstrate continued competence in the actual compliance with the very laws we are looking into to see if these loans complied with these laws. I challenge you to find a “forensic mortgage loan auditor” out there in or even around the mortgage banking or finance industry. You won’t. You will find compliance officers. You will find fraud investigators. You will find compliance analysts and underwriters and risk managers. The closest thing might be the field of Forensic Accounting. But you will never find a legitimate forensic mortgage loan compliance officer using the term “forensic audit” or “forensic auditor” or even “forensic loan audit.” This is simply some deceptive marketing term invented by slick scammers who could probably sell a lot of people a box of coal and pass it off as a box of diamonds.
“Forensic” literally means “suitable for use in a court of law.” So the layman’s translation means that whatever report or whatever you might get from a “forensic auditor” must, and I mean MUST, withstand the legal scrutiny of a judge, jury and opposing counsel.
So, I’ll just dive right in here and make a point: you can use the word “forensic” if – and only if – your work product is deemed suitable for use in a court of law. So that’s the lens that any and all investigation by YOU as a homeowner MUST use in conducting your due diligence if you’re in the position of needing help to defend yourself from foreclosure or the potential illicit collection of mortgage loan debt.
I will say this… if you see ANYONE pitching a “Forensic Audit,” I would just turn and run. Even the simple use of that title – forensic audit – should set of alarm bells. What is it a forensic audit of? What does that even mean? Really, it doesn’t even tell you anything – other than it’s a slick marketer using a buzz term to sell you something. The question really is or should be – “will it be suitable in a cour of law?”
Conversely, a Mortgage Loan Compliance Analysis is EXACTLY what it’s name implies plus a bit more. What do we do? We analyze the mortgage loan documents for actual compliance with Federal Lending Laws. Did the original lender provide the borrower with the mandated loan disclosures from the date the borrower applied for the loan through to the closing or ratification of the mortgage loan transaction and were the material Truth in Lending Disclosures such as the APR, Amount Financed, Finance Charge, Amount of Payments and Payment Schedule were properly and accurately computed – this is a mathematical process that requires a very comprehensive understanding of Regulation Z, Section 226.4 along with the Official Staff Commentary for that section. It’s also an investigation and analysis of the transaction to see if the original lender [and any mortgage broker involved] that may have been involved complied properly with underwriting guidelines and a look into any possible mortgage fraud or predatory lending violations such as bait and switch tactics or even forgery of the borrower’s initials or signature on loan disclosures or loan closing documents. Finally, it’s also an investigation into whether the lender and/or broker was properly licensed. All of these issues are examined, documents analyzed, TILA disclosures re-computed for accuracy and comparison and then all of this is [or should be] rendered in a report or affidavit format along with any and all supporting exhibits such as the loan documents and other components of the investigation.
Now, here’s the clincher… a “Forensic Audit” is almost always going to be a collection of boiler plate fluff with a few specifics strewn throughout the template to pass this garbage off as legitimate. However, any real scrutiny of these documents by someone who knows what to look for – or worse, a judge or creditors rights attorney – will easily reveal the fact that 99% of these “forensic audits” aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on [ie. utter worthlessness]; which is real shame seeing that the homeowners who get suckered into these scams have precious few economic resources. They deserve a real service and a real work product that will actually stand up in a court of law.
A real mortgage loan compliance analysis and investigation will be highly CASE SPECIFIC. For it to be considered “forensic” in any sense of the word, it MUST be specific to YOUR CASE, not boiler plate. And judges HATE boiler plate, non-specific pleadings and if you try to throw a boiler-plate, template of a “forensic audit” at a judge in your case, you are asking for his/her wrath not to mention being completely discredited which never has a happy ending. I always tell people who are inquiring to hire me that there is no shortcut to these analyses and investigations. A mortgage loan transaction and any corresponding foreclosure case is like a fingerprint… no two of them are the same. Yes, you have a set of laws and guidelines that apply to all transactions but no two transactions are the same, period. Any and all work product must reflect that level of specificity if it is to be considered “forensic” in any way and has any chance of actually helping you make valid claims in a court of law.
So here’s my tip to help any homeowners facing foreclosure reading this: ASK for attorney references even IF they are an attorney. Ask to see their credentials. Ask for actual samples. Ask to see actual court cases their work product has been filed in and/or used in. Ask for customer references. Two words: DUE DILIGENCE… plus four words: DON”T BELIEVE THEY HYPE. Because your money can either be completely wasted or put to very good use depending on WHO you hire and what they produce. Finally, call or email me… I’ll send you a couple samples with borrower info redacted so you have something to compare the garbage to. Hopefully this helps a bit… Good luck and happy hunting.
Apr
20
Straight Talk About the REST Report, Loan Modifications, Stopping Preventable Foreclosure and Scams
When I started writing my blog, Mandelman Matters, over two and a half years ago now, I knew what I wanted to accomplish… I wanted to provide homeowners and others with straight talk in simple and hopefully somewhat entertaining terms that would help people better understand how and why our nation’s financial and foreclosure crises began and how it would impact our country’s economy and society in the years ahead.
As the first year writing and posting articles on Mandelman Matters flew by, and our government continued to utterly fail to mitigate the damage caused by the economic crisis, I expanded my mission to include providing insight, tools and whenever possible trusted resources that homeowners could depend on to help them get through the clearly worsening storm.
I guess it’s not inappropriate for me to admit today that having written and posted 448 articles covering the economic, political, social and legal aspects of the financial and foreclosure crisis, and many of which would have to be considered at least fairly in-depth, I’m quite proud of the body of work I’ve created. I don’t say that because I’m in a love affair with my own writing… rather the source of my pride comes from the fact that as I write these words, I don’t think anyone combing through my site’s archives could point to a single salient fact or forecast that I’ve gotten wrong.
That is not to say that I saw coming everything that has transpired to-date, because I did not. For example, and among other things:
- I did not know Barack Obama would turn out to be closer to and a bigger supporter of Wall Street than George W. Bush, or any of the Republicans in Congress, as far as I can tell.
- I didn’t know it was possible that mortgage servicers could be involved in the modification of mortgages for three years without showing any substantive improvement.
- I certainly had no idea that the number of unscrupulous operators, con artists and frauds would proliferate to the point that a consumer seeking answers and throwing a dart at the front page of a Google search, would be as likely to get ripped off or lied to as not.
- I would never have predicted that our government would find a rationale for spending over $13 trillion to prop up our nation’s commercial banks and financial institutions, while devoting something like 1/1000th of that amount to stopping the free fall in housing values, which, in addition to the ongoing credit crisis that has ostensibly left our federal government as the country’s only lender, continues to fuel the nationwide foreclosure crisis.
- And I had no idea that our mainstream media would deteriorate to where it is today… where you often can’t tell whether the source of a story is a press release and when it’s actual news based on investigative journalism and/or objective, unbiased information.
And yes… I’m sure there’s quite a bit more than I could not have told you two and a half years ago, but as I’ve watched what has unfolded in complete amazement and no small amount of sheer sadness, I’ve tried to cover it not from the perspective of left vs. right, but rather from the perspective of right vs. wrong.
Understanding where we are today and how we got here…
Homeowners borrowing beyond their means to buy homes they would never be able to afford did not cause our global economic meltdown, or even our country’s foreclosure crisis…. It was Wall Street’s incomprehensibly greedy and almost entirely unregulated financial institutions that caused our economic downfall… period… end… stop.
It was not the American homeowner that borrowed beyond his or her means, it was our nation’s financial institutions that dramatically over-leveraged themselves, so that when the credit markets seized up in July of 2007, essentially all became insolvent almost overnight. Many hundreds of banks have been shut down by the FDIC since the crisis began, and even the trillions in bailouts for those deemed too-big-to-fail, and apparently prosecute… have left us with financial institutions that remain dependent on the government’s… read: taxpayer’s… continued financial support.
Oh I know… we did have a housing bubble, and by the summer of 2006, with the Fed having raised rates 17 times in a row, that bubble was destined to pop, but falling real estate prices that are the result of market forces decline on a more gradual slope that what we’ve seen to-date, and as they decline on that slope homeowners have opportunities to avoid foreclosures through either refinancing, or worst case… the sale of their homes.
This crisis was not primarily fueled by the market forces associated with a housing bubble’s demise… this crisis was the by-product of credit markets that literally froze solid overnight, leaving no chance for homeowners to react to the changing market conditions, and relegating them to foreclosure. The same is true about our bankers who, when the music of the credit markets so abruptly stopped, had leveraged untold billions in CDOs and other derivatives appearing on and off their balance sheets, and whose value went straight off a cliff in a matter of days or at most weeks… a’la the final scene of the movie Thelma and Louise.
These institutions, like homeowners, had no time to react as they might have were the market to have fallen more gradually, and no way to borrow. Many of the largest categorically failed.
Our response to the crisis has been to pump money into our financial institutions and, I suppose, hope that Wall Street’s recovery ultimately leads to Main Street’s… and rather than debate whether this was the correct response or not… let’s just say that it sure as heck hasn’t happened yet.
I don’t think there should be any question here… for the average American… the worst is yet to come in many ways. Housing prices have nowhere to go but down, and that will lead to increasing numbers of foreclosures, which will in turn further depress our economy as trillions more in consumer wealth will evaporate. Significant job growth is nowhere on the horizon either, and although it shouldn’t be nearly as hard as it apparently is… our ability to get loans modified in order to prevent what are preventable foreclosures from the investor perspective, is downright partisan pitiful and painful to watch.
So, before we go on, let’s just recap the key points made thus far:
- The credit markets, most notably the secondary mortgage market and private demand for mortgage- and asset-backed securities are broken and the federal government is essentially the country’s only lender. This situation has NEVER existed before in our nation’s history, and because real estate prices have always been largely driven by access to credit… it’s always a function of terms, rather than price when it comes to real estate values, remember… until those markets thaw, you may be assured that we’re going down, not up.
- All efforts to prevent an increasing torrent of foreclosures have failed, as we continue to engage in the intellectually dishonest dialog about whether homeowners are “irresponsible” and therefore don’t deserved to have loans modified. The answer to this inane debate is simple: A foreclosure should be prevented through modification of the borrower’s loan, when the borrower can demonstrate that he or she can make the modified payment, and the Net Present Value (“NPV”) of the loan’s modification would result in the investor coming out ahead financially as compared with foreclosing… PERIOD.
In other words, if the investor would make more money by modifying the loan that’s otherwise at risk of foreclosure, and the borrower can document his or her income at a level sufficient to make the modified payment… then modify the damn loan, because no one is wining as a result… we simply don’t need another vacant house at this point in time.
So… why are these points about way-too-tight or nonexistent credit markets, and the need for a clear rationale for determining what is and isn’t a preventable foreclosure even debatable? Is there anyone that doesn’t agree that fixing these two things would go a long way towards stabilizing housing prices and stopping foreclosures?
I sure hope not, because if so… you’re just not thinking about these issues carefully enough. I’m not talking about a 100% solution overnight, but the fact that’s there’s no magic bullet available is no reason to ignore steps certain to making the situation incrementally better.
The information and tools you need to get through the storm…
Setting aside how to fix, or rather un-thaw the credit markets that would thereby make mortgages more readily available to more people, lets talk about getting your loan modified… homeowners need to start down this path by running what is called a “REST Report”.
I’ve written about the reasons for homeowners to use the REST Report when applying to their servicer for a loan modification, but I want to be much clearer and stronger in my statements in support of homeowners and lawyers using the REST Report… because outside of a servicer, the REST platform is the only one that can credibly establish whether the investor that owns your mortgage will come out ahead by modifying you loan as compared with foreclosing on the property. It will also show you how your servicer may view your proposal to short sale the home, should you fail to qualify for a loan modification.
The REST Report is a 12-page document generated by a highly sophisticated software platform used in various form by major banks and mortgage servicers. It’s not a toy that some clever programmer created in order to sell something to homeowners… it’s the real thing… and there is no “other one” or close substitute.
Now, I hope you’ll forgive me for what I’m about to say, but I want to be both clearer and stronger about why homeowners should REST Reports when applying for a loan modification, and why anyone who says otherwise is at best misinformed… but at worst they are full of beans and lying to you about their own report… which is worthless in comparison to what is produced by the REST platform.
I really do understand why it’s so hard for homeowners to tell the difference between what they should believe and what they should not… and I hate that it’s the case… but it is. So, with that in mind let me try to say this as unequivocally as possible.
If someone says that their report is somehow better… or that what I’ve said about the REST Report is in anyway less than true… I want to know… contact me… lets shine a giant light on this topic… BECAUSE THEY ARE WRONG OR LYING… period. So, if someone doesn’t know of the REST Report, or doesn’t know enough about it… let’s all get on the phone together and get things nailed down.
The REST Report can withstand any amount scrutiny… it can be entered into evidence during a court room proceeding, the financial analysis it provides related to a servicer’s decision to modify a given loan… is CORRECT… and no other system can duplicate what REST does.
How to use the REST Report with your servicer?
Once someone has run your REST Report, you send it to your servicer’s loss mitigation department, along with your application and required supporting documentation.
After that, assuming the report does show that you pass the NPV Test, you push like crazy no matter what your servicer says. If they tell you that you failed the NPV, but your report shows that you do… tell them you’re report is correct and you want to see the inputs they used to make sure that the reason for the discrepancy in NPV Test result is nothing more than a typo… which is the case at least 90% of the time.
Then, you work with your servicer to correct their typo and rerun your information to determine whether you passed the NPV… and if they input your numbers correctly… it’ll come out matching what’s found in your REST Report.
Without the REST Report, what will you say to your servicer when they deny you for a loan modification?
Ummm… but I think I pass? That’s not going to do much. Servicers are only available in three flavors: Terribly annoying… Unbearably annoying… and Make-you-want-to-burn-your-home-to-the ground-annoying. And the REST Report… although rock solid correct in terms of it financial analysis, isn’t a pill that will make servicers behave properly, so get ready to push back using the REST Report and be confident that what the report says is correct…. It’s your servicer that’s wrong.
We’ve run over 4,000 REST Reports and their effectiveness is unquestionable… I wish I could tell everyone at risk of foreclosure to order one right now because if we could at least prevent the preventable foreclosures, we’d be a heck of a lot better off.
REST Reports have been run for major servicers… some of the largest… and for large investors who want tom know how they should optimally dispose of their delinquent loans. Like I said, REST is not a toy or a piece of software some clever techie programmed so a company could have something to sell.
So, again… if someone says they offer a report that will do the same thing REST does… NO THEY DON’T… and let’s give them a call together, shall we?
How much does it cost a homeowner to run a REST Report?
It depends on the law firm or organization, but it’s somewhere in the $700 range, give or take. Here’s why…
Running a REST Report is not something that just anyone can do. It’s a case of garbage in and garbage out, so you need an expert to run your report and show you how to use it. In addition, firms that offer REST Reports say that it takes them roughly three hours to run a homeowner’s report and go over it with them so they understand what it says, how to use it, and how to read it.
As a result, some firms charge a bit more and others bundle the report with other services and as a result charge a bit less, but a hundred bucks one way or the other is really not the issue here… the REST Report is the only thing I’ve ever seen work in terms of increasing a homeowner’s chances of getting their loan permanently modified… and I’m pretty confident that I’ve seen everything by now.
If someone tells you don’t need a REST Report to apply for a loan modification, as them what you should say when your servicer turns you down for failing the NPV Test. And if they tell you that they can “eyeball it” and tell you whether you will pass or fail… tell them I said they are wrong… or full of you-know-what.
The foreclosure crisis has been allowed to continue for too long and it’s obvious that our government is incapable of stopping it, and that are servicers simply don’t want it stopped. Servicers make more money when they foreclose, so that’s what they try to do almost every time… but the REST Report… more often than not… ultimately changes that outcome.
And for attorneys, real estate agents involved in short sales, and other mortgage professionals involved in helping homeowners avoid foreclosure… you can become licensed to offer REST Reports to your clients… and there is no cost to become a licensed provider of the REST Report. (Scams, you might consider, are never free.)
In my considered opinion… and I’m not kidding about this… if you don’t offer to run a REST Report for your clients who are about to apply for a loan modification, are stuck in loan mod hell already awaiting a decision, or are attempting to negotiate a short sale… it borders on, or is mal practice.
I’m sorry to come off this way… I don’t like having to “sell” anything… and I know how hard it is to separate the wheat from the chaff with fraudsters seemingly on every corner and all over the Internet claiming to have one sort of solution or another to stopping foreclosure.
But you need to know about the REST Report… and you need to know that it is not a scam or a toy… it is the only way… outside a servicer… to determine whether your loan should be modified because the investor will come out ahead as compared with foreclosure… it’s the only tool I’ve ever seen make a significant difference for homeowners, and having run 4,000 reports to-date, I think the results are clear and they are overwhelmingly positive.
Contact me… I’m here and devoting whatever time I need to this month and next to answer any questions homeowners, attorneys, real estate and mortgage professionals and others have about REST, so we can start fighting harder so more homeowners will use the report when applying for a loan modification or short sale… and we can turn the tide on the foreclosure crisis ourselves.
And once our housing markets start to stabilize as a result of preventing the preventable foreclosures, watch how fast we see private sector lending starting to gear up for an actual recovery, or at least the end of our current and continuing slide.
You can reach me at mandelman@mac.com.
Mandelman out.
Apr
13
The Banks Can’t Count…
Every single day we receive more and more evidence of the banks and their wrongdoing. I long ago gave up on any government official to do anything about it and I never had any faith that any of the banks or the industry could self police I had faith that our courts would do something, anything about it all, but that was a naive fantasy. It would be nice if the big class action attorneys could do the job, but it seems that’s just too unwieldy.
The only glimmer of hope is the individual attorneys who are out there in the trenches, battling by hand every single day. I have some measure of success, and many of the good attorneys I know do as well, but the time it takes to hand-craft the responses and attacks, the preparation that goes into every single hearing and every single draft is obscenely inefficient and costly. It shouldn’t take that much time…especially now after all these years of documenting the abuses and educating the judges…but it does. It’s a bit like groundhog day…..every single day you walk into a courtroom, it feels like you’ve got to re-invent and start from ground zero all over again.
Along the lines of this discussion, I wanted to share the f0llowing from Nye Lavalle:
I reduced the banking industry’s scams and abuses into three primary areas or categories OVER 12 YEARS AGO!!!!. The three (3) major issues I have informed you all of are as follows:
#1 BANKS CAN’T COUNT and the amounts they claim are owed for payoff, principal balance, escrow, payments due etc… can NEVER be trusted or accepted without a complete audit of the servicing history from origination to specific date (i.e. acceleration, payoff, foreclosure, bankruptcy etc…) I have informed all of you that the “computer systems” used can’t compute and once a so-called “mistake” is made (i.e. programmed financial engineering scheme) the system can’t go back and adjust the system and amortize the loan correctly. Affiants, as I have said over and over again in countless affidavits and reports, simply take numbers off a computer screen (garbage in – - garbage out) that is usually a third-party system and the affiant has NO INDEPENDENT OR RELEVANT KNOWLEDGE as to the facts of the amount and how those amounts were arrived at. With my scripted depo questions, time-and-time again, affiants never audit or simply conduct a “sample check” of the entire “servicing history” from origination to present date, to ascertain any errors, miscalculations, misapplications, wrongful charges, etc… The lawyers (foreclosure mills) prepare the affidavits and check the payments. As the EMC executive told me in mid 90s “you must sue the lawyers, they are ALL in on it!”
#2 BANKS CAN’T ACCOUNT for the chain of title and ownership of the note and who has authority to foreclose, accelerate, modify, approve assumptions etc… In other words, they can’t account for the actual note holder and how such status was established and if the note has been pledged, sold to others, hypothecated, traded, transferred etc… Affiants, as I have said over and over again in countless affidavits and reports, simply take the information off a computer screen (garbage in – - garbage out) that is usually a third-party system and the affiant has NO INDEPENDENT OR RELEVANT KNOWLEDGE as to the facts of note ownership and they have not reviewed the PSA, necessary assignments, wet ink original notes, indorsements, authorities for the indoresements, checks and wire transmittals, collateral and custodial records and other evidence that the actual holder took possession, control, and ownership of the note. They simply take the information from the last public recording and go with that ignoring all the intermediary assignments. This has been going on for decades now. Again, the lawyers (foreclosure mills) prepare the affidavits and check the title history and often charge a fee for the “title search” that isn’t worth the paper it is written on. As the EMC executive told me in mid 90s “you must sue the lawyers, they are ALL in on it!”
#3 WHEN CAUGHT WITH THEIR HAND IN THE COOKIE JAR (i.e. cooking the books jar) the banks and their lawyers will fabricate evidence, documents, provide perjured testimony, create false affidavits, destroy documents and claim its a gummy bear jar, not a cookie jar. In essence, NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING A BANK, LENDER, SERVICER, OR THEIR LAWYERS place in pleadings, affidavits, summary judgment motions, assignments, indorsements, deposition testimony etc… CAN NEVER BE ACCEPTED AS TRUE OR AS FACT without a complete forensic review, audit, and examination of all wet ink docs, records, financial accountings etc… that PROVE EACH AND EVERY ALLEGATION AND FACT IN A PLEADING, AFFIDAVIT, OR TESTIMONY.
The bottom-line here is that lawyers must QUESTION EVERYTHING AND CHALLENGE EVERYTHING. If not, you may be mal-practicing knowing everything you know now. Money MUST be spent in depositions to make them prove up their cases (they can’t) and e-discovery is and will be critical since they will continue to fabricate evidence and testimony.
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Jan
04
SIGN THIS! StopServicerScams.com Petition Will Go to Geithner, Bair, Bernanke, and Walsh!
Servicer abuse? I’m the poster child for hating servicer abuse! So, why am I always the last to know about these things? Geeze… what am I… chopped liver over here? Oh well, it just came out this morning on Naked Capitalism, so I guess I caught it in time…
So, how about doing me a favor and showing everyone that Mandelman Matters readers… well… matter… by not only signing this yourself, because I know you want to stop Servicer scams and abuses as much as anyone in the country… but also could you put in the extra effort and forward it to everyone you know that will also want to sign it? PLEASE? Post it on your Facebook page, LinkedIn page… Tweet it and re-Tweet it! Anything you can think of, but do it now! Some petitions have already been delivered.
Yves Smith on Naked Capitalism says: “This is meaningful action that every citizen can take.” And I want to believe her. Well, I definitely believe that you’re not helping by not signing it, let me at least say that.
If you read me regularly then I don’t have to tell you that mortgage servicers are out of control. They lie constantly, they foreclose on homes they shouldn’t… they even break into homes they don’t even own… did I already mention how much they lie?
Come on… we need you to be involved and we need all the signatures we can get… plus you’ll make me look good! (Kidding, I’m just kidding.)
Make your voice heard… there’s even a comment section on the petition… this is your chance to tell Geithner, Bair, Bernanke and Walsh (who is acting Comptroller of the Currency), what you think of what’s been allowed to go on… for far too long.
I’m serious about this… there are no magic bullets, but there are also no journeys that don’t begin with a first step! So, please SIGN IT NOW! There is literally no time to spare if you want to be heard.
CLICK HERE:
StopServicerScams!
Mandelman out.
P.S. Here’s a link to Naked Capitalism’s Yves Smith’s letter that accompanied 12,000 signed StopServicerScams.com petitions:
“Citizens call for tough regulation of residential mortgage servicers”
~~~
Still not sure, here’s Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, attending a Senate Hearing on the foreclosure crisis…
Jul
08
Beware of Scam “Forensic” Loan Auditors/Companies
Ok, here we go go again… now the scams have hit the loan auditing industry. Most of these fakers are ex-mortgage brokers who didn’t make it in the mortgage industry and are now looking for a new way to make money. There are a few good auditors out there who have really put in the time, effort and research to actually know the laws and know how to properly state the elements of these violations in a manner that can actually help a homeowner in a foreclosure matter (and can help an attorney bring these violations as affirmative defenses or counterclaims in a foreclosure case).
TILA or supposed “Forensic” Audits that use standardized check-off lists without providing a mathematical determination of the TILA Disclosure Statement and amounts are NOT Forensic Audits. A check-off list or automated/software-driven TILA Audit describing potential violations as “Serious,” or “Moderate” is incompetent and useless. A Forensic TILA Audit must provide accurate TILA; Regulation Z citations, case law precendent, as well as actual computation of all settlement service fees properly allocated in the TILA Disclosure Statement or the Audit will NOT withstand scrutiny by legal authorities. Do not be fooled by imitations using standardized check-off lists.
There is absolutely nothing “forensic” about plugging loan data into some software and having it spit out a report. But that is exactly what most of these fakers are doing and they are charging anywhere from $395 to $995 based on what I have seen so far.
If the loan audit will NOT stand up to legal scrutiny then you have wasted your money and someone has scammed you into believing you were paying for something that would help you. Why would you pay for a loan audit that would not stand up to legal scrutiny?
The software driven report serves a limited purpose and I use a popular banking compliance software for my audits as well but this software-driven report is only a small piece of my actual audit and findings report. A true forensic auditor examines every document relevant to the loan and looks at signatures, dates, parties on the documents, who provided those disclosures or documents and also obtains the story from the client because every loan is a story. It involved people and usually quite a bit of communication between the borrower and the indispensable parties to the transaction.
I have myself setup for Google Alerts on a number of search terms so I go to these other websites pretty frequently. I also get clients who have dealt with some of these fraudsters and now want my help to clean up the mess and the wasted money. Hopefully this post will cause those who read it to really do some good checking before they part with hard-earned money.
Bottom line is to make sure you follow your gut. Do your homework, ask questions, ask for references. A good auditor will most likely have attorneys they work for and consult for.
Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions on this topic or would like a sample of my audit reports. You’ll be able to see the true forensic nature of a good audit vs. these computer-generated reports.
