News, Research & Insights for American Homeowners, Patriots & Constitutional Conservatives
False dichotomy.
If this doesn’t prove the truth of Sarah Palin’s maxim that, to most people, poles are for strippers and skiers, I’m not sure what will. Just seven days ago, The Wall Street Journal released the results of its WSJ/NBC poll, which showed that 56 percent of “ordinary Americans” put reducing the deficit ahead of boosting [...]
Today, another victim of the foreclosure crisis took her own life. She was a disabled American veteran and her family was counting on me to help. And I let them down.
You see, when I returned from a trip to Hawaii earlier this summer to meet with members of the state’s legislature on how the state might better deal with the foreclosure crisis, I received a call and a letter from a couple who’s home was about to be sold by Ocwen. The husband, afflicted by multiple sclerosis, could not be moved from their handicapped home and I couldn’t stand what watching what was about to happen… so I wrote about it… attacking Ocwen for allowing such an injustice to take place.
And Ocwen responded. Within days the trustee sale was cancelled and Ocwen agreed to modify the loan so the family could remain in their home of so many years. It should go without saying that the couple was joyous and thankful, although I couldn’t help but wonder about all the families about whom I would never be able to write about… and perhaps save from the pain of foreclosure.
Soon after that I received another letter and call from a couple’s daughter who lived in Hawaii… her parents were facing foreclosure in California and their lawyer who had been hired to help them had dropped the ball… they were on their way to being evicted. They’re older… in their 70s, and they were caring for a disabled American veteran… a member of the family.
I tried to help… called an attorney friend of mine who stepped in and filed what could be filed, but acknowledged openly that it was a long shot. Maybe some media attention would help, as it had previously, and I said that I would write about their situation.
But, the truth is that I never got around to it. I had other pressing concerns. And I’m only one person fighting a much larger fight. I spent several weeks in Arizona, meeting with lawyers and homeowners… and filming a documentary that I’d come to believe is the most important contribution I can make to the war against the bankers and the foreclosure crisis that is quietly tearing about our country and destroying our middle class and our economy.
I found out today that a few days ago she took her own life. Wells Fargo Bank had allowed the eviction to proceed; they refused to do anything else. Maybe they wouldn’t have changed their mind had I found the time to publicize the couple’s plight… maybe not. But, we’ll never know… I’ll never know.
The couple called me, their daughter called me… many times during the month of August, but I was away in Arizona, I needed the rest… my own health was in question and I felt I needed to rest and recuperate before I‘d be able to continue the fight effectively. I spoke with the husband… and the wife… they sent me their story written out on many pages. It all started when Wells Fargo said they had made a trial payment a couple of days late. The couple said they had made it on time. How petty a thing that could lead to such a tragic end…
I tried to calm them down… told them I would try to help them. But, I never got back to them… never wrote their story. And now it’s too late.
The last phone message I received was from their daughter. I played it today when I got the news. She was literally begging for my help. But I didn’t hear it in time. And now a disabled American veteran is gone.
I don’t know what to say except that I am so very sorry that I let them down. So deeply sorry… and I’ll never forget them… I’ll try never to let something like that happen again.
But the other truth is that I’m angry. I’m angry that I even have such responsibility… such power that my writing about someone’s situation has the potential to save their home from foreclosure. It shouldn’t be the case. The banks should not be allowed to lie to people, the process should be transparent… none of it should be done in secret.
God damn the bankers that continue to treat American homeowners struggling financially as a result of the global financial crisis and our country’s deepening recession that they caused as if they are meaningless souls… as if they are to be disposed of like diseased cattle.
And God damn those who have no compassion for the millions of Americans who continue to receive foreclosure notices every day… their lack of compassion comes from their ignorance of the facts involved, and at this point there is no excuse for that ignorance.
And God damn the Obama Administration for ignoring and abandoning the American middle class in favor of the banking billionaires to whom he has given a blank check as reward for their crimes. None of this should be happening in my country.
But, again… I’m just so sorry that I let them down. Please join in this prayer for a fallen soldier… its author is unknown…
I saw a soldier kneeling down,
for this was the first quiet place he had found.
He had traveled through jungles, rivers and mud.
His hands were scared and toil-warned.
He folded his hands and looked to the sky…
I saw his tears, as they welled in his eyes.
He spoke to God, and this is what he said.
God Bless my men, who now lie dead;
I know not what You have in mind,
but when You judge, please be kind….
when they come before You, they will be poorly dressed
but will walk proudly, for they have done their best.
Their boots will be muddy and their clothes all torn…
but these clothes they have so proudly worn.
Their hearts will be still and cold inside,
for they have fought their best and did so with pride.
So please take care of them as they pass Your way…
the price of freedom they’ve already paid.
AMEN.
Mandelman out.
The truth is still way out there
Oh, suuuuure. That’s what you said about the triple breasted prostitutes on Mars, too. If you’re planning on heading out to see Apollo 18 this week, don’t get your hopes up that this stunning documentary will provide proof of little green men. NASA is backpedaling faster than Barack Obama on ozone emission standards and claiming [...]
The truth is still way out there
Oh, suuuuure. That’s what you said about the triple breasted prostitutes on Mars, too. If you’re planning on heading out to see Apollo 18 this week, don’t get your hopes up that this stunning documentary will provide proof of little green men. NASA is backpedaling faster than Barack Obama on ozone emission standards and claiming [...]
Questions.
“Earlier I reported on a super PAC ad run on behalf of the Bachmann presidential effort. The Perry team is not taking this sitting down. It has put out a statement that reads in part: “FALSE CLAIM: ‘Rick Perry doubled spending in a decade.’ “TRUTH: State spending – the non-federal dollars state lawmakers can control [...]
"I stand on the truth of what I spoke."
He didn’t mean all tea partiers, silly. He meant a nameless, faceless “some,” much as Obama insisted repeatedly during his bus tour that there are “some” in Congress who care more about party than country without ever getting around to identifying them. Much as I might say there are “some” Democratic leaders so low-rent that [...]
The masks slip.
Gaffe (n): The accidental telling of an embarrassing truth by a politician. Yesterday, Joe Biden’s office tried walking back his stunning, toadying remarks on China’s one-child policy by claiming, as Allahpundit wrote, that he actually meant the exact opposite of his remarks. His remarks were clear enough to give comfort and support to a regime [...]
The truth has no agenda.
More than 3,000 people crowded into the Caesarea Amphitheater Sunday to hear Glenn Beck launch his “Restoring Courage” tour in Israel. “Welcome to the land of milk and honey!” Beck said by way of greeting. With this tour, Beck aims to express solidarity with Israel and to explore the concept of “courage,” which he says [...]
Off the cuff.
One’s a relatively little-known candidate who’s desperate for media opportunities to push her message to voters, the other’s internationally famous and doesn’t have to worry (yet) about how to package herself. This is apples and oranges, in other words — but even so, there’s truth to it. Palin has been vastly better about chatting with [...]
Killing the baby with the bath water.
If the first casualty of war is truth, the first casualty of politics is common sense. The nascent battle for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination is no exception, and has already managed to find a way to drive me to distraction. It all started with Ed Morrissey’s report of questions put to presidential candidate Rick [...]
You can't handle the truth!
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is slowly but surely becoming an albatross around the neck of this administration and there doesn’t seem to be any quick fix to the problem. Ever since they opened up their assault on Boeing back in April the board has been drawing fire from all sides. And now, apparently [...]
If you’re a regular or even occasional reader of Mandelman Matters, you’re reading this now… and waiting for the twist or the punch line, right? You’re thinking… “Oh yeah right… I know him… what’s he saying by saying he doesn’t care about his readers? Okay, you hooked me in… now tell me what you’re talking about.”
But, it’s not like that… sorry to disappoint you… I’ve recently realized that I actually don’t care about my readers. You read me all the time? So what? It’s not like I get a nickel a reader, or anything like that… so read me… read something else, I could care less.
I used to care about my readers but, truth be told, this past week leading up to today, something happened that changed me… and I think you all have the right to know what it was that has caused me to think this way.
You see… today, Dina and Robert Giangregorio of Huntington Beach, California received their permanent loan modification from Ocwen Loan Servicing. Do you remember them? I wrote about them last week… three kids… Robert has “Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis, one of the worst types of MS one can have. He only has use of one of his arms and he’s in a wheelchair. The headline to the story I wrote about them was: “Ocwen Loan Servicing Takes Home from Handicapped Because There’s Equity.”
Now do you remember? If not, you’d better click that link and read the article before going on or the rest of this article won’t make nearly as much sense. Like missing “Part One” of something and then trying to just dive in at “Part Two.” It’s never the same as if you had seen the first one.
So, yes… Ocwen sent the Giangregorio’s the documents for their permanent loan modification today, and as you might imagine… they were way beyond pleased… in fact, it’s safe to say that they were overwhelmed. Dina sent me an email right after she heard… all it said was:
“Martin!! I am crying. Words cannot express…”
I understood. I felt the same way, but not for the same reason.
I emailed her back maybe 15 minutes after they learned of the great news and asked her to call me. I wanted to ask if they would be interviewed on camera for a documentary on the foreclosure crisis that I’m filming this summer.
Dina emailed me back right away… she said she needed time to compose herself… calm down a bit… before she could call me. Like I said, they were quite happy that after living through a sale date for their home last Monday, they would not be moving any time soon after all. Quite a relief, I’d imagine.
So, a few minutes later she and Robert called… I was on the speakerphone and as one might expect, they were both thanking me for helping them save their home. Dina told me that she felt as if a cloud had been lifted… I said I understood, even though for me… that cloud was still there.
I said they were welcome and not to give it another thought. Besides, as I told them… I was only a part of it… there were lots of others involved, and those others were really the ones who deserve the credit for making this happen. First of all, CDA Law in Mission Viejo, who are true stars of the loan modification world, jumped in against all odds to represent Dina and Robert and really were the technical experts here, and Julie Greenfield, who is the absolute top of the food chain when it comes to loan modifications, also volunteered to help push the ball over the line. (Both CDA and Julie can be found on my Trusted Attorney list.)
All I did was write about it… it was the others who took action and made Ocwen take notice… they weren’t just “my readers”… they were my “DOERS,” and how I feel about them… well, I think Dina said it best when she said… “Words cannot express…”
It had all started a little over a week ago… my wife had just picked me up from the airport. I had just flown in from Hawaii after meeting with members of the state legislature on issues related to the foreclosure crisis. I wrote their story the following day, I believe. It was hard to write, because it made me angry and sad.
And then, after wiping away a few tears and swearing like a drunk pissed off sailor… down at the very bottom of their article, after I typed “Mandelman out,” I gave out the email address and phone number of Ocwen’s Executive Chairman, and said:
“Want to send Mr. Erbey a note to share your thoughts on the Giangregorio’s situation… Well, by all means… be my guest…”
It wasn’t even 15 minutes later that I received an email… I was being cc’d on an email sent to Ocwen’s Executive Chairman by someone who I had thought was just a “reader,” but now I saw was a “DOER.” I wrote back to her right away, thanking her for doing what she had done.
Minutes later another email… same thing… another DOER was cc’ing me on another email to Ocwen’s Executive Chairman. And then another came in before I could even send another thank you note in response… and then another… and another… and yet another. Some of my readers were DOERS and they had read my article and done something about it.
That went on for a few days.
Then I received an email from a senior executive at Ocwen’s Washington D.C. office. He was responding to an email that I had sent him before I posted the Giangregorio’s story, telling him that I was about to run the story and giving him a chance to comment. I wasn’t expecting to hear back from anyone… I do it all the time before I go after a banker or servicer or government boob… it seems like the journalist-sort-of-thing to do, right? But no one ever responds.
Here’s what Ocwen’s senior exec said in his email to me:
Martin,
Your email was forwarded to me but I have been traveling and didn’t see it until yesterday. I apologize for not getting back sooner.
I understand the Giangregorious story has been posted, but would like to discuss the situation with you if possible. We’ve actually worked very hard on this case, are saddened by it and will continue to do what we can. We have not foreclosed and will continue to try to assist the family within our legal constraints. I can assure you that our commitment to helping distressed homeowners keep their homes with sustainable payment plans is genuine — it is also very much consistent with our own business interests. Since the outset of the mortgage crisis, we’ve worked out solutions for over 100,000 families to avoid foreclosure and are recognized as the industry’s loan modification leader.
But, again, I think it would be worthwhile to talk…would there be a time say later this afternoon or anytime this week for a call?
Thank you…
And then he signed it.
I emailed him back and within an hour or so we were talking on the phone. It was later in the afternoon on the Friday before July 4th weekend, and with him being in D.C. I didn’t expect the call to last very long… but it did… at least a couple of hours… it was after 7:00 PM East Coast time when we hung up, resolving to talk again after the holiday.
I had expected him to be a nice guy… and he was… but, he was also very smart and we talked about the financial and foreclosure crises in the big picture sense, going back to examine all of the many different factors that led to the meltdown. He knew some “insider” sort of things that I hadn’t known, and I knew some stuff that he was interested to hear about.
I liked him, and I had not expected that to be the case. As he phrased it… we were in “violent agreement” on just about every single issue we discussed. He said he’d send me an article he’d written a couple of years back on loan modifications and the foreclosure crisis, and I said I’d send him links to a couple of hundred articles that I’d written on the subject.
After we hung up, I had two thoughts come immediately to mind:
Well, I’m going to be talking with Ocwen some more… I did genuinely like the guy, so why not? Someone has got to show those on the other side what’s going on from the homeowner’s perspective, and after writing 500 articles on the subject and talking to thousands of homeowners over the last couple of years… it might as well be me.
Also, just as I had posited to myself while sitting in a meeting in Rep. Herkes office in the Hawaii State Capitol building… if I wasn’t here, who would be… to which I answered what was the obvious truth of the matter… NO ONE. There simply wasn’t anyone else, which made me wonder if perhaps I was insane, for a couple of seconds anyway.
So, now it looks like I might be visiting with members of other state legislatures as well. I might even go to Florida and Atlanta to visit Ocwen and see what they’re doing down there…. maybe make a stop in D.C. too. And I decided I would do whatever I needed to in order to finish the documentary I’d been working on for over a year… I wasn’t sure how exactly, without my wife choking me to death in my sleep, but I decided that I had to figure out some way to get it done.
Because that’s what DOERS do… they DO THINGS… they get things DONE… important things.
So, you see… it’s been quite a learning experience this past week or two… although I think I worked 120 hours and missed two nights of sleep, which I can’t keep doing if I expect to be able to DO anything for very long.
As far as my “readers” go, however, well… they can keep reading me if they want… or not… I don’t really care because from now on, I’m going to be concentrating on my “DOERS.” Together, we’re going to DO IMPORTANT THINGS and we’re going to finally bring this unconscionable travesty of justice they call the foreclosure crisis to an end.
And after that, we’re going to start to rebuild America’s working middle class, brick by brick. And one day… perhaps sooner than you might think… this country will once again be a place in which I can know that my daughter’s life will be as wonderful as mine has been… before all this happened… before Wall Street took over and broke the world.
People have asked me numerous times over the last two or three years, why I do what I do… and how I can possibly hope to beat the bankers… and I’ve always replied the exact same way: Because I’m going to win, I assure them. Some also ask me why I’m so passionate about this? And I always reply: Why aren’t you?
You see, when Dina said that she felt that a cloud had been lifted, I understood but I didn’t feel that way at all, because I knew when I hung up with Ocwen that first time that they would modify the Giangregorio’s loan. But, although that would be great for the Giangregorio family, what about the thousands of others all over this country that I didn’t write about? No one should lose a home if there’s a way for them to keep it. Not one person… ever.
Dina and Robert sent me another email shortly after we spoke… it read:
“We cannot express our gratitude for taking such an interest and huge involvement in our situation. We are in awe that we are actually finally being ‘heard’.”
They sent it to me, but it’s a message to all of my readers who are also DOERS. You really did something here… and what you did is a big deal… huge. I’m so proud of you… and thankful… you should be proud of yourselves too. You made a real difference in the lives of many.
And the best part of the whole thing is that even if you’re weren’t a DOER this time around… even if until now you’ve just been a “reader,” it doesn’t matter… ANYONE CAN BECOME A DOER AT ANY MOMENT.
That’s right… even right now… this moment… you can transform yourself from being a useless “reader” to being a DOER of important things. Just say to yourself… assuming no one is around because you don’t want to appear as if you’re talking to yourself…
What are we DOERS going to DO? Well, we’re going to figure that out as we go. Every week, I’m going to try to post an article under the heading: “THINGS TO DO… THAT MATTER.” So, when you read that line, you’ll know that after you’ve read the article, there will be work that needs to be DONE… send an email… make a phone call… whatever it is… so, JUST DO IT. (LOL, I just couldn’t help that.)
This is a game of inches… there are no magic bullets or big sweeping solutions, of that I am quite sure. We need to hit singles, not home runs… and sure as shootin’ we’ll win this battle one day… little by little, step-by-step… one day at a time, as they say… (OMG, I think I just mixed enough metaphors and exploited enough clichés to cause myself physical harm.)
Warren Buffet told Bloomberg today that he predicts “Job Growth When Housing Rebounds.” Genius… that man really is a genius… who would have ever thought that solving the foreclosure crisis was so important. Hmmm… maybe I should write something about that point. I’ll have to give it some thought. Thanks for weighing in, Warren… we’ll let you go back to bed now.
Housing doesn’t “rebound” as long as the foreclosures continue unabated, in fact nothing “rebounds” unless someone first throws a ball. We have to DO something to STOP the foreclosure crisis. It’s a forest fire and it will continue to burn until it runs out of forest.
Every time housing prices fall, more people go underwater on their loans. And every time a homeowner goes underwater, they are removed from the real estate market because most of the people that buy homes are not first time buyers, they have to sell their old home before buying their new one. But once underwater, they can’t, so demand for housing falls as more people find that they owe more than their home is worth. And as demand falls, so does price… and that means even more people go underwater.
Once you’re underwater, any of life’s events can lead to foreclosure. An illness… an accident… a divorce… the loss of a job… any of those can lead to a foreclosure when the homeowner is underwater. The Giangregorio’s only fell two months behind and that almost led to them losing their home.
Foreclosures breed foreclosures… period. In Hawaii, Rep. Herkes repeated the phrase several times to others, and I’m sure he’s said it quite a few more times since I was there. He’s a DOER, by the way.
Okay, so that’s all for now… I just thought I’d let my readers know how I feel and why… and I had to give my DOERS the great news about the Giangregorios. Again… thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Oh, and Dina and Robert both agreed to be filmed next week, and I’m really looking forward to that.
But, now I’m off to Palm Desert where my daughter is dancing in a national dance competition this weekend. She goes every year. It’ll be 125 degrees outside, which is miserable, but inside there’ll be 5,000 girls from 5-16 years old all screaming their heads off at the same time, as the Moms try to get them ready for their next number. So, when you think about it… 125 degrees really isn’t even that hot… LOL.
Mandelman out.
By now you know the story, a true hero in the fight for consumers, and a Senator who was sticking up for truth and for her constituents introduced a commonsense piece of legislation that would have provided some important and basic information for consumers, Arizona Senate Bill SB1259. I give this good senator much credit for seeing the issues involved and stepping into a major minefield for standing up and doing the right thing.
Unfortunately, her good work got crushed, snuffed out, whacked. But that’s the process, and certainly not her fault. Below is what purports to be a very personal and detailed explanation for what happened to this legislation. Now Senator Reagan is taking some heat for what happened here, but I ask….how many of the people that are giving her heat stood up and fought for her and for this bill? And if the banks and their lobbyists got to the other side, but no one stood up and supported this bill and senator Reagan isn’t that democracy? The rule is if you didn’t write a letter, you didn’t send an email, you didn’t become active in the process, it’s not fair for you to complain. I know the banks have money, they have staff, they have the access, but let me tell you something. If we organize, if we support someone like Senator Reagan with our time, our talent and the campaign checks we can muster, we will make a difference.
The point is where are all the Arizona people who should be standing up and supporting this bill and this Senator? The bill may be dead this session, but Senator Reagan deserves your support for trying. Please read the following explanation. I find she did her job, she tried and she deserves to be celebrated and supported for trying, not attacked because the system worked against her.
Please read the explanation, visit the Senator’s Website and Share Your Support.
I ran the bill in the hopes of providing transparency to homeowners. However, another troubling aspect about the lack of chain of title information is … what happens if someone sells their house to another person? The keys are handed over, but are you transferring the title as well?? When the lenders packaged and securitized these loans they separated the “notes” and the deeds of trust, violating over a 100 years of property law. The fact that nobody can prove chain of title right now is downright scary. And it is a big elephant in the room that has some property law attorneys dumbfounded. Title insurance may cover some of the future losses, but eventually title insurance will become insolvent. This is a problem that needs to be solved before it causes a future housing meltdown round #2. That being said, this was a very simple bill that would have required a homeowner to be given information. The Senators understood it. It passed 28-2. However, I was told the bill was DOA in the House before it even got out of the Senate. It was “double-assigned” meaning it had to pass two committees instead of just one. In addition, the Chair of the Banking and Insurance committee in the House did not like the bill and was not going to give it a hearing, meaning the bill was dead. By the way, it is completely within the right of any committee chair to kill a bill. Did I like that this happened to my bill – no. But, Rep. McClain did nothing ethically wrong.
In the meantime, there is a section in my district called Rio Verde where they need fire service and a compromise was finally agreed upon that was 6 years in the making. The deadline to introduce new bills had already passed, meaning they had to find a bill to use as a “striker”. SB 1259 was chosen because it was otherwise already dead. The lobbyists representing the Fire Districts and Rural Metro were able to salvage a dead bill and turn it into a bill to give some much needed relief to a part of my district. Basically we turned a bad situation into a positive. I guess no good deed goes unpunished 
Sorry for the lengthy response. But I wanted to give you the whole story from start to finish.
Thanks again for your interest on SB 1259. The good news is that a very similar bill just passed in Arkansas and their Governor has already signed it into law. I will be watching this summer to see what happens once the Arkansas law goes into effect. I hope they are successful and it can be copied in other states. I attached the link below.
Michele Reagan
Senator Michele Reagan
Chair, Economic Development
District 8
Scottsdale, Fountain Hills and Rio Verde
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The Florida SUPREME Court passed a rule. A very simple rule really. It said, “Foreclosure mills and banks, please, pretty please, tell the truth.” That’s all the rule is. And despite how simple and basic this rule is, the banks and foreclosure mills have gone nuts. First then just ignored this rule all across the state. To this day, some of the foreclosure mills continue to ignore the rule or play games with it. Far too often they get away with it. Letting them get away with it is a dramatic example of the breakdown in our entire system of government because judges were the last line of defense against corporations gone wild. When judges refuse to enforce laws designed to protect the common man, the corporation’s Rule of Law becomes institutionalized.
And now the Florida Legislature wants in on the action. The legislature is bought and paid for by the banks and foreclosure mills. The legislature is incensed that judges might a) pass rules to require truth and integrity and b) pass rules that impede the foreclosure mills from grinding along with their misdeeds. Never mind that this is the Florida SUPREME Court we’re talking about here. After all, what do they know? And so the response of the Florida Legislature is to introduce a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution that would gut the Florida Supreme Court and the third branch of government.
“No court shall have the power, express or implied, to adopt rules for practice and procedure in any court. Court rules of practice and procedure may be recommended by the Supreme Court to be adopted, amended or rejected by the legislature in a manner prescribed by general law. If there is a conflict between general law and a court rule, the general law supersedes the court rule.”
Scary really, and hopefully the Florida Senate will realize just how obscene this amendment is. But it is a dramatic example of just how powerful the foreclosure mills and the banks are in the state. They’re angry because Florida’s courts are attempting to do just what our founding forefathers intended that they do….protect us all from overreaching corporations and their supreme influence.
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I give a tremendous amount of credit to the press and Daily Business Review for taking the fight for truth in our courtrooms and running with it. We’re doomed if we cannot depend on our free press….please support those that support the cause by forwarding this link as far and wide as you can.
We all benefit when those that are in this fight get public recognition. If you believe that this fight exposes serious and even catastrophic risks to our courts and this country, then you will recognize the need to broadcast this message far beyond the narrow confines of our clients and foreclosure courtrooms.
We must all make the general public aware of the great harm this country is facing by the reckless policies of the past and helping our press to understand the issues and tell the stories may be the only hope we have left….!
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Have a look at the Diane Sawyer piece with my interview that ran on ABC World News. There is a crisis in our courts that has swept across this country because normal Americans know the banks cannot be trusted and they are fearful that our courts do not have the resources to sort out the facts and the truth from the fraud, the mistakes and the abuses.
That really is a key in this whole Foreclosure Fiasco. It represents a crisis in our courts because the same sloppy and in some cases fraudulent practices that were business as usual have infected our courtrooms. We depend on our courts and judges to insure fairness and protect the least among us. Our courts are under attack and they are failing in this job. Attorneys general and members of Congress can call for moratoriums, but it need not be so direct or so sweeping. All we need is for responsible, judges to say they will take whatever time is required to insure rules are followed and the integrity of the courts is preserved. This is largely the case in the Sixth Judicial Circuit, but this model needs to be expanded.
Now watch the news video:
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EDITOR’S NOTE: I confess I don’t know Matt but I have seen some of his work and it looks good to me. No guarantees etc. But worth checking out.
MEMOS AND MOTIONS THAT MAY SHUT THE FORECLOSURE MILLS http://www.mattweidnerlaw.com/blog In honor of all the national reporting that’s starting to break about all the abuses that are being committed by the foreclosure mills and as part of the continued efforts to support all the good judges out there that really “get it” and who are doing the right thing, I want to share a treasure chest of motions that I have filed over the last several months. I’m posting these Motions and memorandum primarily so that other attorneys from around the state will use them, develop them and argue the issues in front of judges. The issues contained within these documents are very important and frankly they require experienced and committed attorneys to make the arguments correctly. These documents and the issues presented are tools and like any tool they should only be used by operators who are trained to use them. Having said that I just hate seeing these coverage attorneys for the foreclosure mills wheeling in their boxes of hundreds of foreclosure cases and throwing this garbage into our courtrooms. I am appalled that the mills have joined forces and share the same coverage attorneys between all the mills. Where is the formal and specific authorization for that attorney to represent that client before the court? How can coverage attorneys represent to the court that, there are no issues of material fact in the hundreds of files that are in his wheelbarrow when those files have been prepped by another law firm? Why is that attorney not required to file a Notice of Appearance so the court knows what attorney is affirmatively representing to the court the veracity and authenticity of all the facts in his case? Special thanks to my intrepid law clerk Michael Fuino who is primarily responsible for all the excellent research and drafting contained within these memos and motions. Hats off to him! Enough of all of that, here go the goods. affidavitmotiontostrike affirmitivedefenses allongemtd answernotverifiednotnegotiableetc objecttofeememorandumfeeaffidavit http://mattweidnerlaw.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/WW-Memo-6.9.10.pdf http://mattweidnerlaw.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/MotionforReconsideration.pdf Get out there and keep up the fight… Note : Go to http://www.mattweidnerlaw.com/blog to download the pleadings. |
THE A MAN,
I am there with you now.
If we tried what they did, we’d be ‘under’ the jail.
In the olden days, we’d have the gun and keep trespassers off.
Now they set you up.
I’ have an interest in your home and I’ll foreclose on you and you can’t stop me.
Do you know? The law firm that foreclosed on me, that’s all they’d say!
Our client has an interest in your home. They never declared me in default. Their client never did either.
They were truthful in that matter, their letters would say they represent their client who has an interest in my home.
Weird, the truth was right there and I thought I could declare not knowing them and keep my home. Nope, they are interested in your property ‘maam’, you don’t have to know them.
They are trusted by your legal system. Let them file some documents that say you lost your rights, and some more that said you transferred your rights and then we’ll let them have your property ‘maam’.
Nope, don’t need a meeting of the minds.
Nope don’t need a contract.
All they need to know is you have a home, and be interested in it.
Well and they need enough money to perpetrate the crime.
Yeah, sounds like RICO, but so what ‘maam’.
When they finally got a mob boss it was over tax evasion, not what he did to the people he hurt.
Don’t you read your history.
He didn’t steal the White House, he stole your house, BIG difference.
RICO matters when people have connections, you don’t have no connections, you as close as the dirt, walking on the land as a man or a woman.
So stop your complaining and get outta thar befar the ‘sheriff’ arrives at yo doh step ta mayk sure you vay-cate da premises’.
Light and Love
Forget about the notary rules. Forget about the signatures-
The Electronic Recording and Delivery act (ERDS) has now allowed the MERS computer (That’s what it is) to “notarize” events- such as assignments- That never happened.
READ THE LAW- THEN LOOK UP YOUR COUNTY CODES.
The counties are passing laws that allow this to happen as long as the “Notary stamp” is on file.
It completely obliterates what we have came to believe the act of notarization means.
The notaries do not even know this, and it is being slowly fed into the systems, and you can find only a few completely in digital format, but they are doing it. No actual notary event is happening.
False witness–Did God know about this coming?
This does not mean you cannot declare a document forged as to the notary, if it was done “Old School”, (with a human) and lacks truth for whatever reason-you did not sign, papers switched etc.. ( my case)
FURTHER, all the “Robo-signatures”, as Neil likes to call them.
Forget all you ever knew about trying to authenticate the names….
MERS is a computer using software that employs highly advanced logarithmic calculations, to distort a false signature each time it is applied. (FONT) The names you see signed, –yes there might be a human behind the name sometimes, but the chances are it’s an “Identity” created to sign the documents.
Mr. Lin, in China who is the head linguistic software developer in the world, (Microsoft) pioneered this software that has allowed MERS to impersonate humans, I allege. (it was not his intent, he just works on the design)
The MERS computer applies a distortion that is unique and varied each time to the “Font” that has been established for each identity—so as to trick the human eye into thinking they are seeing a true human signature, that is varied and slightly different of course each time it is signed.
All the signatures DO NOT MEET ERDS code.
All this talk about the signatures is failing to realize what has finally happened. MERS can impersonate humans, and can foreclose on 10,000 homes a day without any human interaction. It does not need a human, unless it is challenged
and then her clarification and interesting history
As clarification, when I say notarize “events” that never happened, as in assignments… Neil has blazed that path already, in documenting that the “assignments” did not happen, or do not happen until the computer is challenged.( I am quoting Neil verbatim in my own pleadings, and owe him a debt for this work on here)What I am specifically saying, is the ERDS language is allowing counties such as Los Angeles, to pass county codes, which allow 100% digital notarizations. IF THE STAMP IS ON FILE WITH WHOEVER IS DOING IT–Think Title Company.So the actual event that I am talking about NOT happening is a face-2-face meeting of the notary, and the signer, and the computer is in fact acting as both in effect, as it generates the documents, with signatures of both the notary and the signer.I have found some 100% digital notaries’ in the recorder’s office that are pure text-no pretend wet ink signatures even.The system they have designed to rob us blind with is fully in place, and will be implemented slowly, so as not to cause uproar. I almost cannot believe this is happening, as its sounds too ala-Kaczynski, but the law has already been written that allows this. ERDS.
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Interesting comment submitted by Laura. We have been saying on these pages that virtually all documents are fabricated, and then submitted in support of an attempt by a pretender lender to pursue a foreclosure sale.Nothing proves the point better than a document that is notarized without any signature. The further investigation by this homeowner indicating the possibility that the notary was actually signing the documents lends further support to the only reasonable conclusion that is possible to reach. Once you have eliminated all probable explanations and you have narrowed the choices down to one, that explanation, no matter how improbable, is the truth.
We have seen many documents with the notarization in apparently proper form. In virtually all cases something was wrong. In some cases the notarization showed up on a blank document. In other cases the expiration date on the notarization seal proved that the document was neither signed nor notarized at the time it was alleged to have occurred. In still other cases the notarization was in one state of the union while the person signing (or allegedly signing) the document was in another state of the union. And of course there are the cases where the notary states that the person signing is known by them to be an officer of a particular entity or corporation (like MERS) when in fact there is no way the notary could possess that knowledge. And don’t forget the nearly universal practice of using unauthorized people to sign documents on behalf of companies or entities that either don’t exist or don’t know these people are signing documents in their name.
The moral of the story is don’t trust anything about any document. A so-called original document is probably a fabrication. There are numerous reports which we have received showing that under the magnification of a $20 microscope the dots showed that the document was in fact printed and that the signature was printed along with the document. So when they come into court saying they have the original document don’t be so quick to accept that. Any good color printer can produce what appears to be an original document.
As an expert witness on the stand I have been asked to admit that I was holding an original document. I looked closely at the signature. I looked at the back of the page on which the signature appeared. There were no indentations despite the fact that nearly all pens in use today use some sort of ball point technology, which at some point in the signature would cause indentations on the paper that would be visible on the back of the page. I saw no such indentations and said so. In fact I said that this document looks like a fabrication recently printed and was in all probability not the original. The opposing attorney was not happy. But that is the way it is–I call it the way I see it.
I love this: ” SHOW ME THE TRUST DOCUMENT, SHOW ME THE NOTE, SHOW ME THE ASSIGNMENT, SHOW ME THE INDORSEMENT, SHOW ME THE ACCOUNTING, SHOW ME THE CREDITOR ETC.” It’s my mantra as I research my loan 
I am not in foreclosure (yet but likely eventually will be). This is in Colorado.
In 2002, refinanced with Creative Mortgage Funding (now defunct local lender), at closing, servicing assigned and/or loan sold to Ohio Savings Bank, which in 2007 became Amtrust, and in December was closed by the FDIC. FDIC recently “sold” (at 37% of face value) the servicing rights to Residential Credit Solutions, effective August 1st (and FDIC kept a 60% stake in the “consortium of three companies” that “purchased” these loans that will be serviced by Residential Credit)
Looking through copies of my closing documents, found “Assignment of Deed of Trust or Mortgage Deed” – it is NOTARIZED BUT NOT SIGNED.
Didn’t think you could notarize something that isn’t signed!?
Pulled copy of the assignment from Clerk & Recorder’s office. The Deed of Trust and that first Assignment are both recorded, same day, 18 days after closing. The assignment is IDENTICAL to the copy I have, except it is signed. Signature looks an awful lot like the notary’s actually… but it’s signed.
I’m looking at this piece of paper and thinking it is proof of something… proof of improper notarizing… reading Colorado statutes, I think it may be enough to get this first assignment invalidated. Am I thinking this correctly?
There are other oddities and discrepancies, but this one hits me in the gut as The Big One, the one I need to focus on. Suggestions?
FYI: Nothing recorded changing the name on the assignment from Ohio Savings Bank to Amtrust. No other documents of any type recorded on my loan. It’s NOT a MERS loan. It’s not Fannie or Freddie either, I do know it’s “owned by a group of investors” – the FDIC told me that but would not tell me WHO that group of investors is. Will be sending out QWR once Residential Credit Solutions is the (purported) servicer after August 1st.
From M. Solimon
Editor’s Note: Pretty Good Entry From M. Solimon discussing aspects of fraud. I would add the following:
- FRAUD: A false statement wherein the speaker knows it is false, intends for it to be relied upon to the detriment of the receiver, who does reasonably rely on it to his/her financial detriment.
- FRAUD IN THE EXECUTION: A trick where the signor believes he/she is signing something other than what the document says it is. Probably applicable in the mortgage mess because the truth is people did not know they were signing the equivalent of their own financial destruction whereas the parties presenting the document pretended it was a standard mortgage loan that had been properly subject to industry standard verification and underwriting standards.
- FRAUD IN THE INDUCEMENT: A lie causing a person to execute a document, and otherwise meeting the definition of FRAUD as above. Examples “This is the fair market value of your new house,” or “Housing prices always go up, nevr down,” or “we’ll be able to refinance the property, give you more money out of it, all before the time for reset of the payments.”
Deceit and fraud are defined separately in statutes. Under Civ. Code §§1709 and 1710, deceit is defined in simple terms. See Civ. Code §§1572 for both actual fraud and 1573constructive fraud.
Loook at Liability for actual fraud is limited to acts committed by or with the connivance of a party to a contract with the intent to deceive another party to the contract and induce that party to enter into the contract. Look under Civ. Code §1572
Deceit is appropriate under a material beach or perhaps cause of action. The notion of a lender, who willfully deceives its borrowers or customers leading to foreclosure so to remedy an investor issue and to avoid recourse.
]I suggest you use it there or for the servicing argument for showing the willful intent to induce the consumer homeowners of a right to modifications ad compliance with 2923. to alter his or her position towards litigation (and eat up the balance of legal reserves their intended for a defense and their attorneys). These guys, I know all too well and it’s all too much. The consumer’s injury or risk is liable for any damage suffered as a result of the deceit. [Civ. Code §1709] etc, etc.
My take on this is too isolate the actual fraud that consists of any of the following acts, committed by or with the connivance of a party to a contract who is the assignor and its agents and not the successors.
The argument is it is with willful intent a lost beneficial interest woefully deceives a trustor or mortgagor to the contract, solely to induce the other party to enter into the contract [see Civ. Code §1572]:
Deceit and Actual Fraud combined
•Servicing rights violate SEC 1122 AB,
•Accounting rules violations under FAS 140, FIN 115,
•Trust assets are restricted to passive investments,
•Lenders controlling interest revoke the powers of sale and foreclosure,
•Parties lack standing to bring a foreclosure by appointment,
•Conspiracy to commit fraud where Trustee, Beneficiary and Transferee are all one in the same
•Bid rigging at trustee sale
•Fraud perpetrated against the country recorder
•A nominal interest has powers that conflict in the original assignment,
•Violations of the Code of federal regulations “CFR”
Your feed back will be critical and evident where I have gone as far as I can. It’s not getting through to skilled litigators that still don’t get it. Maybe I am lacking your codifications eloquence and ledger capacity to zero into the abuses of GAAP in more subtle terms; LOL!
he head of the OCC stated in 2009 “I don’t know why getting relief from offering modifications is not working?”
It’s simple “BECAUSE LENDERS FORECLOSING DON’T OWN THE ASSETS THEY SOLD ….for starters.
That said, even after the effort and inability for the US Secretary to further tweak FASB to get them to completely roll over.
Few are winning here. Even Judges who are deciding the matter favorably are commenting from a wrong perspective. There is no demand on UCC judicial interpretations for perfection in a bonefide sale.
The District Courts hearing these chapter proceedings provide comments after deciding the matter favorably are merely suggesting it’s all about “get it right next time”. That wrong where it says’s to a lender they can bring it back, even when a decision is favorable.
The key arguments come down to the fact the lender transfers each receivable as a “whole loan” sale. For Pete’s sake, looks at the general ledger where the asset was entered as a “Receivable” and “Loan Held for Sale”.
That’s not “Loan Held to Maturity” but “Sale”.
The cost to capitalize and reserve a 30 year loan held to maturity defeats the arguments lenders are making that “they did not sell the subject loan. It’s the old “blank assignment” gimmick. Its arguments are lost in court where the problem peaks the Judges curiosity and that’s about it.
We know the value of the open assignment argument is defining for the court where it’s a bank surety and liquidity play. It’s also a GAAP disclosure fraud.
Therein the consumer is disadvantaged arguing defects after being instrumental in a lenders shuffling of assets for maintaining REPO requirements and in its pursuit for shareholder earnings and profitability.
My take on the matter is to let them have the consumer’s home. The consumer then makes the lender pay the price of foreclosure claiming recognition, for reclassifying the sales as debt and restating earnings.
These UD attorneys are so smart that they may cost these bank power houses a debt load totaling about $3 trillion and more in liabilities left off the books. It’s a scary thought actually where you put Citigroup out while not looking and as they still struggle with a $65 billion tax tab carried by consumer taxpayers. BAC may end fighting for their life with a private right to call receivership.
Foreclosures cannot continue in violation of GAAP and where lenders circumvent basis accounting laws while continuing to force the sale treatment issue and while denying they are controlling assets.
It’s the best of both worlds with sale on the front side and as if it was leveraged borrowing upon liquidation and egress.
As we sit I’ll show you the subtle instances of apparently innocent manipulation and confusion befallen o to the courts from errors and omissions which lenders are getting away with. That is happening as the courts say . . . . So what!
The errors and omissions are the desperate means for seeking to maintain some semblance of SFAS140 adherence while employing lawyers as third parties appointed by agents of agents by a nominal interest.
I personally have given up on the right MERS arguments as MERS is entitled to act as an accommodation and even a nominal interest, possibly.
It’s just so easy for one to see the obvious that it has become lost. The nominee cannot execute instruments upon being replaced by the signature below it. Hello guys, right! That’s the purpose of the nominee! And, while one courts rules in favor of the consumer it misses the call.
Something basic is getting lost and I’m not getting through. Unique “floating” entities cannot appear from nowhere to execute assignments by virtue of meritless appointments.
If one of your cases is picked up by the Fed it should register a nice settlement . As one District court judge put it with disgust. . . “The SEC is turning into a penalty and fine system where they are to quick to settle the matter for a couple hundred million every time allowing the defendants’ to save face.”
“That’s not bad!
The US AG office thinks there is a case for bid rigging but I’m not sure the AG’s office knows where to look. Yet as one Judge told me in court “speak English.”
The precise and distinct GAAP and FASB rules violation are clearly demonstrated in each foreclosure. Lenders are violating GAAP even with the recent codification, including revisions and interpretation.
It’s all mind boggling when you consider the distance in communication here and counsel’s alternative to grab the lowest hanging fruit. . . .A RESPA audit (what is that anyway) and a QWR that together are just not going to cut it.
These bank execs fail to realize maybe that these and other Enron style crimes, like those stated in the Fastow confessional, will gets you 10 years . . .at least.
M.Soliman
Witness to Counsel
Expert.witness@live.com
First they started with servicers bringing foreclosures, and that didn’t work. Then they tried MERS to bring foreclosures, and that didn’t work. Then they tried backdated, fabricated and forged documents from non-existent originators with signatures from phantom people as “limited signing officer” or “assistant vice president” and that is going down the drain. Now they are bringing foreclosures in the name of “Trustees” and the cracks in that strategy are already appearing.
What they were doing was buying time. The ‘Trustee” in fact had virtually no powers on paper and certainly no power in practice. The “Trust” was an entity “to be formed by the Master Servicer” and never was. And now the reality is the investors have been written off, with the Master Servicer buying the pool, and engaged in repackaging loans that are already dead or dying, selling an entirely new securitization package to anew group of investors with a similar structure as the old one but with new investors, underwriting, etc.
The investment bank, through the Master Servicer declares that the value of the “pool” has gone down. They don’t actually know or care whether or how much the value of the pool has gone down or up, they just declare it because they can according to the securitization documents. That triggers the Master Servicer to put a value on the pool and buy it at that value or even lower if the pool is seen as a declining asset.
Keep in mind that the pool is a process rather than a single thing or event. Loans are being taken out and new ones are put in. Assignments during litigation are direct violations of the pooling and servicing agreements that prohibit acceptance of the assignment of a non-performing loan after the cutoff date which is usually years before the litigation. So in truth nobody really knows what really made it into the pool or if there really was a pool by any name, whether any particular loan is STILL in the pool.
So the Master Servicer buys the pool and the investors settle for pennies on the dollar. Then the write-down of the pool on the mere declaration of the investment bank or its agents or affiliates, triggers claims for losses backed up by insurance, credit enhancements, credit default swaps, guarantees etc. Since there are no investors left in the pool by virtue of the Master Servicer’s purchase, the proceeds of the third party payments go to the party that owns the policy or contract, to wit: the investment bank, Master Servicer or other affiliate, which in turn takes part of the money as profit and sends the rest to London or Luxembourg.
Under this scenario, the investors who were the lenders in the borrower’s loan are no longer in the picture and arguably have no right or claim to third party payments. Since they were the creditor, the allocation of third party payments to the obligation from the borrowers never occurs. Hence while the loan is paid off sometimes multiple times, neither the borrower nor the investor get to see a penny of it.
To make matters worse, the “Trustee” is now bringing foreclosure actions on behalf of dormant or dissolved pools that never existed as actual legal trusts, and which have been dissolved anyway. So they get the money from the yield spread premium where they took the investor money and only invested part of it in mortgages. They get the money from third party payments. And now they are going after the houses.
Somehow all this is being allowed because under some philosophical theory it is more equitable for these intermediaries who never invested a penny in any loan deal to make a profit than to let the borrower keep a house of dubious value. The borrower who was cheated by the false appraisals just like the like the investors were cheated by the false appraisals of the securities they bought, now is sitting with a defective loan, a devalued house, and a life in shambles. How is that a good thing?
So, you know The Real Estate Guys radio show, right? Russell Grey & Robert Helms? Sure you do… Not only are they like famous on the radio, but Robert and Russ have co-authored the very highly rated book Equity Happens and star together on The Real Estate Guys TV Show which can be seen on The Success Training Network (TSTN).
So, they asked me to be on their show and I said… well, I said sure. So, I did it, and it was fun and then I completely forgot about posting the show here. Isn’t that just so… me. Well, the truth is that not being in real estate, I really had no idea about their show, and I thought it sounded pretty boring… sorry, I did… but it actually wasn’t. It’s sort of like Click & Clack, those brothers that do Car Talk on NPR on weekends. You think it’s going to be dull, but then it’s not.
Well, they’ve become pretty big all over the country, and they have a really cool Website, which you can find here: The Real Estate Guys.
The thing is, the show was done last fall, so I wasn’t really sure it would still be relevant today, but luckily for me… we’ve made no progress whatsoever in the loan modification department, so if I did the show today, I’d be saying pretty much the same stuff. How lucky is that? Gee, I hope we make no progress again next year and I can just keep this show up indefinitely… of course, we’ll all be living under one of those bridges President Obama keeps saying we’re fixing as part of the economic stimulus, but so what…
So… if you want to hear a little Mandelman on The Real Estate Guys talking about loan modifications and the mess that is the foreclosure crisis, well then you have to click below… if not, not.
Come on… you want to hear it… I know you do… click it! It doesn’t suck, I swear. And if it skips in the beginning, don’t stop it, it just takes a minute or two to load.
The negotiations to obtain a loan modification were widely believed to be 3-4 weeks… but in truth often required 5-9 months, and as a result, the effective outcome of SB 94 and/or AB 764 would be that no attorneys could afford to take on a client who was seeking representation in the negotiations with their lender. And this would effectively deprive California’s homeowners from being able to engage legal representation.”
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