A Victory for the Public on Foreclosures?

A foreclosed home in Miami, Florida.

POSTED: January 28, 12:07 PM ET 

So there was big news yesterday on the foreclosure settlement front. We still have to wait and see what the final deal looks like, but there are reports out that the long-awaited settlement is a far, far better deal for the public than expected. If these reports are true, it looks like New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and California AG Kamala Harris have scored an enormous victory in narrowing the scope of the settlement to the point where it really only covers robosigning abuses.

According to reports (like this one in the Huffington Post), the deal will not include:

1. Criminal liability.
2. Tax liability
3. Fair lending, fair housing, or any other civil rights claim.
4. Federal Housing Finance Agency or the GSEs [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac]
5. CFPB claims for the period after they came into existence in July 2011
6. SEC claims
7. National Credit Union Association Claims
8. FDIC claims
9. Federal Reserve Board claims
10. MERS claims

If that is true, and all of those things are out of the deal, and the banks are still exposed to liability not only for all of those things, but also for the broad range of offenses related to securitization, then $25 billion, dare I say it, might not even be a completely sucky number. It's far less than the real liability, but it's a much bigger sum than I ever thought would be negotiated just for robosigning.

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Despite Widespread Wrongdoing, Fed’l Prosecution of Institutions Involved in Mortgage Mess is Rare

Figure 6: Top Mortgage Fraud States by
Multiple Indicators, 2009

Posted Dec 22, 2011 2:35 PM CST
By Martha Neil

Despite widespread evidence of fraud and other wrongdoing, federal prosecutions related to the reckless mortgage lending that nearly brought down the nation's banking system in recent years are few and far between.

From the "robosigning" of thousands of mortgage foreclosure documents by individuals who apparently didn't have authority to do so to the thousands of active-duty members of the military who have lost their homes to foreclosure, even though they are legally eligible for stays and it is a misdemeanor to refuse to grant them, serious documented problems with the system abound concerning these and other issues, according to a Reuters special report.

"I think it's difficult to find a fraud of this size on the U.S. court system in U.S. history," said visiting Yale Law School professor Raymond Brescia. "I can't think of one where you have literally tens of thousands of fraudulent documents filed in tens of thousands of cases."  READ MORE

SEE ALSO:
2009 Mortgage Fraud Report “Year in Review”

Black Baptist Church Is Rightful Owner of KKK Store, Judge Rules

The Rev. David Kennedy outside
the Redneck Shop

Posted Jan 4, 2012 11:23 AM CST
By Rachel M. Zahorsky

A South Carolina district court judge recently ruled that the New Beginnings Baptist Church is the rightful owner of a store that sells Ku Klux Klan robes and T-shirts.

The battle over the building began in 1997 when a disgruntled KKK member transferred ownership to Rev. David Kennedy and his church, the Associated Press reports. However, a clause in the deed entitles the store’s proprietor, John Howard, to operate his business, the Redneck Shop, until he dies.
After a decade of Howard refusing to allow Kennedy and New Beginnings to inspect the property, the church finally sued the former KKK grand dragon for the Carolinas and others in 2008.
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New York AG Sues 3 Major Banks and MERS, Calls Mass Foreclosure Filings a Fraud on Court

Posted Feb 3, 2012 6:01 PM CST
By Martha Neil

The attorney general of New York today filed suit in state court against three major banks and an electronic mortgage recording operation, contending that they circumvented legal requirements and cost the the state some $2 billion in property recording fees by keeping their own private list of property transfers and mortgage assignments.

The Brooklyn Supreme Court suit seeks to ban foreclosure filings that rely on information from the Mortgage Electronic Registration System and obtain reimbursement from the defendants for lost recording fees and other damages, according to the Los Angeles Times and Reuters.
Bloomberg also has a story.

"The banks created the MERS system as an end-run around the property recording system to facilitate the rapid securitization and sale of mortgages,” AG Eric Schneiderman said in a written statement today. “Once the mortgages went sour, these same banks brought foreclosure proceedings en masse based on deceptive and fraudulent court submissions, seeking to take homes away from people with little regard for basic legal requirements or the rule of law.”  READ MORE

Patriots Debate: The Meaning of the Constitution in a Time of Terror

Posted Feb 3, 2012 8:27 PM CST

Since the events of 2001, the intersection of law and terrorism has become one of the most volatile zones in the public square—a place where qualities of life and manners of death are deliberated against 225 years of the U.S. Constitution.

This month we are offering the first in a series of debates about some of the enduring constitutional issues that pit personal freedom, national security, political expression, human rights and institutional responsibilities—each against the other. The entire series will be available as Patriots Debate: Contemporary Issues in National Security Law, an ABA Standing Committee on Law and National Security book scheduled for publication in spring 2012.

Constitutional Dilemma: The Power to Declare War Is Deeply Rooted in American History by

• Richard Brust
• • War Powers Belong to the President by John Yoo
• • Only Congress Can Declare War by Louis Fisher

Next Topic: TARGETED KILLINGS

Nobel Peace Prize Jury Under Investigation

Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist, inventor of dynamite
and prize giver. (photo: Library of Congress)

By Karl Ritter, Associated Press

02 February 12

he nomination deadline for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize closed Wednesday amid renewed criticism that the award committee has drifted away from the selection criteria established by prize founder Alfred Nobel.

Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina, jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Cuban rights activists Oswaldo Paya and Yoani Sanchez are among the candidates who have been publicly announced by those who nominated them.

The secretive prize committee doesn't discuss nominations - which have to be postmarked by Feb. 1 to be valid - but stresses that being nominated doesn't say anything about a candidate's chances.

Its choices often spark debate - the world rarely agrees on who's most deserving of the $1.5 million award - but this year the committee is facing criticism even before the deliberations have begun.

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In the Assange Case We Are All Suspects Now

First day of hearing into extradition of WikiLeaks
founder to Sweden centers on issue of Swedish
prosecutor's impartiality. (photo: Guardian UK)

By John Pilger, The New Statesman

02 February 12

his month's Supreme Court hearing in the Julian Assange case has profound meaning for the preservation of basic freedoms in western democracies. This is Assange's final appeal against his extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual misconduct that were originally dismissed by the chief prosecutor in Stockholm and constitute no crime in Britain.

The consequences, if he loses, lie not in Sweden but in the shadows cast by America's descent into totalitarianism. In Sweden, he is at risk of being "temporarily surrendered" to the US, where his life has been threatened and he is accused of "aiding the enemy" with Bradley Manning, the young soldier accused of leaking evidence of US war crimes to WikiLeaks.

The connections between Manning and Assange have been concocted by a secret grand jury in Virginia that allowed no defence counsel or witnesses, and by a system of plea-bargaining that ensures a 90 per cent conviction rate. It is reminiscent of a Soviet show trial.

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