Max and the whole Boot Camp Army salutes fellow Boot Camper Marie McDonnell for her part in the groundbreaking foreclosure case Ibanez. The site StopForeclosureFraud had this to say: Today my friend’s history was made. The Massachusetts decision represents a major victory for consumers as well as for the handful of attorneys and advocates who dedicated their lives to protecting the defenseless. Perhaps …
Jesse Eisinger Discusses Merrill Lynch’s Internal “Subsidy”
A podcast from ProPublica. This week, Jesse Eisinger sits down with us to discuss Merrill Lynch and how its decision to internally boost demand for their money-losing securities nearly cost the banking giant everything. Eisinger explains what Merrill staffers meant by “a million for a billion,” which executives knew about the plan and whether it was legal. Oddly enough, there …
Banks Lose Pivotal Massachusetts Foreclosure Case
Big news today in the foreclosure world as reported by Bloomberg. The link to the actual decision is here. U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co. lost a foreclosure case in Massachusetts’s highest court that will guide lower courts in that state and may influence others in the clash between bank practices and state real-estate law. The ruling drove down …
Foreclosures May Be Undone by State Ruling on Mortgage Transfer
Via Bloomberg. Boot Camper Marie McDonnell is quoted in the piece. Massachusetts’s highest court is poised to rule on whether foreclosures in the state should be undone because securitization-industry practices violate real- estate law governing how mortgages may be transferred. The fight between homeowners and banks before the Supreme Judicial Court in Boston turns on whether a mortgage can be …
Standing in the Wake of the Foreclosure Crisis: Why Procedural Requirements are Necessary to Prevent Further Loss to Homeowners
Timothy Froehle The University of Iowa College of Law, Iowa Law Review, Forthcoming Abstract: In the current fallout from the foreclosure crisis and the securitization of mortgages, an old procedural doctrine is becoming increasingly relevant to homeowners facing foreclosure. The doctrine of standing is surfacing in the contexts of judicial foreclosure and bankruptcy proceedings as a defense to the foreclosing …
Fed Plans to End Tough Sanction Against Predatory Lending
Yves Smith add her thoughts on a Huffington Post article What gets interesting is how recission plays into the securitization model. The borrower is still on the hook for the principal, but with no ability to foreclose, it’s hard to compel the borrower to repay. And remember from our previous discussions of securitization, that “banks”, meaning servicers, are keen to …
Iowa AG Miller Commits to Prosecution of Bank Execs, Seeking Principal Mods
Via Naked Capitalism. We asked readers to sign a letter to Iowa attorney general Tom Miller, who is leading the 50 state probe into foreclosure and mortgage abuses. Here is the official report from National People’s Action, which was part of the group that met with Miller earlier today: Leader of 50 State Foreclosure Probe Tells Struggling Homeowners: “We Will …
False Attorney Signatures Cast New Doubts on Foreclosures
Via ProPublica by Sasha Chavkin Dec. 13, 2010 Many foreclosures have been thrown into question because of flawed documentation such as inaccurate affidavits describing a mortgage’s history. But three recent court cases point to another type of flaw in foreclosure filings that could place thousands more cases in doubt: false attorney signatures on court documents. Experts said that foreclosures that …
U of I law professor says financial crisis is a wakeup call
From the Des Moines Register. Katherine Porter, a University of Iowa law professor on loan to Harvard University, has studied bankruptcy and foreclosure issues ranging from adding unjustified fees during foreclosure to the ineffectiveness of required bankruptcy counseling. Both Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and Porter have testified before congressional committees investigating foreclosure problems. Q: Our nation’s foreclosure problems are …
Mortgage Securitization, Servicing, and Consumer Bankruptcy
From the Wayback Machine, an article that Max wrote that first appeared in the American Bar Association Newsletter in September 2005. Even more relevant today than it was five years ago. By O. Max Gardner III Wayne Gretzky once said that his success was due to the fact that he focused on where the puck was going to be, not …