mortgage robo-signing scandal

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Staffers: Bank of America Gave Us Gift Cards for Lying

Lawsuit says company cheated homeowners

(Newser) - Bank of America told employees to lie to and cheat homeowners looking for help under the government's Home Affordable Modification Program , and rewarded those employees for kicking people out of their homes, staffers allege in sworn statements attached to a recently filed lawsuit. Here are some of the most...

Credit Cards Hit Clients With 'Robo-Signed' Lawsuits

Courts flooded with cases based on slim or falsified evidence

(Newser) - Looks like mortgage foreclosures aren't the only things banks "robo-signed." A glut of credit card lawsuits is revealing that card issuers have the same tendency to use shoddy, incomplete, or erroneous documents against clients, the New York Times reports. Companies like American Express, Citigroup, and Discover have...

States Grab Robosigning Settlement—to Pay Own Bills

California, Georgia, others use settlement as slush fund

(Newser) - When banks agreed to hand the states billions of dollars to resolve the robosigning scandal earlier this year, the money was supposed to go to help struggling homeowners. Instead, more than a dozen states have used it to plug holes in their budgets, the New York Times reports. The latest...

Banks Ink $26B Deal to Help 2M Homeowners

49 states sign on to deal with nation's top 5 banks

(Newser) - America's five biggest banks have hammered out a $26 billion settlement for their role in causing the mortgage meltdown, reports the Wall Street Journal . The deal—the biggest of its kind since 1998's $206 billion settlement with the tobacco industry—was hammered out during almost a year of...

Calif., NY May Sign On to Robo-Signing Settlement

Obama administration nearing deal for mortgage relief

(Newser) - California and New York are close to signing on to the Obama administration's multibillion dollar mortgage robo-signing settlement, significantly expanding the deal, the New York Times reports. If California signs on, the settlement total will jump from $19 billion to $25 billion. In exchange, the states want measures to...

Massachusetts Sues Big Banks Over Mortgage Fraud

Says it will not sign onto any lenient robosigning settlement

(Newser) - Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley—best remembered for her failed campaign against Scott Brown —has filed a lawsuit against Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Ally Financial over alleged mortgage fraud offenses, including the “robo-signing” scandal. The suit also names MERSCORP which produces an electronic...

Foreclosures Shoot Up 7%
 Foreclosures Shoot Up 7% 
Nov 10, 2011 9:07 AM CST

Foreclosures Shoot Up 7%

RealtyTrac calls it the end of the robosigning 'rain delay'

(Newser) - Banks let loose a flurry of foreclosures in October, filing foreclosure actions on 230,678 homes in total—a 7% jump from September, according to new figures from RealtyTrac. First notices of default were sent out on 77,733 houses, a 10% jump from the month before. The numbers “...

Feds: Do-Nothing Fannie Mae Knew of Foreclosure Abuses in '03

But oversight will be 'tightened' by end of next year

(Newser) - Mortgage officials at Fannie Mae knew eight years ago of possibly illegal foreclosures by law firms they employed—but did nothing to stop them, according to a federal report. Fannie Mae's own investigation concluded that Florida attorneys were "routinely filing false pleadings and affidavits" to improperly foreclose on...

States Offer Banks Immunity From Mortgage Lawsuits

In exchange for up to $25B payoff

(Newser) - State prosecutors are offering big banks an expensive Get Out of Lawsuits Free card. Prosecutors have offered a variety of banks caught up in the “robosigning” scandal immunity from some litigation in exchange for a total of $10 billion to $25 billion in penalties, the Financial Times reports. Some...

Fake Mortgage Signatures Still Rampant

Eight months later, practice continues

(Newser) - More than eight months after banks and mortgage companies promised to put an end to robo-signing , the practice continues. Thousands of suspicious signatures have been found on mortgage documents in three states since last fall, the AP reports. In one notable example from Massachusetts, the name "Linda Green" has...

Bank of America 'Hindered' Feds' Investigation

Company refused to let employees answer questions, allow walk-through

(Newser) - Given the chance to come clean on its robo-signing scandal, Bank of America instead dug in its heels and “significantly hindered” the federal investigation of its foreclosure practices, according to a HUD official. According to the official's sworn statement filed in Arizona court, BofA lawyers refused “on...

Free House: Iowa Loophole Gets Couple Facing Foreclosure a House for One Payment
Loophole Gets Couple a House for Just One Payment
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 20, 2011 4:30 PM CDT

Loophole Gets Couple a House for Just One Payment

Facing foreclosure, they discover a 123-year-old law

(Newser) - Thanks to a loophole in Iowa law, Matt and Jamie Danielson now own their $278,000 home outright—for the cost of just one mortgage payment. The Danielsons fought foreclosure—and won—by citing a 123-year-old law that requires mortgages be signed by both spouses. A home-loan approval Matt Danielson...

Fed: Banks Did Not Make Single Wrongful Foreclosure

Consumer advocates livid over finding

(Newser) - The Federal Reserve’s probe into the robo-signing scandal and other abusive mortgage practices failed to turn up a single wrongful foreclosure, the Fed’s Consumer Advisory Council revealed yesterday. But many consumer advocates on the council, which is made up of outside experts, complained that the Fed had too...

Banks Claimed a Record 1M Homes Last Year

And this year will be even worse

(Newser) - Banks repossessed a little more than a million homes last year, a record high, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac —and that’s despite a sharp drop off in the fourth quarter thanks to the robo-signing scandal . Next year will likely be even worse, one RealtyTrac exec tells...

Dead Woman Signed Debt Collection Affidavits

Or so it seems ... It's a sign of the industry's 'alarming' robo-signing sloppiness

(Newser) - Martha Kunkle signed thousands of affidavits for a large debt collector … after her death in 1995. Portfolio Recovery Associates says her signature hasn’t been used since 2008, when its invalidity was first questioned—well, uh, except in one case last July that a rep claims was “inadvertent”...

For Some Homeowners, Foreclosure Comes by Mistake

Many forced to hire lawyers, file lawsuits to stop the process

(Newser) - The foreclosure mess gets messier: A growing number of people are finding themselves embroiled in a foreclosure fight even though they've never defaulted on their loans—in some cases, they didn't even have loans to default on. An extensive AP story looks at some of the cases, including a man...

Bernanke: Fed Probing Foreclosure Scandal

Will examine debacle's effect on real-estate market

(Newser) - Federal banking regulators are examining whether mortgage companies cut corners on their own procedures when they moved to foreclose on people's homes, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said today. "We are looking intensively at the firms' policies, procedures, and internal controls," Bernanke said. "We take violations of...

Florida Law Firm Bribed Workers to Forge Foreclosures

...and big bribes at that: jewelry, cars, houses

(Newser) - Employees at Florida’s largest “foreclosure mill” routinely altered and forged documents to speed up the foreclosure process—and were rewarded with jewelry, cars, and other lavish gifts as a result, witnesses tell Florida’s Attorney General. Three former employees of the law offices of David J. Stern have...

GMAC, BofA Restarting Foreclosures
 GMAC, BofA 
 Restarting 
 Foreclosures 
UPDATED
Oct 19, 2010 9:17 AM CDT

GMAC, BofA Restarting Foreclosures

Two vast banks at center of crisis find no significant problems

(Newser) - Bank of America and GMAC, two huge players in the mortgage crisis, are moving to resume foreclosures, effectively ending a self-imposed moratorium meant to give them time to look for errors, the Wall Street Journal reports. A BofA spokesman said the bank would resubmit paperwork for 102,000 cases by...

BofA Moves to Restart Foreclosures
 BofA Moves to 
 Restart Foreclosures 
BRIEF RESPITE
Oct 18, 2010 4:29 PM CDT

BofA Moves to Restart Foreclosures

Bank resubmits affidavits in 102,000 pending actions

(Newser) - Bank of America moved to re-start foreclosures today, moving to resubmit paperwork for 102,000 cases and effectively ending the moratorium it enacted to give it time to look for errors, the Wall Street Journal reports. A BofA spokesman said that so far "no cases" of improper foreclosures have...

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