By David Dayen, a lapsed blogger, now a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, CA. Follow him on Twitter @ddayen
A couple months ago, Elizabeth Warren and Elijah Cummings opened what they described as an investigation into the Independent Foreclosure Reviews. We all knew the IFRs deserved some form of response by Congress, and we knew that the OCC and the Fed wanted no part of any questioning of their latest gift to predatory banks and their fraudulent practices.
But we didn’t know how much they would try to stonewall this investigation right from the outset – at least not until today, when Warren and Cummings released some of their recent correspondence with the federal regulators. First of all, in the general niceties, acknowledging that Comptroller Thomas Curry and Fed Chair Ben Bernanke responded to their request for information about the reviews and the settlement, they note that the response only arrived last Friday – they requested the information January 31. And then there’s this:
For our 14 specific requests, your response letter provided two partial responses and only one full response. The table below details specifically what we requested, the information you provided in your March 22 letter, and the information yet to be provided.
The only full response was OCC and the Fed’s confirmation that no remediation has yet been paid out, though cards went in the mail last week announcing the settlement to those affected, with checks to be mailed in April. This is a trivial piece of information compared to Warren and Cummings’ requests for all the performance reviews conducted by the regulators of the IFRs, correspondence between the regulators and the servicers on the matter, amounts paid to each contractor conducting the reviews, total requests for review from borrowers, and the actual findings of the reviews. Now, OCC has dribbled out this information bit by bit, but not in a comprehensive manner, and certainly not enough for Congress to conduct oversight. You can read the dismissive, two-page letter from Curry and Bernanke here.
Warren and Cummings did pull out one piece of information they have been given, however, to make a pretty powerful point:
By your account, the Federal Reserve and the OCC have overseen the expenditure of $2 billion on the Independent Foreclosure Review process – nearly $20,000 per file reviewed. That is a staggering amount. It is nearly five times the average payout that will go to homeowners as part of the settlement.
But Warren and Cummings are letting them off easy here. It’s not a 5:1 relationship; by my count it’s over 20:1. The only hard dollars in the OCC settlement are the approximately $3.6 billion going to 4.2 million foreclosure victims from 2009 and 2010. That’s less than $1,000 per victim. The $5.7 billion in “relief” for current borrowers in the settlement has been revealed as laughable by anyone who has taken a cursory look. Banks can theoretically reduce a borrower’s debt by one dollar on a million-dollar loan and get $1 million in credit. It’s not at all worth mentioning that exercise in creative accounting.
So what we have here is a penalty for banks robbing people of their homes (Warren and Cummings are quick to point out the 700-plus illegal foreclosures banks have admitted to in the course of the reviews), where shadow regulator “reviewers” like Promontory Financial Group made out at twenty times the rate of the actual victims who were harmed. And as Yves has painstakingly documented, the consultants were more interested in finding elegant ways NOT to review the files, or to creatively spin the findings. Paradoxically, this probably led to higher costs for the reviews in many cases, because they were standardized in such a way that brought confusion into play, causing unnecessary delays and errors. So Promontory and the gang got to rack up their billings, while foreclosure victims got crumbs.
Whether 5:1 or 20:1, the few representatives willing to overturn the rocks and look at this are at least pressing the issue. Warren and Cummings, in their letter, take OCC and the Fed up on the offer of a briefing on the IFRs; they want to hold it April 9. And they plan for that as a prelude to “establish a schedule for the production of the documents we have requested.” In potentially better news, Sherrod Brown will hold hearings on the reviews, and specifically the third-party consultants who earned the rewards:
U.S. lawmakers plan to summon regulators and outside consulting firms to explain shortcomings in a multi-billion dollar settlement over botched mortgage foreclosures, according to two people briefed on the plan.
Senator Sherrod Brown, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee’s subcommittee on financial institutions, is scheduling a hearing to examine the relationship between federal agencies and third-party firms for mid-April, according to the people, who asked not to be named because the hearing hasn’t been announced.
Good for Brown to use his subcommittee in this matter. And if you like such boldness from the typically somnambulant Banking Committee, the announcement that Chairman Tim Johnson will retire this year will set off a chain reaction that could see the Chairmanship fall into Brown’s hands. (In a nutshell, Jack Reed covets the open Armed Services Committee chair, Chuck Schumer would have to give up the opportunity for caucus leadership, Bob Menendez already has a committee, and Brown is next in line). Brown remains committed to solving the Too Big to Fail problem, and has forged alliances with conservatives toward that goal. He and David Vitter passed a (nonbinding) resolution to the Senate budget late last week to end the implicit subsidies for Wall Street banks with over $500 billion in total assets. The amendment passed 99-0.
Now, I wouldn’t expect a Break Up the Banks bill, say, tomorrow, but at least a few members of Congress do seem offended enough by the IFR and the cash cow to shadow regulators like Promontory that they want to make an example of them. And the more information that gets out there, the more of a chance for action.
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Thanks for following up on this matter. Please note that I got a 404 error when I hit the link for the “dismissive, two page letter”. Thanks again.
take off the http://www.nakedcapitalism... stuff at the beginning and then the end of the link works:
http:/democrats.oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Cummings Response 3.22.13.pdf
I read today the former SEC head is now at Promontory….again a FOX guarding the henhouse! I can not believe the cost for the partial file reviews completed was $2,000,000,000 leaving slightly more than that to compensate the victims….unbelievable.
Hi, I have been doing osme investagations on my own. One is that Rust the company that is handling handking out payments are giving people a hard time when they call to update their informatoin. And most importantly, the people that are suppose to get the checks the foreclosed homeowners, have mostly moved twice during that time. The addressed were checked over a year ago. I never got a post card because it was going to an old address that I did not even recieve mail at ever I used a PO Box. It was by the grace of God I was researching looking for any other law suits I could join that I even found out about this VERY IMPORTANT ONE. I have complained to JP Mortgage because Rust did not want to change my address with out sending me a piece of paper that would take 3 weeks to get to me then another 3 to get back to them and the checks started going out April 12th. They were willing to send a check out again to a place I TOLD them I did not live at any longer. HOW SAD So if you are any one you know is in this cureent cycle, which they may not even know they are in , they should call Rust Company ASAP
Good to see you Dave!
Though I should have received one of those cards since they sent me other mailings in the past, I have not yet received it. I moved last fall so maybe it got returned to them and they’ll be good enough to resend it to my new address, but I’m not holding my breath.
The whole response from the OCC and Obama Administration has been laughable. Millions of people had – and are still in the process of having – their homes stolen and lives destroyed due to Wall Steet’s greed and the government’s response to protect them and make them whole at the expense of the actual victims.
i’m sure that you meant to write a different word than “laughable”
Yes, I meant laughable in the sense that it’s either laugh about it or become suicidal if you’re the victim of their unrelenting protection of Wall Street.
Dave’s writing is so good I forgot that I won’t be getting that card or a check because GMAC/Ally is not part of this “settlement” and no one has yet explained what happens to (for?) those people whose bank/servicer chose not to participate in this latest swindle. The last thing I heard was that those “reviews” will continue, but I honestly don’t see how they would be any better or more cost-effective than the banks/servicers who are part of this “settlement.”
“Nearly $20k per file reviewed.”
No. Negative. NO! It can’t be true. They didn’t really spend $2B total and the best cost per unit was $20k. No.
Stunning ROI, among other things.
If you think about it, $20K per file review is about the same price as private health insurance for 2 people — and the ROI is similar too, given that the $20K per year in health insurance buys you the privilege of spending thousands of dollars out of pocket and then finding out you are not covered for tens or hundreds of thousands.
The details of the OCC-Promontory file review Scam are looking very much like acute symptoms of late-stage, brazen + desperate, looting.
Weren’t the banks paying for the reviews? Apparently a cover up has become exorbitantly expensive. The banks should complain to someone.
Though if the reviews turn out to be successful (at covering up the malfeasance), the ROI for the bank’s $2b is priceless.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I think for the banks and Promontory (and the OCC — viz., revolving door opportunities for persons currently there employed — note how GC Cruella Julie went to Promontory during the reviews) the ROI was/is superb, off the charts, unbeatable.
Banks got nothing to complain about — they and their pals got exactly what they wanted. Ownership of illegally foreclosed properties, junk fees, ongoing re-mortgaging and re-packaging of the illegally obtained properties, zero exposure to state fraud lawsuits, etc.
As someone mentioned today, this is it — acute, late-stage, aggressive and blatantly overt looting of whatever is left by the jackals in power in the Priv-ublic Sphere.
Sorry, “GC” (General Counsel), not “CG”
P.S. I think it is looking increasingly like the “review” was actually intended as *the* coverup. Nice sneaky way to get it funded by Congress, calling it a help-the-homeowners program. On the other hand, if there’s a distinguishing feature of Obama’s reign it’s Trojan Horses.
Yes they did. It was $2 billion in fees paid to the various independent consultants. This was indeed real payments to third parties.
The real money is what the banks and their partners (vendors) always end up with. Funny how that works out. Everyone else ends up with … ephemera.
Yves, I think LF was being sarc’y :)
I must admit the prospect of Brown as Chairman of the Banking Committee is pretty good. The only question is whether Schumer’s constituents will prevail upon him to take one for the team.
I received my card from the “paying agent” Rust Consulting, last week, and I’ve got to say it’s oh so comforting to know that Chase spent $20,000 on my review, for which I’ll “maybe” receive $1,000. Which is about the cost of my time assembling my filing.
My question is, where’s the settlement for illegally foreclosing on my home with fraudulent paperwork, plus the damage to my credit from their filing?
Hopefully requesting one of these fraudulent OCC reviews did not waive any of your rights to sue for compensatory and punitive damages in court, assuming Statute of Limitations is still on your side.
No, even getting a measley check does not waive any rights either.
Good, I’m glad to hear that. I hope there’s some sort of tolling triggered by the phony “review” process during which many victims of illegal bank foreclosure activities may have been lulled into no bringing affirmative litigation.
Good luck trying to directly sue the banks. Talk to consumer attorneys and you will soon discover it is no easy task. You better have tons of money to risk. In my case, I have excellent docs., including audio tapes, to prove fraud used in the HAMP program. However, very few Federal courts will allow individuals to sue the banks directly on the HAMP issue. So Mr. Curry of the OCC,STOP spouting that we homeowners have the option to take legal action! It is NOT a viable alternative!!!
What IS laughable here is the notion that the OCC, the FED, and these bank robbers just somehow pulled this $3.6 billion figure out of their collective asses. Who was it that determined the price of this enormous swindle? The Bernank? Curry? Or did they just ask nicely, “Mr. Dimon, how much would you like to spend?”
Why not $50 billion? What’s the going rate for papering over millions of RICO counts?
I confess, I lose track of the paper-over sellouts, but going-rate wise, I remember Yves’ #1 reason of her top 12 reasons to hate the mortgage settlement was:
What is the correlation of DOJ mortgage settlement sellout to OCC sellout? Are we slicing same baloney finer (is today’s $1000 yesterday’s $2000?) or getting new stick (how many times and ways does Bank of America get bailed out? As servicer/ lender/ seller of MBS?)
The OCC settlement is $3.6 million divided among 4.2 million borrowers. Apparently, even those who didn’t request a review will be considered in the settlement. It’s unclear though if that means all will receive compensation, nor have they detailed how compensation will be determined. It should be interesting how they can determine if somebody merits compensation without reviewing the remainder of the files. Use the mortgage loan #’s and play bingo????
you have it wrong the number is 4.2 million homeowners to 3.6 Billion dollars.
Payout should be given to those homeowner whose homere were foreclosed in 2009-2011. Why do you have to include the loan modification, they got the home and still living where those home that were completely foreclosed and sold by agressive foreclosure lawyer and listed to the realtors and sold at cheaper. The government should also go to foreclosure lawyer and also to the sheriff staff. Please have mercey to those homeowers whose home were completely foreclosed. They deserved the $125,000 to start their life.
Yes, you are right. The government should give the payout of $125k to the homeowners who lost their home thru foreclosure in 2009-2011. Ingnore those who got loan modification, they got their home and they are still living in their home.Why you give them money.
Like me, i am a single mom and i developed nervous and breast cancer due to this foreclosure. Day and nite, sheriff are in my home that is why i completely give up my home which I lvied since 1990.
The government should also penalize the foreclosure lawyer. They are very aggresive.
I got a modification (AFTER, 7 forbearance or whatever called) plans I was paying on and for one reason or another Chase then stopped (not dated, lacked a form or any other excuse they could come up with)
My home was in foreclosure because Chase during all of these processes told me directly not to send in the mortgage payments I wanted to send because it would mess up the process. They were the ones who insisted I do a forbearance or whatever they called it because I was going to be late on a payment due to my wife losing her job and I had a emergency surgery. This lingered on for almost 4 years.
In the end, the MODIFICATION (so to speak) increased my mortgage to Chase by over $27,000 in penalties, fee’s and interest and my monthly mortgage payment went up almost $100.00. Plus the credit rating thing for late payments when had an almost perfect credit score prior to this mess.
In my fight with Chase at the beginning all I wanted was them to correct the credit reporting, take my mortgage back to where it was and credit me for payments made in the temporary plans (which they never did and called them additional fee’s) and make my monthly payment as to the original note. After awhile then it became screw you, I have had enough. I filed with the State AG and this program.
They should be made to pay out even more for all the other damages they caused in total foreclosures to these incidents as mine
linden they did the same with me, I was told it wouldn’t help to make any further payments. On my 45th b-day 9am I was handed papers to leave premises…Devastation…
Payout should be given to those homeowners whose home were foreclosed in 2009-2011. Why do you have to include the loan modification, they got the home and still living where those home that were completely foreclosed and sold by agressive foreclosure lawyer and listed to the realtors and sold at cheaper. The government should also go to the foreclosure lawyers and also to the sheriff staff. Please have mercy to those homeowners whose home were completely foreclosed. They deserved the $125,000 to start their life.
Homeowners who completely lost their home thru foreclosure in 2009-2011 deserved the $125,000 for new start life especially right now, they have no job, lost income,etc.
I think the modified loans are included because in most cases the borrower in threat of foreclosure was offered a loan modification, but for that to happen would cause the borrower not only to come up with late payments but also pay an attorney 5 to 10k plus late loan payment to reinstate the loan. These modified loans were on a trial basis and in some cases never converted back to original contractual loan agreement status. In many ways, the folks who entered into a modified program paid alot more in damage than the pereson who stratigicaly alowed the foreclosure to happen.
I think part of Yves’ OCC review series was that starting a homeowner on mod path was way bank reviews could wipe out any recognition of harm prior to that. You weren’t going to succeed in mod, too bad, and it wiped out your prior history, so sad. Bank dusts off its left and right hands. Now that they’re starting from scratch again, I don’t know how that’s going to work, how they determine who’s in the pool.
After falling a few months behind, my loan was “modified” in 2009. Apparently modify means increase monthly payment by several hundred dollars. I didn’t quite understand why they (Litton Loan) would think this would help me. I was obviously having a hard time affording my Payment, then they make it bigger? After struggling for a few months making these bigger payments, I fell behind again. They then told me I couldn’t be modified again or anything like that. Nothing to help me. I either had to come up with all the payments I was behind, plus all the legal fees and whatever else they charged me for, which totaled around. $28,000…or lose the house. So I got a loan from work…desperate to save my house. Was doing ok for a while when I fell into the same situation. After all that, I now had a$28,000 loan I was also paying back. This time…same thing…nothing we can do to help. Amount was $9600. Or lose the house. Again I came up with th money. Add that loan to the previous one. This all happened between 2009 and 2011. Fell behind 3 payments early 2012. In may I got the letter that I was in foreclosure again. Only this time there was nothing I could do. They weren’t real helpful. I really don’t think they cared at all. The only way I could save my home was to pay the amount due to pay off the house. Not possible. My house of 10 years was sold in July 2012. Looking back, I wish I would have just let it go back the first time it was in foreclosure. I could have saved a lot of $$!!! I got the post card in the mails few weeks ago. Not sure what category I fall under…or if any. I doubt I get anything. It was my fault I missed payments. Just wish I wouldn’t have spent almost 40 grand to turn around and lose my home anyway.
Thank you Erik for that comment and you were absolutely right. I got behind on one payment because my mom died due to a car accident , at which my brother and sister accused me and my sister of tryin to kill her while she was hospitalized before the accident killed her. We needed the money to pay the attorney to fight my brothers accusations. I finally sent in one mortgage payment via western union, wells fargo sent it back to me via western union, then I received forclosure papers, wrote a letter to the judge explaining why I was 1 month late. meanwhile they did a loan modification, Then denied it, and offered me four months to come up with 2,500.00 to save my home from being forclosed on. I had to forget about, my moms death and all the accusations from my brothers and sisters and had to work 16 hour days to save my house from an illegal forclosure, I am also now on blood pressure pills and antidepresants and on top of that I am still trying to catch up on my mortgage payments,my interest rate is 10.50% and I ask if the could possibly reduce my mortgage rate and they simply said no. Havent had time for bereavement. We all deserve compensation. My life was pure hell, but with the help of the lord I will prevail.
I agree….
You are right payment should be given only to those that lost their homes, I lost a good business and my home of 12 years, which had a profound affect on my family! We a still trying to recover. This country is in great trouble primarily because of it leaders, throughout history every nation has come to its end because of its corrupt leadership, right or left they all have one goal, to rob the little working family of every thing they have! they all are thieves and losers!
ALL the document links referred to in the post are 404 (NOT FOUND)! I would say the fix is in there pilgrim!
Remove the nakedcapitalism part at the beginning of the link and start with the h t t p part after the quote sign. The end of the link is good.
Sorry, better way to say it is just use the part inside the quotes, starting with http — because you have to drop the end quote sign too.
I have to say, looking at pdf of Warren and Cummings’ reply to Bernanke and Curry, those are mighty big and bold and bright blue signatures at the end. I think they must have used a Sharpie and a fist to sign.
All the links are fixed now. Thanks.
Has anybody actually seen a payout to a homeowner? Is there a picture of one?
If there is, subquestion is I wonder if it would be in the form of a bank card where the bank gets fee when you cash it.
Superquestion is, did Holder’s fraudclosure taskforce ever … happen? Get a closet? A phone? Staffing?
“The only full response was … confirmation that no remediation has yet been paid out.” Thanks, Dave. That’s almost laughable.
The OCC-Fed response is so late and so trivial it’s an insult, tantamount to “Contempt of Congress”. Of course Congress deserves the utmost contempt, but this looks more like in-your-face obstruction, a serious criminal offense, to cover up obvious noncompliance with the underlying legislation and even worse — actually aiding and abetting the banks in using the settlement as another looting spree. It’s outrageous and disgusting. In a nation of law that would matter. (Sigh)
If there was no TBTF break-up bill after Levin’s “exhibition” hearings on JP Morgan crimes, there won’t be anything now either. And after the last five years, only a fool could assume this anything more political theater. I’d say it’s highly unlikely that Cummings, Warren, or Brown will press this to its logical conclusion, which would potentially embarrass their own Wall Street President. It seems to me this will end up as transparent as Levin’s permanent comb-over cover-up committee. Paraphrasing Levin to the OCC on the crimes of JP Morgan: “We can do better next time (with Jamie’s permission of course).”
Doug T., I think you are assuming that Congress actually wanted the OCC to accomplish something other than what it did here … big assumption!
Doug T., I think you are assuming that Congress actually wanted the OCC to accomplish something other than what it did here … big assumption there!
They aren’t done with JPMorgan yet. The FBI is doing an investigation of the whale trades and will be starting to question JPM executives in the next few weeks, along with all the regulators. It is a CRIMINAL investigation. In addition, JPM is also under fire for their knowledge of the Madoff deal being a ponzi scheme, acknowledged in an email about 18 months prior to the lid being blown off, IIRC. Jamie is no longer the golden child. More details about JPM’s growing list of problems………
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/jpmorgan-chase-faces-full-court-press-of-federal-investigations/?ref=business
Let me guess, next up: a deferred prosecution agreement, more money laundered through DOJ as “fine,” cushy job as corporate monitor for some ex-AG, and total inoculation for bank for all crimes committed, now specified, so they can’t be charged for that by some serious DOJ in the fu– oh, right, ha ha ha.
…and no admission of guilt, I mean it’s not like they downloaded lots of free articles from JSTOR.
I guess I’m incorrigibly cynical, but then Ms G reminds me I’m not quite cynical enough — Lily Tomlin too: “No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.”
Your link is encouraging, but there have been so many insulting head fakes by the Whore House quisling, congressional suckups, AG whitewashers, and regulatory lap-dogs that talk of a criminal investigation warrants only an eye-roll. Think about Jon Corzine and his red-handed crime swept into Orwell’s oblivion because he’s the quisling’s top bribe-bundler. Think about Blankfein’s “shitty deal” shorts, about Mozilo, AIG’s Cassano, Thain, Fuld, and all those businessmen too savvy for Eric Coat-Holder at the Ministry of Justice.
If this concludes in anything more than a quiet fizzle like MF Global, HSBC, Countrywide, Lie-More rate-rigging, and fraudclosure amnesty etc. I’ll be ecstatically surprise.
This is the buildup to violent revolution.
Make no mistake about it. Justice denied means *vigilante* justice sooner or later. It’ll probably take 5-10 years before people turn to that. When the first banker is assassinated, and people cheer, you’ll know it’s happened.
I should have received a card too – I called Rust Inc and updated my address twice! Then… to find out the card was mailed to the new address of my ex spouse who no doubt will receive the payment. The representive that I spoke to couldnt tell me if they would split the payment.
For those who might need it, the toll-free number for Rust Consulting is 888-952-9105.
I just called and was transferred to the BAC group (877-465-0428). As expected, the address they have on file is the address of my property that was foreclosed on. Even though I had provided my new address to the OCC and the IFR on numerous occasions, they still can’t seem to update my file. Most likely by design.
The representative could not change my address. She advised I would have to send a letter advising my new address, reference # (she provided), loan # and old address. For those who need to do the same, their address is:
Rust Consulting
Independent Administrator (followed by the bank name)
P.O. Box 8054
Fairbault, MN 55021-9454
I did not receive my postcard, and when I asked to have one sent to the correct address the rep advised “I’ll have to escalate this to a supervisor.” This is what we get for 2 billion dollars and $20K per file reviewed.
I lost my home of almost two decades as a result of a servicer-driven foreclosure. Loan was current (never late) and BAC used an erroneous vacancy charge and forced-placed insurance to steal my home. Under the old IFR guidelines, and a fair “review” I certainly would have qualified for the maximum payout of $125K. Now it sounds as if I will be lucky to get 1K – which doesn’t even cover all of my postage, FedEx and faxing costs for almost a year of hell.
I don’t care if the check is for $1. I am going to cash the damn thing and frame a copy to hang where I can always see it – as a reminder to never trust the system again.
No doubt the majority of these postcards were sent to the address where the foreclosure took place. No doubt when the postcard if returned undeliverable the system will be flagged not to send a check. Again, most likely by design. Sickening.
The Fall
If America’s political class, democrat and republican, can’t navigate and solve this America is finished.
If they can’t make this right Obama and his cronies are an absolute disgrace. Bernanke is a disgrace. The OCC is a disgrace. blind and dreamless formless and sightless derivations of derivations
There were a few years, somewhere between World War II and the 1990s, when America worked pretty well, except for the McCarthy-ites & Vietnam & race riots, except for a lot of things but they died. Maybe that was our time in the sun. Our little oasis when the delusion dazzled its epic majesty in our minds, that we were something unusual. something rare and good surging on its way.
And now it’s like when F. Scott Fitzgerald finally broke down and couldn’t make it happen anymore with words, and he said haughtily to some common man, “Now I’m just like you.”
We’re just like you now. Just like you Sudan, just like you Algeria, just like you Khazakstan, just like you Somalia, just like you Bangladesh, just like you Thailand, just like you Angola, just like you Guatemala, just like you wherever you are, anonymous animal man, faceless, nameless, hanging on however you can to the warlord’s charms, each day of strain and deceit and lies, until death do you part. Animals to animals.
This is what they’ve done, they’ve made us animals because they can’t find within themselves the only thing that makes them not an animal. And they’re not even looking for it. So f*ck you, powerwhores in DC, f*ck your mind defecations and your fetid squalor of signs. F*ck your counting of numbers just to shave them off into flecks of lies. F*ck your smug assertions, your choking halting confessions, your repressions and evasions. They’re laughing at you now all over the world, because they see you’re nothing more than they always were. and even less, because you thought you were more, hilarious in your vapid sanctimony. And we’re laughing at you too, laughing from the peanut gallery before dinner with the food burning on the stove
The only thing that will get their attention is something on the order of losing an aircraft carrier, because the explosion will fit into a thirty-second spot on TV.
I’m guessing that was the problem with losing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; the process of losing was too protracted to engage a political class with the attention spans of a gnat and the morals of a bucket of snakes. Oh well. Think happy thoughts on the way down.a
Well ranted, craazy man. If rant is indeed the right term, instead of, say, a simple expression of cold reality.
Thanks craazyman. You are so right, I long for Guatemala where you could at least bribe SOMEONE and have a CHANCE at justice. Here the bribe’d are all so big they’re out of our reach.
I lost my house too, but I am so SORRY and and so ANGRY for Dolly and all the other people who have suffered and who shared on this web sit, espcially tonight.. What freaks me out even more is that it doesn’t fcken matter to anyone in power.
For a brief moment marching with Occupy, bringing food and tents to the encampments, etc. i though maybe we could make a change. And then the POlice stepped in with the DHS and FBI and I knew our goose was cooked. Now the debate is how long to baste the goose before we get eaten. Not long, I’m guessing.
Occupy was a wave on a very deep tide. Do not despair.You are not alone.
Thanks Lambert. Needed a little cheering up.
They haven’t made us animals. Animals are great. I bet you get nourished by Yves’ daily antidotes like I do. No, they’ve made themselves gods, above reality checking and balancing, above community and humanity. That doesn’t end well. We’re watching it happen.
I don’t know if they’ll be the last guys up the flagpole as the ship goes down, or if we’re doing cell division, separating out into us and them. “What is fission?” was on Jeopardy last week. It would be nice if they’d just spin off in their insane bubble and go pop somewhere and leave the rest of the world to us, including animals and trees and air and seas. Imagine sanity.
Sounds like “VIOXX” all over again ! …
Some bank stooge commented on a foreclosure story this weekend and claimed he personally reviewed more than 20,000 files and did not find ONE where someone was illegally FC upon. said he “never heard of such a thing.” Sigh. Then, today had 12th attorney turn me down to defend banks appeal of thier loss to me – said even though I won DWP for LACK OF STANDING I should keep paying and that I WAS DEFRAUDING THEM! I PROVED trust was dissolved and “holder” wasnt & did not even know servicer was using their name to FC – yet he thought I should keep paying them. I am soooo depressed – am I missing something only a lawyer can comprehend?
It’s really damn hard to find competent lawyers. Most of them are useless cut-and-paste hacks who assemble boilerplate and don’t understand the law.
You may have to keep acting pro se. Alternatively, call Matt Weidner in Florida and ask him whether he knows a competent lawyer in your area. Or you can call the folks at Foreclosure Hamlet or 4closurefraud.org for the same reason.
But if they don’t know a competent lawyer in your area, you’ll have to keep operating pro se.
I’m so sick of this.it has torn my family apart..I’m sick mad and angry I have no faith in our justice system what so ever..give us a home rebuild that home make it yours and then take it away people need to stand up let us be heard there gonna give us what they want every. body got $21,000 you have to pay for the review so you end up with less then $1,000 just talked to chase oh my I was evicted by the sheriff back in march 2011 after a year of loan modification trial period for 7 months I made payments then them telling me I was denied they told me don’t make anymore payments reapply during all this they foreclosed on me changed my locks put a forsale sign in my front yard by a real estate. agent then kicked me out on the street.for 2 years we thought our home was gone just called chase this 26 day of march 2013 and what did the guy tell me your home was never foreclosed on. WHAT the hell I’m so sick to my stomach these mother f@*%&ers need to get it straight
We as American need to stand up let our voices be heard..fight back what more can they do to us.this is america my friends..
This is a kleptocracy. The fix was always in. What we need to understand is that the kabuki does not just include the joke reviews, the “settlements”, the stonewalling but the Cummings/Warren efforts. There are no defenders of the 99% in the US Congress, not one.
Yves was able to do a better investigation with few resources on the outside. Sending letters to the OCC and the Fed is about as productive an approach as sending a letter to Al Capone would have been asking him to detail his criminal operations in Chicago. In fact, if they were serious, they could have gone to people like Yves and the whistleblowers and not only have gotten the outline for the operation but started attaching names to those responsible for carrying it out.
According to Yves’ audit, the independent reviewer (Promontory who was paid so lavishly) kinda hid out in a back room somewhere and produced “bins” of files every morning for the temporary employees to “review” for irregularities. This whole exercise had nothing to do with restitution for defrauded homeowners. It had everything to do with scrubbing the record; cleaning up those messy details in the files. It was a great cover so they could fix missing notes or notes that had blatant evidence of fraud – several signatures of assignment AFTER the time for closing the trust had passed. Blatant violations of land title law and blatant violations securities law. This was the entire reason for the hoax. What else could it possibly be? The clever solution was more forged documents, sometimes forgeries of forgeries (by LPS?) showing the last, illegal assignments removed so that the terms of the trust were not violated. Just erase those signatures.
It might all have more to do with the fact that the Fed has bought up all those MBS and if it were ever proved how the PSAs were violated, those “assets” would be pretty worthless.
I want to know who can I contact to continue this review for borrowers in 2011 or how can I sue. I was ripped off also
Thank you David for keeping this subject in the public consciousness. May your words reach the millions of people that are victims of this scheme.
“Occupy was only the first crest on a very deep tide.”
A few serious notes before an abstact prosaic rant.
This is true.
Obama is a trojan horse kind of entity.
Also true. The obama machine seems to wait in a very…asian way of stop.think.take in as many variables as possible before acting, and also-run interference and psy ops on everything. no. everything. HE is a leo after all. lion. largest predator in the jungle.
To cap that metaphor however, Id bet there isnt too much room for jackals and hyenas, so im sure jamie dimon, bernanke, geithner, holder, etc ad nauseum types are while numerous, doomed to be out hunted and starved off in some dark cave.
As for the banks and the collusion of congress being payed funds by lobbyists, and regulators being paid hookers and blow in bunga bunga parties.
It is important that people stop reinforcing the notion that congress, and other members of a corrupted government are so far above ‘us’ they are somehow intangible. I mean. All the money I evergot from them was donated to efforts to erode their power! It certainly didnt go to the obama campaign :) IM very happy to see non toxic cleaning products presented by clorox. If they have even half a brain, they will stop animal testing. No none wants to buy something that was deemed safe by poking a gorgeous, innocent chimpanzee, kitten, bunny or puppy in the eye a thousand times with a q-tip soaked in acid. That is sick and must stop@ Johnson&johnson.
No one wants to buy a home or financial product stolen from a family who only had theroof over their head left @US Economy.
That is sick and must stop. You people need to figure.It.Out and follow the lead of your cool drunksy cousins from amsterdam.
Sell people pot and have strong education, more taxes than you know what to do with, and yeah, move to puerto rico and have your little wannabe off shore haven commune. Youll still all have aids and syphillis, and the blood on your hands from the travesty your game caused wont wash for at least five generations.
Moving on.
I would like to promote the idea that the banks have been brought to their knees in all of this. Revealed as having very fradulent records. Not only foreclosures, but also over valued deposits, completely faulty instruments and in a greater overall sense~
False mostly everything.
The only reason china did business with you is because for a moment she or he for that matter thought the people you sent were cute. When they acted like ritalin addled narcissists however. The cover was blown.
For us, the proletariat
Lets think things through more carefully, less unchecked emotion. Im not saying no emotion. Im saying, lets get Vulcan and far more analytic, “bomb diffusing mentality on the topic…”
Then we can see, no one stole anyones home. This statement is not intended to undermine the fact that yes, they (banks and implicated (‘officials’ whatever the fuck that means,I mean, official embezzlers???) Anyways, yes. They are guilty and committed a disgusting scam. They ruined records and documentation, diluted the integrity of fact in written standard to almost genocidal like format of destroying written record. They also undeniably succeeded in scaring and intimidating people from their property.
They revealed themselves to be extremely dishonest, greed infested buffoons. Certain cohorts, who yes, are in the camps of the fed and the occ are complicit.
Certain soothsayers and cabinet members in the obama story also. Including yes, eric ‘friggin reich sucker the 15th’ holder…
However.
Hmmm.
Who do we not know about?
Who is watching, not watched?
There is a lot of something behind all this. Just like in human anatomy, there are the eyes and external sensory mechanisms, but what do they feed into? And how does THE WHOLE entity interact and operate.
There, my dear fellow proletarians we see. We are so very real and empowered.
There are observers.
There are “agents” who are so well trained they dont pipe up, or participate in oppression and extraordinarily convoluted psy wars on the external front…
So let the mouth piece do its word. Perhaps the neurons can rest content to operate in a much less bravado ridden way, to say-ok. Its taking in this poison…
And its the first to go.
I mean to allude to the idea that it is so very possible for us to learn to understand our experience as a body. Then think, become~
Ok. the politics, the government, the media, the inefficient global capitalist model that still needs the massive upgrade it needed when all the obama hope propaganda was shat~
Its all external.
Its the eyesight.
Its essential, but it can change.
In the case of humanity, Americanism
it is possible we really are evolving and learnign to use Extra Sensory Perception.
So yeah…
Maybe we can all stop acting so shocked that these players in a system that descends from the murder and slaughter of indians,
is like…Duh. Corrupt much?
And start to liberate ourselves from the apathy that they have power, and we dont.
Or simply just try to think of it as basic binary valuation.
Change our thoughts, juxtapose the we and the they. Then,
we as
They have far greater sway than anyone in the media or any one in any press
office who so obviously tout their personal economic interests out into the spin sphere of telecommunications conglomerates.
You see?
There is work happening, at the molecular cellular level, as much as there is on the obvious, raw, visual sunrise to sunset within the borders of the u.s level.
I for one, was sure to STAIN THE PAPERWORK OF THE FORECLOSURE REVIEW IN BLOOD.
Why?
To participate in something far greater and more ancient than any of the convoluted scams of the sorry u.s. government, decomposing under its own rotten weight.
Sympathetic majick is poorly understood by english speakers.
Sadly, mainstream vernacular is all built around mores like,
“son of a! this and that!” , and “go team so and so!” Or, “get out of my way, I didnt read any of the books in high school lit class! especially not the grapes of wrath! I was too busy chasing girls and watching the simpsons! eating kraft mac and cheese preparing for sat’s!”
Oh wait, ok….
Back on topic. If you are from connecticut you were still chasing and still thinking something was in your way. Though your desired destination was a seat on the skull and bones hazing panel.
Ha.
Take that semantic jabba the hut.
Yes, the paperwork is stained in blood.
Also, the thieves and the scoundrels who have co-opted a satanic dance of profane order via WA. D.C corruption, and are wreaking a chaos of bohemian grove crashing into the ocean psy ops schema via all the wretched tormented lunatic antics of the modern dillemna are hooting and hollering and doing their black majick.
But good scribes like pen name yves smith are also working.
Truth be told.
And we musnt forget the purity of innovation and technology. So rapid that clearly, bank of america struggles to even maintain some semblance of a hold on the reins.
Oh and we havent even gotten into the real paranormal and esoteric warfare. You see, there maybe satanists practicing dark arts towards the powers of corruption and evil…
But there are much more majickal covens, who dont dabble in black majick, are high white wizards just. like. yup.gandalf. or the elva quenn galadriel-
well and good and working, together
just as the ents did.
With equal and greater power,
as the story goes. In myth. Nature is always stronger and will wipe away the false towers of dominion.
Haha. MAny who believe themselves to be in power might be alarmed to realize that where they are, from one angle may feel distinguished but is in fact a petri dish where the last of that primitive human didactic cognitive flaw is sorted…Thus, in the hallowed halls of d.c and those god damned g-7 mettings or summits
Schizophrenia and PCP generally result in the affected jumping off something very high.
I think this is a nice meditation when thinking about what the fate of all the wicked participants guilty of torturing people through socio-economic oppression will be.
A wicked fall from their false pedestal.
I hope this comment will be viewed with a grain of salt.
As a rant that is intended to speak more in visceral “commentary at the cold reality”
of the wild, unfortunate madness that has befallen this land.
As long as we sit complicit and refuse to resist, and demand change in protest, exactly as egypt did,
the oppressors will continue to dance tyranny as the ghosts of nazis at the vienna masquerade do.
Something that makes the blood of the living boil until they must act. However, we must not panic. We must work as invisible operators, and when the time comes to stand. Do so. Fearlessly.
Justice. Happens.
I called rust consulting and was told I will have reiceved my check before march 30
http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2013/03_-_March/Washington_law_firm_sues_bank_regulator_over_foreclosure_reviews/
i feel that this whole mess stinks to high heaven and you reap what you sow and all those that suffered from this scam of scams will be copensated in one form or another good things happen for good people who try to do whats right and take care of their families. patience is a virtue
Has anyone recieved a check? I am hoping it is more than $1,000. I paid more than that to Werstern Union Fees to have a third party verify payments since CHASE either lost my payments or applied them to the wrong accounts!!!!
I was foreclosed in early 2009 by CitiMortgage. Back then I was full of self motivated ‘justice for all’ and went pro-se. This fight went on for over 3 years. I experienced ‘Dual tracking’, falsified document signing, lies over and over by the banks, etc. I filed a complaint with the Florida State AG’s office. The former AG, Bill McCollum even stated an investigation of Citi’s Foreclosure Attorney for conducting and submitting illegal documents BUT then the elections came and he lost. The new AG stopped the investigation. I got tired in 2011 and hired a so called foreclosure atty. long story short, I got ripped off by the atty and lost my home in late 2012. I have experienced more corruption, lies, deceit than I ever thought could happen. IFR sent me the form and I filled it out in 2011. I have always wondered if it had been completed and what they found. I bet they found that there was $20k worth of violations but after reading here, I bet I won’t see that $. Ironically, my brother walked away from his foreclosure and didn’t spend a dime. I spent more than 4k on atty fees and will probably see the same amount on the check as he will. Same goes with the State AG settlement; because the foreclosure final hearing was scheduled for early 2012, i did not qualify for any if that money because I was still fighting the bank and the court dockets were clogged, my brother, who walked away from his home and who never spent a dime fighting it received the $$. That isn’t justice! But I’m not surprised at all. There aren’t enough people in the gov’t that care enough or can do enough to right this wrong.
I lost my home due to HSBC’s negligence 3 days before the approved short sale. I moved due to work and used up all my 401k funds to complete rennovations & such until I could complete a short sale. I did not abandon my home, still had furniture in the place (never recovered), all utilities on, and a closing.
HSBC somehow managed to put my home on their abandoned list and had a contracted company come out prior to the closing, who changed the locks and attempted, but failed to winterize the home correctly, causing the pipes to freeze and some to break. My Realtor happened to stop by the place to check on it, only to find the locks changed. She called to HSBC on my behalf and had the company come back out and “un-winterize” it. She turn the power on and left the man to complete his task.
Well, the worker turned on the water and performed his “un-winterization”, but didn’t stay at the house to insure there were no issues…three days later, on closing day my Realtor & the buyers drive up with their moving vans (from Tennessee) to find sheet of ice on the outside of the house. Luckily, they took pictures for me, but then cancelled the contract due to the massive water dammage caused by a broken ice maker water line and two water supply lines for a yet to be finished sink left totally open for three (3) days by the contracted company worker.
With some (crappy & disinterested) legal help, I advised HSBC they had just became responsible for the home due to their negligence. 18 months later, I was informed they were selling it (in about 2-3 weeks). I tried contacting everyone (emails, faxes & phone) to make a deal to actually keep it (stupid me), by coming to an agreement where I would fix everything, not sue them, and they would reset the loan as a new one, but never could get anyone to call me back as promised. They sold it as a foreclosure and put it on my credit as such.
As with so many others here, I have endured the frustration, depression, credit issues, etc., that come with dealing with the big banks. Fortunately (I thought), I had documented the entire process (including correspondence from them) and submitted 139 documents and pictures for my review, now seemingly to find out we may get nothing even near the amount we should.
$125,000 is about the amount I sunk into the place while I owned it (restored a victorian home bulit in 1902). HSBC robbed me of the opportunity to sell my home and retain my credit due to their negligence, and like many others, have been waiting to see what I will get before deciding to take legal action. So, the banks take the property, sell it, get bailout money (from taxpayers), work a deal with the OCC/FRB to review their own wrong-doings, pay out diddly (compared to what they should or the financial remediation framework), and then tighten up the rules to buy property….sounds like a page from the Land Barons back in Medieval times.
Reading this and other information, convinces me that I should go ahead and begin preparing for my lawsuit…now to find a good Lawyer that isn’t a part of it and is not afraid of them… where’s Perry Mason when you need him? Good luck to you all.
Please let me know if you Ever find that Lawyer????
Its Still brings tears to my eyes every time I think about what the bank did to me, and the lawyer, I don’t know where or how but!!! My story should be heard…can some one direct me??/ Thank you!!
I was Handed eviction notice on my 45th birthday…owing $180,000 they sold it a yr later for $65,000..I just don’t get it???
I am a disabled Veteran and lost my house we tried to get HSBC to help us rework our payments and they said no way and sold the house for less than what we were willing to refinance ? so go figure seems we all get screwed
SOL in N.C. I feel for you that is almost our situation they never let us try to work it out and I got $1.000.00 for a keys for cash and they pocketed 4K I put 21 years in gave sweat and blood for my country and spent 11 years trying to keep the borders safe and to get screwed by a bank that already screwed us it is a shame and i feel for you Sir
I hope and pray that someday we all get Justice?? And thank you Robert for your words. God bless!
I filled out remodifications papers 3x Then got a lawyer for $4000 who wrote a letter to the bank and I was tossed out like garbage 1 month later…Thank you bank and thank you lawyer. I hope you sleep well at night!!!
My wife left me and stopped paying her half of the mortgage. When I called Bank of America to try and get a modification, they said they couldn’t help me because I was current on my loan. I was told to NOT pay my mortgage for four months and then reapply for modification. When I did that, I was told they still couldn’t modify. I listed my house and applied for a short sale of around $5,000 to cover the difference between the sale price and what I owed. When the closing date came and went and BOA didn’t process the short sale, I had to pay the potential buyer $1500 to keep from suing me. I gave up and moved out of the house. It is still sitting empty.
I got my house foreclousure in 2009! Before the foreclousure got a loan modification they gave me a higher interest rate and add 10 years to my loan !
no i don’t think no one has recieved a check yet but their is some information on the website http://www.nakedcapitalism.com on the independant fore closure review it did say on that website that the checks would go out in april 2013.
Arthur, I believe everyone who’s posted here has a story to tell, I know I do! Not only did CitiBank rob me from my home that I had lived in 30 years, I had one of the worst lawyers there could be. I did a much better job when I was pro-se. I just began to realize that I couldn’t work my full time job and fight the battle too. He took me for 3k and I spent another 1,400 having a top notch firm tell me that I had a lot of good defenses had I hired them to begin with. My mother passed away two weeks before the sale date and Citi would not give me any extra time to move. I do believe that this experience took away my faith in a lot of things but most of all it took away my faith in our government to do anything about the injustice and that the banks really do run this country, we don’t. I’ve been waiting for a ginormous lawsuit that we can all take part in but I haven’t found one yet.
Lauren, I just recently stumbled upon this chat room and did not realize their were so many others who went through what I went through…all these people destroyed over Greed. can you imagine being so greedy you could throw families into the street and then go to sleep at night?? Can you Imagine??? It really makes me sick that there are human beings like this in the world, I always said if everyone just did the right thing? what a wonderful world it could be…But I Guess that’s been the dream of all decent human beings and always will be. I am truly sorry for all of you that had to experience the Evil of the world. Just try to remember there is some good out there?? its very hard to find, but when you do find it be smart enough to hold on to it!! I don’t cry over my house anymore, but I do cry that there is so much Evil and heartache in the world. If anyone wanted to unite
a group of people to at least fight back somehow, someway?? I’m there!!! and Just 1 more thing…Every great thing that ever happened in the History of man Began with a single thought. Good luck and Peace to you all…
Well no checks so far they have taken long enough what is goin on ??? somethings just not right with the processing of funds we should not have to wait this long. no need in calling because they sound like a recording they wont give you any information over the phone as far as check dates or how much you are to receive do they think the phone is tapped??? maybe they are scared they will get in trouble if they leak out too much information. any hoot it’s not going to be a fair total for everyone any way this society is very corrupt (free mason,illuminate,satanic rituals going on in the united nations building)
Arthur it is so true, just one thought. I’m sure that there are many out there that also would like to join in on a lawsuit. I believe that it would truly be as big as the tobacco lawsuits that were so prevalent in the 90’s. class Actions tend to make the lawyers rich and of course the participants (I hate to use the word victim here but it is an appropriate title) are the ones who make the least. At least the banks would feel a slight twinge of pain when all was said and done. They need to be exposed for what they did. I too could not believe how dirty the banks were. How true greed made hard working, honest people fall into an abyss that hasn’t even been titled. What should we term ourselves now? Lets see, there are Katrina victims, 911 victims, sunami victims, Bernie Madoff victims but there isn’t a term for the foreclosure victims! I think government doesn’t want to name it because they don’t want to acknowledge it. In the consent orders, you will notice that the banks do not accept or own what they did. Money talks and it was worth billions to them (9.3) so that they would not have to even admit the wrong they did. A lot of people say having a foreclosure in your credit file isn’t that big of a deal because look at all the people that have gone through it. Well tell the credit reporting agencies or the credit card companies or even the landlord because most of us are renting now. The cost is insurmountable and we are in the class of people that get charged the highest interest rates because we are a risky investment. And the IFR states that by no means do we have to sign a waiver that we will not take the bank to court. I checked into suing Citi, it would cost more than my house is worth! All I wanted was a modification to get a lower interest rate. I didn’t have too much left to pay before I could have owned my little piece of the American dream. It just turn out to be the all American nightmare! I had already been through the tough times or so I thought. I had raised my daughter in that house, I worked two jobs some of the time to make sure we had what we needed and some of what we wanted. Now was supposed to be easier! she is grown and out of college, married, working and has children. My job was done. So Arthur, you know that some of the laws that are in place when someone is being foreclosed on are because of US! Because what happened to us they made new laws for the ones who walk in our footsteps! They didn’t even have a term for when the bank offers you a modification and you are paying but they continue the foreclosing procedure. It’s now called ‘Dual Tracking’ and it’s illegal, now but not when it happened to me! So where’s the justice? Where is the faith? I don’t know about you but I feel like a Lab Rat!!!
I’m 6 mos on the other side of foreclosure and I do not cry for my home anymore but times are still very tough because I pay higher rates for just about everything. I do not see owning another home in my lifetime and I miss that part. Having a place to call my own. So going back to the class action lawsuit, even though we wouldn’t get much, I would like to sign my name on the dotted line, I’d like for us all to demand that the banks own what they did, just like we had to own our part of being so stupid to believe that justice prevails. The only thing I do believe is karma!
All I have to say is Romans 12:19
King James Version (KJV)
19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Those that took away our homes unjustly will have their day of suffering too. I serve a just God and He will make sure that justice is served accordingly.
Darla:
Thank u for the reply. I too believe that they will have their day of reckoning.
I never filed for review because after job loss (my husband), foreclosure, movingthree times and two more joblosses (due to company closure–both my husband and I), I was quite frankly tired and had very little fight left.
When i received the postcard in the mail I was curious as to what catagory I fell into under the waterfall definitions, since I assumed everything was probably on the up-and-up with my process, and realized that I had been current on my loan up until I made the phonecall to the mortgage company telling them that our savings was tapped out, and that we were going to begin having problems paying our mortgage–should we move? They advised me to try and short sell (which never happened) and notify them when we were out of the home so they could secure the property.
Would this not qualify under definition 2? I was current until being illadvised my Aurora home loans, at which point my home went into default and I had already moved.
Not sure where to go from here.
No, Kathi, you won’t fall under category 2 because, in the end, you didn’t make payments. The category 2 is for the 8 people that were current on payments at time of foreclosure. Sorry :)
Kathi- I would seek help from HUD or consult with an attorney but depending where u live I would make sure he/she has successful homeowner wins or modifications under his belt. There are a lot of cookie cutter lawyers out there that charge a lot of money for nothing. I know exactly what u mean about being tired. Good Luck!
Here’s some news on payouts.
http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/press/bcreg/bcreg20130409a1.pdf
And the dates possibly sent…
http://www.occ.gov/topics/consumer-protection/foreclosure-prevention/correcting-foreclosure-practices.html
I am just sickened by all of this. I fall under 4 categories, but have no idea which one they will choose – I’m sure it will be the one where I get a whopping $500. I was in the process of a modification (that took 8 months to complete). Made ALL of my payments under the modification and continued to make payments after the modification for 9 months. I kept getting letters though that said I was late on my payment, I would call wonderful B of A and ask why I got this letter, I had mailed my payment. They would say, just ignore it – it’s because of the modification – I show your payment, you’re fine. Well, come to find out when I actually DID go 30 days late in July – by August 5 I had a foreclosure letter stating that I was 150 days past due and owed those months + bank fees + attorney fees. I called frantic and was told (after many transfers and yelling) that 5 of my modification payments had gone towards the bank’s fees for doing my modification and I owed that now. What – they can take my payment and put it towards something other than my PITI without my knowledge??? Really???? After 2 months of fighting with them EVERY day – I gave up, stopped making payments and had them take my house. It was screwed all the way around and I know, I just KNOW that my file will be looked at as if I just stopped making payments w/ no research on how or why this happened. I did file paperwork for the IFR. When I open that check and see $500 I am going to break down and cry. I built my home from saving to buy an acre of land, picking out the floor plans, getting a construction loan, picking which trees to clear and watching the house be built from the foundation up. Lived happily there for 8 years before B of A decided that they could take my payment and pay themselves instead of my loan. Sickened by this – absolutely sickened!!!!
I filed a complaint directly to the OCC/CAG 11-28-2011 and was given case #01887017. I also filed for review of my foreclosure in the Independant Foreclosure Review 12-28-2011 and was given Ref.# 1811662791. The case filed with the OCC/CAG should have concluded in about 90 days.The OCC/CAG deliberately held up giving me a decision for over a year and two months pretending to need information from BoA they already had. Finally on January 30, 2013 I recieved a letter from the OCC/CAG stating that my case was being dismissed because it was in the scope of the IFR. Prior to the dismissal I had been told by the OCC/CAG Houston Office Manager Ms. Melinda Goodnight that Mr. Larry Hattix had instructed them not to review my case and to dismiss my case and all cases like mine were to be handled that way. In other words the OCC has thousands of claims filed to them directly like mine THEY refused to review, held up, and dismissed to keep the harm the servicers did to us hidden. By the way I am one of the 53 foreclosed on who was not in default and one of the 2800 original cases reviewed in the OCC in 2010. they did nothing then or now, The things done in regards to the IFR were conspired and more than poor management. I have much more proof of this. I am also one of 250 borrowers reviewed by 39 state attorney generals in 2010, they did nothing to stop what happened to us none of them. We had one of the first post in August of 2008, check it out Countrywide Cashing in on Surprising Group of Homeowners | The Consumer Warnin
Whatever money I get from the IFR is going directly to a good attorney. I don’t care what I get out of this, as long as I get the satisfaction of seeing the banking crooks waste boatloads of their own money in legal fees instead of mine.
Have anyone rec. a check yet???
Just got off phone with IFR Check has not been sent and can be anytime between now and August 2013 ??? the wait continues???
Im with you Dennis…when and if I get check I will send msg???
This was an abject joke. I personally submitted a BINDER of thousands of pages detailing fraud on a massive scale by BA…was this reviewed? Was this even looked at? Of course NOT. My check? $400.00…No appeal, no chance to review and GOD FORBID we try to ask for how they determined money….a joke of the first order and disgusting. Another sell out by the Government to the Too Big To Fail Banks. What a farce.
I wonder??? who is over seeing the IFR ??/ to see they send The Right amount??? Scary…I bet everyone gets $400..Lets hope I’m wrong…
The hermit was arrested for stealing things to survive?? Food, batteries etc….the bank steals are houses and walks away???? How ridiculous….I will use my money to free the Hermit
1 out of 4 were suppose to get checks today……hmmmmm..Bueller? Bueller?
We just recevied a $6k check yesterday as restitution..for losing our home and/or not getting a modification. We were ideal candidates for a loan modification and tried several times, but never received one..nor even a reason. Then we were foreclosed on. Quite frankly, our home was over $500k and the $6k doesn’t help with squat for trying to get back in a home of our own. I wasn’t even going to submit for the review, but I was/am still upset over the whole thing that I felt it was my due diligence to submit for a review. I’m trying to find out if we should accept the check or refuse and keep fighting.
I got a check yesterday. What a joke it was $500.00. I went through 9 months of hell to keep my house. I had to postpone the sale 3 times and they don’t let you do that until 10 days before the auction. I was so stressed and my health went downhill. I had missed 2 payments because my job reduced my wage by almost 1,000 a month. I got a 2nd job called to make my 3rd payment plus an extra 200.00 and was refused. Was told all or nothing. Then they put me in foreclosure. When I called Wells Fargo I was told I should have made my 3rd payment and it would not have gone into foreclosure. When I told them I tried to make the payment and was refused they told me that was a mistake ohps sorry but we can’t correct that now. So after 9 months of trying to keep my house they took almost 11,000 in back payments ( thank God I had been putting the payments in an account ) and Wells Fargo put another 14,500 on the back of my loan. For all of this I got a whole 500.00 that doesn’t even help me pay the loan down from thier mistake. I thought this thing with the government was going to make things right! So did not happen.
I am all for a class action! I have never sued anyone in my life.
we all need to do something??? at least have are stories heard across America…this is an outrage. does anyone Know a public person or contacts to Dateline, or Television affiliations?? Oprah??? Who is getting $125,000 ???
I got a $300 check yesterday. I never received a postcard informing me that I could request a review. I have moved twice, across country, since I was foreclosed on my home after using my entire inheritance and ROTH IRA from my father to keep making mortgage payments. I was refused modification because I was not employed at the time (having lost my business). I lived in my home for 14 years, never missed a payment until my biz failed. $300. THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS. My home recently sold on the market for almost 300k. I had a $120k mortgage. I am a single mother, my son’s father died of ALS last year. It’s been a terrible 3 years. But I got $300 out of it.
Diane, $300? What a slap in the face!! I am so sorry for everything you and your family has had to endure!!! Sending prayers your way, and may God deal with all these companies and all THEIR GREED!!!! :(
*My mortgage company was Morgan Stanley, so who knows when I will receive my “slap in the face”!!! :(