Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Shelly Roche: New COICA Bill Would End Free Speech Online.
Click this link ........ http://tinyurl.com/334vynw
JPMorgan Based Foreclosures on Faulty Documents, Lawyers Claim
JPMorgan Chase & Co. faces a legal challenge next month that could cast doubt on thousands of foreclosures after a mortgage executive at the bank said she didn’t verify documents used to justify home seizures.
Lawyers for a Palm Beach County, Florida, homeowner asked a judge to throw out a foreclosure as a penalty for misleading the court, according to attorney Tom Ice of Ice Legal PA. They’re citing a May 17 deposition in which the JPMorgan executive said she signed thousands of affidavits and documents supporting the New York-based bank’s claims without personally checking loan records. The court is scheduled to hear arguments Oct. 19.
The Chase Home Finance operation supervisor, Beth Ann Cottrell, said in May she was among eight managers who together sign about 18,000 documents a month, according to a transcript of her sworn deposition provided by Ice. Asked how they were prepared, she said she relied on other people at the firm.
“My review is more or less signing the document unless it’s questionable,” she said. That means, “somebody has a question and brings it to me and says, ‘Beth, can you take a look at this?’”
Inaccurate statements by banks in foreclosure documents may give borrowers who have lost their homes a legal basis to challenge the seizures, derailing resales and casting doubts on property titles. A Florida court sanctioned Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage unit for faulty affidavits in 2006, and the firm suspended evictions in 23 states this month after finding employees still signing affidavits without checking the data.
Titles in Doubt
JPMorgan spokesman Tom Kelly declined requests for comment. Cottrell didn’t return phone calls to her office requesting comment. A lawyer representing her at the deposition, Joseph Mancilla of the Florida Default Law Group PL, didn’t return calls. Cottrell isn’t named as a defendant.
Cottrell signed the affidavit at issue in the case, dated June 2009, while at her previous employer, an outside servicing firm working for JPMorgan, according to court documents. When signing documents there for the JPMorgan unit, she used the title “assistant secretary and vice president” of Chase Home Finance, according to the transcript. She became a JPMorgan employee about three months after signing the affidavit. Document signers sometimes endorse affidavits on behalf of other firms as a way to streamline the foreclosure process, said Dustin Zacks, an attorney at Ice’s firm.
JPMorgan was the third-largest U.S. servicer of home mortgages as of June 30, with $1.35 trillion or almost 13 percent of the market, according to industry newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance. Ally is the fifth-biggest mortgage servicer, with $349.1 billion. The other three in the top five are Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., and Citigroup Inc.
Foreclosures Averted
Servicers perform billing and collections on home loans. When borrowers default, the firms handle the foreclosure process. Affidavits lay the legal foundation for a foreclosure by attesting that the borrower is delinquent and that the lender is entitled to seize the home. Details of the JPMorgan case were reported earlier last week by the Financial Times.
Lawyers in Florida and New York, among other states, have halted foreclosures and evictions by showing affidavits were faulty. Attorneys general in Texas, Iowa and Illinois have started investigations into mortgage practices at GMAC Mortgage following last week’s revelations. California has ordered the company to prove its foreclosures are legal or halt them.
If the documents are shown to be false after a home has already been resold by a bank, that casts doubt on who is the rightful owner, said O. Max Gardner III, an attorney at law firm Gardner & Gardner PLLC in Shelby, North Carolina, who has represented homeowners in fighting foreclosures and has cases pending against JPMorgan.
Title Insurers
“I’m sure a lot of title insurance companies are concerned about the potential liability right now,” as borrowers challenge how banks made statements, he said. “The judges could absolutely hold the bank and attorneys in contempt.”
U.S. home seizures reached a record for the third time in five months in August as lenders completed the foreclosure process for thousands of delinquent owners, according to RealtyTrac Inc.
Ice, the founding partner of his foreclosure-defense law firm in Royal Palm Beach, Florida, said some lenders are accepting voluntary dismissal of their cases.
During the deposition, Cottrell said a staff of in-house specialists scrutinize loan documents and prepare affidavits, the transcript shows. If they have difficulties or questions, they come to her. She signs in a notary’s presence, she said.
‘No Knowledge’
During questioning by Ice lawyer Zacks, Cottrell said she had worked at Chase Home Finance for about eight months, according to the transcript.
“As to everything in the affidavit, did you have personal knowledge?” Zacks asked.
“My own personal knowledge, no,” Cottrell answered.
“You stated ‘That plaintiff is entitled to enforce the note and mortgage,’” Zacks said. “Again, did you have personal knowledge of that?”
“No knowledge,” she answered.
Florida Attorney General William McCollum is investigating three law firms that represent loan servicers in foreclosures, and are alleged to have submitted fraudulent documents to the courts, according to an Aug. 10 statement. The firms handled about 80 percent of foreclosure cases in the state, according to a letter from U.S. Representative Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat.
Judges overseeing foreclosures in the wake of the housing crisis are growing skeptical of banks, said Christopher L. Peterson, a professor at the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law. A surge in proceedings has helped expose a variety of paperwork lapses, he said in an interview.
“Early in the process the judges were very cavalier and they just took the financiers’ word,” Peterson said. “Now there are enough disputes out there about ownership of loans that the judges are starting to feel like they need to hold the financial institutions to the basic rules of evidence.”
Monday, September 27, 2010
2010: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-209
Archive for the Category ‘Top 25 of 2010’
25. Fast Track Oil Exploitation in Western Amazon
Top 25 of 2010
Sources: PloS One, August 2008 Title: “Oil and Gas Projects in the Western Amazon: Threats to Wilderness, Biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples” Authors: Matt Finer, Clinton N. Jenkins, Stuart L. Pimm, Brian Keane, and Carl Ross The Guardian, August 13, 2008 Title: “Amazon rainforest threatened by new wave of oil and gas exploration” Author: Ian Sample [...]
24. Dollar Glut Finances US Military Expansion
Top 25 of 2010
Source: Global Research, March 29, 2009 Title: “Economic Meltdown: The “Dollar Glut” is What Finances America’s Global Military Build-up” Author: Michael Hudson Student Researcher: Frances Capell Faculty Evaluator: Mickey Huff Sonoma State University The worldwide surplus of dollars is forcing foreign central banks to bear the costs of America’s expanding military empire. Keeping international reserves [...]
23. Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven Fraud
Top 25 of 2010
Sources: AlterNet, March 17, 2009 Title: “Fifth World Water Forum Marked by Violence and Repression” Author: Jeff Conant AlterNet, March 18, 2009 Title: “An Inside Peek: Why the World Water Forum Is a Sham” Author: Jeff Conant Democracy Now! March 23, 2009 Title: “Water Rights Activists Blast Istanbul World Water Forum as ‘Corporate Trade Show [...]
22. Obama’s Trilateral Commission Team
Top 25 of 2010
Source: August Review.com, January 30, 2009 Title: “Obama: Trilateral Commission Endgame” Author: Patrick Wood Student Researcher: Sarah Maddox Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips Sonoma State University Barack Obama appointed eleven members of the Trilateral Commission to top-level and key positions in his administration within his first ten days in office. This represents a very narrow source [...]
21. Recession Causes States to Cut Welfare
Top 25 of 2010
Sources: Mother Jones, January 15, 2009 Title: “Brave New Welfare” Author: Stephanie Mencimer Associated Press, March 26, 2009 Title: “States consider drug tests for welfare recipients” Author: Tom Breen Student Researcher: Samantha Barowsky, Southwest Minnesota State University Malana Men, Sonoma State University Faculty Evaluator: Douglas Anderson, PhD Southwest Minnesota State University Many states are in [...]
20. Secret Control of the Presidential Debates
Top 25 of 2010 Sources: Open Debates, September 18, 2008 Title: “Pro-democratic Groups Call on Debate Commission to Make Secret Contract Public” Author: George Farah Democracy Now! October 2, 2008 Title: “No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates” Interviewee: George Farah Student Researchers: Erin Galbraith, Natalie Dale, and Kerry Headley Faculty Evaluator: Mickey [...]
19. Bank Bailout Recipients Spent to Defeat Labor
Top 25 of 2010 Source: Huffington Post, January 27, 2009 Article: “Bailout Spent to Defeat Labor” Author: Sam Stein Student Researchers: Ben Kaufman and Rosemary Scott Faculty Evaluator: Kelly Bucy, PhD Sonoma State University On October 17, 2008, three days after Bank of America Corporation received $25 billion in federal bailout funds, they hosted a conference call to organize [...]
18. Ecuador’s Constitutional Rights of Nature
Top 25 of 2010 Source: Upside Down World, September 25, 2008 Title: “Ecuador’s Constitution Gives Rights to Nature” Author: Cyril Mychalejko Student Researcher: Chelsea Davis Faculty Evaluator: Elaine Wellin, PhD Sonoma State University In September 2008 Ecuador became the first country in the world to declare constitutional rights to nature, thus codifying a new system of environmental protection. Reflecting [...]
17. The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan
Top 25 of 2010 Sources: Inter Press Service, March 9, 2009 Title: “Aren’t There War Crimes in The US? Legitimacy of Global Court Questioned Over Sudan” Author: Thalif Deen Dissindentvoice.org, Black Star News, and San Francisco Bay View, March 6, 2009 Title: “Africom’s Covert War in Sudan” Author: Keith Harmon Snow Michelcollon.info, April 1, 2009 Title: “The Darfur crisis: [...]
16. US Repression of Haiti Continues
Top 25 of 2010 Sources: Haiti Liberté, September 4, 2008 Title: “UN Military Base Expanding: What is Washington up to in Cité Soleil?” Author: Kim Ives Upside Down World, June 25, 2008 Title: “Bush Administration Accused of Withholding ‘Lifesaving’ Aid to Haiti” Author: Cyril Mychalejko Upside Down World, August 4, 2008 Title: “RFK Center Releases Documents Outlining US Actions [...]
US, S.Korea to hold naval war games next week
SEOUL (AFP) – The US and South Korean navies will next week stage an anti-submarine exercise designed to deter North Korea following its alleged torpedo attack on one of Seoul's warships, officials said Friday.
The drill, the second joint exercise in two months, will involve at least nine ships plus surveillance aircraft, the US military said in a statement.
It is "designed to send a clear message of deterrence to North Korea" while improving capabilities in anti-submarine warfare, the statement said.
South Korea, the United States and other nations say a North Korean torpedo caused the sinking of one of Seoul's warships in March with the loss of 46 lives.
Seoul announced plans for a series of naval drills, either alone or with its ally Washington, to deter Pyongyang.
The North denies involvement in the sinking and criticises the exercises as a rehearsal for war.
"A serious situation, in which an all-out war may break out by any accident, is now prevailing in the Korean peninsula," said ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun this week.
"However, the US war maniacs are ceaselessly beefing up armed forces and staging war games in this acute hotspot, which may drive the situation to an unpredictable grave phase."
The drill will be held from next Monday to Friday in the Yellow Sea between China and Korea. It was postponed early this month due to an approaching typhoon.
It will not involve a US aircraft carrier, unlike the first joint naval exercise held in late July. That drill was relocated from the Yellow Sea to the east coast of the peninsula in response to China's expressions of concern.
The statement said US forces would send two US guided missile destroyers, a surveillance ship, a fast attack submarine and P-3C Orion aircraft to next week's drill.
South Korea would send two destroyers, a fast frigate, a patrol craft, P-3C aircraft and a submarine.
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