Are people being charged inflated legal fees when they get foreclosed on? Well the Colorado Attorney General would like to know more and has filed suit for law firms to fess up. The Colorado Attorney General John Suthers is apparently concerned about law firms that handle foreclosures in the state. While fees are allowed to be passed on they are ... Read More »

Paul Kiel ProPublica Bank of America employees regularly lied to homeowners seeking loan modifications, denied their applications for made-up reasons, and were rewarded for sending homeowners to foreclosure, according to sworn statements by former bank employees. The employee statements were filed late last week in federal court in Boston as part of a multi-state class action suit brought on behalf ... Read More »

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) today announced that Mark S. Farhood, 49, formerly of San Diego, Calif., and Jason S. Sant, 37, of Lecanto, Fla., pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy charges in connection with their operation of a nationwide online foreclosure rescue scam that went by various names, including Home ... Read More »

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has just announced new rules that are aimed at mortgage servicing companies from lessons learned during this most recent mortgage meltdown crisis we are living through. While smaller banks and credit unions are exempt from these rules, the big loan servicing companies, those that service 5,000 or more loans, will have to fall in line. ... Read More »

Ten mortgage servicing companies subject to enforcement actions for deficient practices in mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure processing have reached an agreement in principle with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve Board to pay more than $8.5 billion in cash payments and other assistance to help borrowers. The sum includes $3.3 billion in ... Read More »

People who were foreclosed on in 2009 and 2010 may be eligible for financial compensation from a settlement fund a number of banks have participated in. The problem is that with a December 31, 2012 deadline to get claims in for review, many may not be aware of this program. According to the official website for this program, independentforeclosurereview.com, “The ... Read More »

Federal authorities have charged a former Los Angeles man with aggravated identity theft and having operated a foreclosure-rescue scam in Southern California and elsewhere that promised to postpone foreclosure sales for more than 800 distressed homeowners. Glen Alan Ward, 47, of Canada, was indicted today in the Central District of California on two counts of bankruptcy fraud, one count of ... Read More »

by Paul Kiel ProPublica, If you’re a victim of banking abuses during the foreclosure crisis, the government says it’ll make sure you receive compensation from your bank. It’s a simple idea. But for victims, determining who’s eligible, how to apply, and when you might get a check in the mail isn’t simple at all. So we built a list of ... Read More »

by Paul Kiel ProPublica Sheila Ramos’ grandsons, 10 and 13, started crying. They wanted to know where the house was. There wasn’t one. There was only a tent. They had flown from Florida, after Ramos had fallen hopelessly behind on the mortgage for her three-bedroom home, to this family-owned patch of rural land on Hawaii’s Big Island. There, on a ... Read More »

The Federal Reserve announced recently that there is a new program available that consumers who were foreclosed on in 2009 and 2010 can use to get a free review of their situation and may receive money for the harm they suffered. The Federal Reserve Says The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced that borrowers who believe they were financially harmed ... Read More »

To the tune of a MasterCard commercial: $4.7 million in fradulent mortgage loans… $944,224 lost by lenders…. $1.2 million lost in equity to homeowners…. Shameful. Mary Ann Dean and Charles Donaldson pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme of Sunset Mortgage Company. Dean was a loan originator and operator ... Read More »

President Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force strikes again! The task force was assembled to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive efforts to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. Personally, I think there are too many “force”s in the interagency’s title. Perhaps it works in their favor, because this week the force is strong! On October 6, 2011 the United States ... Read More »

A reader sent in a new version of the mass joinder mailer that is now going out. This is just another misleading marketing piece that looks just like the H-118, 52PLL-T, and 1012-R mailers I’ve written about before. This mailer makes the same unsubstantiated claims of debt forgiveness, interest rate reductions, balance reductions, and an award for monetary damages. Be ... Read More »

FICO recently released a study that claims they can pinpoint those who are prime candidates for strategically defaulting on their mortgage. Strategic defaulters can be defined as those able to make their mortgage payments but unwilling to do, often because their mortgage is worth more than their property value. Researchers at FICO have determined an ability to identify borrowers 100 ... Read More »

Below is a fax I received from Selma Kelly regarding her apparent unhappiness with Mitchell Stein over a real estate matter. Click on image for a larger view. Read More »