The owners of American Home Solutions Group in Florida seem to be facing legal issues on all fronts. The owners, Jeff George and Dante Marquez are accused of “making “blatant misrepresentations” to homeowners in Florida and across the country. For a fee, they promised to help dig homeowners out of mortgage debt. Instead, they did nothing except pocket the money, ... Read More »

by Sasha Chavkin, ProPublica Many foreclosures have been thrown into question because of flawed documentation such as inaccurate affidavits describing a mortgage’s history. But three recent court cases point to another type of flaw in foreclosure filings that could place thousands more cases in doubt: false attorney signatures on court documents. Experts said that foreclosures that relied on court documents ... Read More »

Marian Wang, ProPublica In our primer on the players in the foreclosure scandal, we noted that the biggest foreclosure contractor to which banks outsourced servicing tasks, Lender Processing Services (LPS), has been accused of flaws in the processing of key mortgage documents. The company has said that it is “not aware of any defects in our signing and review processes ... Read More »

FYI: I was contacted by the attorneys for Saen Higgins and Wealth Without Risk. They felt this article gives the impression this site has a business relationship with Saen Higgins. Let me state clearly for the record, in case anyone was the least bit confused by this article, GetOutOfDebt.org is in no way associated with Saen Higgins, Wealth Without Rick, ... Read More »

I just saw FreeLoanModInfo.net which was pitching something called “President Obama’s Mortgage Modification Program.” In light of the recent Mortgage Assistance Relief Services rules put forward by the Federal Trade Commission this site certainly seems like it would fall under the new rules as a deceptive marketing pitch. Additionally, the site is a lead generation site. It seems this site ... Read More »

Inbound Marketing Advisors, American Recovery Task Force, National Recovery Task Force, Fortune Property Management & Investments, Kevin Bates, and Anthony Passaro were all named as defendants in a lawsuit brought by the Florida Attorney General in an effort to stamp out timeshare fraud. The Attorney General alleges that the defendants bought lists of consumers that fell for claims by marketing ... Read More »

Marian Wang, ProPublica While they may be conducting their own investigations, federal prosecutors and national bank regulators for the most part aren’t the ones leading the investigation into the foreclosure mess. At least that’s the perception–one that’s reinforced when Elizabeth Warren, Obama’s head of consumer financial protection, says her money is on a 50-state investigation by the states’ attorneys general. ... Read More »

Global Equity Solutions, a Florida mortgage modification company was recently shutdown by the State of Florida for performing illegal advanced fee loan modifications services. The problem is the company simply picked up stakes and took its tent across state lines to Kingland, Georgia and setup shop again. This time calling itself Peachtree Consultants Incorporated. Probably most disturbing is the statement ... Read More »

Last weekend the New York Times ran an article about a lawyer, Peter Ticktin, in Florida that was placing second mortgages on homes we was able to save from foreclosure. Ticktin, of Ticktin Law Group in Deerfield Beach, FL is quoted as saying, “We thought, ‘Why don’t we use a bit of ingenuity to find an affordable way to represent ... Read More »

by Marian Wang, ProPublica For years, banks and other companies handling foreclosures have turned to cheap labor to process the growing volume of foreclosures. At JPMorgan Chase, they were called “Burger King kids“–walk-in workers hired to handle foreclosure proceedings. Many barely knew what a mortgage was and had only high-school educations. Prompted by a Financial Times article about banks hiring ... Read More »

I don’t know what is worse these days, people selling timeshares, people buying timeshares or people claiming to be able to resell timeshares. Well the FTC just recently took action against some timeshare resellers who were out to inflict pain on consumers. I love the title for the press release from the FTC on this as well. Funny. Read More »

A number of states have laws on the books for mandatory foreclosure medication in an effort to avoid foreclosure. Here is a list of states that have such programs and a link for more information. States With Foreclosure Mediation Programs California Connecticut Delaware Florida Hawaii Illinois Indiana Kentucky Maine Maryland Michigan Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New York New Mexico ... Read More »

by Marian Wang,ProPublica The scandal over flawed paperwork and sloppy practices by mortgage servicers continues to broaden. The issue is complicated, and “robo-signers” — individuals working for servicers and signing off on thousands of foreclosure documents without much verification — are only part of the picture. So we brought some of our questions about the broader foreclosure process to Geoff ... Read More »

by Karen Weise ProPublica, Today, 8:53 a.m. Download the audio. Listen to Wallace Farmer talk about the loan mod process. On a recent Friday morning, Wallace Farmer packed up and moved out of his Baltimore row house. After over a year of confusion and delays, JPMorgan Chase told Farmer that he made too much for a mortgage modification through the ... Read More »

by Paul Kiel ProPublica, Today, 11:33 a.m. Each month, the Treasury Department releases new information about how homeowners in its mortgage modification program are faring. And each month, the numbers get bleaker. Take a look at our graphical rundown of the numbers, broken down by each bank or mortgage servicer participating in the program. Have you worked for a servicer ... Read More »