We are a week removed from every Attorney General in America, save Oklahoma, “agreeing” to a landmark “settlement” on a raft of fraud-related issues, with all the attendant assurances on the financial compensation and the tight liability release and the stiff enforcement monitoring. And a week later, there is no piece of paper to point to as the settlement. It was all an agreement in principle.
Weeks Before Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Terms To Be Released |
| By: David Dayen Thursday February 16, 2012 1:00 pm |
San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting Finds Widespread Mortgage Document Fraud |
| By: David Dayen Thursday February 16, 2012 7:51 am |
Yesterday, the San Francisco Assessor-Recorder, Phil Ting, released the results of a cursory review of foreclosure documents, finding widespread irregularities in the vast majority of them. The documents included foreclosures from 2011, after the point at which the banks allegedly “fixed” their foreclosure document problems.
The $2,000 Insult in the Foreclosure Fraud Settlement |
| By: David Dayen Friday February 10, 2012 7:27 am |
The WaPo editorial board’s biggest problem with the “rough justice” foreclosure fraud settlement is that robo-signing is a “victimless crime” because all those people were behind on their payments anyway, and that lucky duckies foreclosed upon might be getting $2,000 erroneously. That’s the media we have.
OCC Settles Servicing Claims for a Paltry $394 Million (Actually $0 Million) |
| By: David Dayen Thursday February 9, 2012 1:35 pm |
If you thought the foreclosure fraud settlement was bad, get this: the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the weakest federal regulator in the financial sphere (I’ve taken to calling them the Office of Bank Advocacy), decided to use the cover of the big settlement to announce their fines in their consent order with big bank servicers.
Liz Warren: FHFA Must Help With Principal Write-Downs |
| By: David Dayen Wednesday February 8, 2012 11:50 am |
Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard professor, consumer advocate and candidate for US Senate in Masachusetts, said today that the Federal Housing Finance Agence (FHFA) must increase their actions on behalf of homeowners, including principal reductions, something that the agency has resisted to this point. Speaking along side Barney Frank, Mike Capuano and MA AG Martha Coakley, Warren’s message was aimed straight at FHFA’s Ed DeMarco, who’s been stalling on principal writedowns.
Justice Democrats Still Angling for Changes in Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Deal |
| By: David Dayen Tuesday February 7, 2012 8:45 am |
The deadline for state Attorneys General to sign on to the foreclosure fraud settlement came and went yesterday, and the major holdouts – the Justice Democrats, the AGs from the five states who have objected to the settlement all along (Nevada, New York, California, Delaware, and Massachusetts), still aren’t signed on. And they’re still objecting, or at least bargaining.
CA AG Harris Could Enter Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Late |
| By: David Dayen Monday February 6, 2012 10:40 am |
Cal. AG Kamala Harris wants to do investigations on origination fraud, on borrowers not learning the true terms of their deals until after signing. But the 2008 Countrywide deal extinguished many of those claims, and on others, the statute of limitations has run out. So by calling the settlement term sheet “inadequate,” Harris was playing for a bigger deal, perhaps a way to access longer federal jurisdictions on origination claims, more of a share of the financial benefit, or something.
Bank to Evict Occupy Pittsburgh This Afternoon |
| By: Kevin Gosztola Monday February 6, 2012 8:50 am |
As reported here at Firedoglake three days ago, Occupy Pittsburgh, which has been occupying land owned by a bank known as BNY Mellon for over a hundred days, is to be evicted by the bank after noon today. The eviction comes after a judge issued a decision siding with the “bank’s claim of immediate and irreparable harm” if the occupation remained on the property. We will cover this live.
HUD Secretary Donovan: “Large Majority” of Foreclosure Fraud Settlement Paid By Bank |
| By: David Dayen Monday February 6, 2012 7:45 am |
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan sought to clarify comments to reporters made over the weekend about expectations of “substantial” principal reduction payments from the foreclosure fraud settlement made out of loans owned by private-label investors in mortgage-backed securities, not the banks themselves. In fact, Donovan told FDL News, the “large majority” of principal reduction would instead come from the banks’ own books. But the details and sequencing matter.
NYT Bombshell: Fannie Mae Knew About Foreclosure Fraud for a Decade |
| By: David Dayen Sunday February 5, 2012 12:30 pm |
I don’t know if this report will delay the rush to settlement. But it calls into sharp relief what will be settled: years, decades actually, of ongoing fraudulent conduct.


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