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The special inspector general for the TARP bailout, said that "Goldman took $10 billion in TARP bailout funds knowing that it had fraudulently misrepresented to investors the quality of residential mortgages bundled into mortgage-backed securities.

Former HUD-OIG Special Agent In Charge Indicted on Mortgage Fraud Charges Herschell Harvell, Jr., 53, Conyers, Georgia, made his initial appearance in federal court on charges of making false statements to a bank to obtain a mortgage loan and conspiring to obstruct an investigation into his real estate transactions by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG). Until he was terminated in 2013, Harvell was the Special Agent in Charge of HUD-OIG’s Atlanta office, which encompasses several southeastern states. Harvell’s co-defendant and nephew, Tavus A. Wright, 32, Milledgeville, Georgia, also made his initial appearance...

The Justice Department and FBI have quietly acknowledged they grossly overstated the scope of a mortgage fraud crackdown, which the administration heralded with much fanfare a few weeks before last year's presidential election. According to a memo circulated by the FBI and a correction posted online by the Justice Department, the number of defendants, the number of victims and the size of the losses are, in reality, a fraction of what officials claimed last October. Attorney General Eric Holder and other law enforcement officials claimed in early October that the initiative charged 530 criminal defendants on behalf of 73,000 victims...

Bloomberg News caught the Department of Justice in a particularly noteworthy Friday-night news dump over the weekend. The Obama administration, stung by accusations from the Left that it hadn’t gone after fraudulent mortgages and the lenders that helped fuel the bubble, claimed that a year-long initiative run by the Mortgage Fraud Working Group in the DoJ had charged 530 people who had victimized 73,000 people. When Bloomberg’s reporters began digging into the claim, the DoJ stonewalled — and then finally admitted it cooked the books themselves:

Radio Talk Show Host Charged with Mortgage Fraud Warren Ballentine, 41, Durham, North Carolina, and formerly of Country Club Hills, Illinois, a lawyer who hosts a national radio talk show, was indicted on federal charges for allegedly engaging in two mortgage fraud schemes that defrauded lenders of a total of approximately $9.7 million. The defendant allegedly schemed with others to obtain more than two dozen fraudulent mortgage loans and represented buyers at multiple closings, knowing that they were fraudulently qualified for loans to purchase homes in Chicago, Illinois, and various southern suburbs. Ballentine owns the Law Office of Warren Ballentine,...

Another sheriff steps up to the plate against the kleptocracy. Sheriff Conley is asking for volunteer help for his investigatory task force to prosecute MERS-related foreclosure fraud, so this is a chance for you to fight back as well.

“The largest transfer of wealth from the public to private sector is about to begin. The federal government will be bulk-selling the massive portfolio of foreclosed homes now owned by HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to private investors — vulture funds.” So warned Roger Arnold, chief economist for ALM Advisors of Pasadena, California, in a column for RealMoney on August 11, 2011, that first lifted the lid on this latest colossal scandal to come out of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. “These homes,” wrote Arnold, “which are now the property of the U.S. government, the U.S. taxpayer, U.S. citizens collectively,...

As reported yesterday, the cost of terminal abrogation of contractual rights in the US is, drumroll, $26 billion. Bloomberg notes: -$26 BILLION FORECLOSURE SETTLEMENT ANNOUNCED IN WASHINGTON -FORECLOSURE ACCORD RESOLVES 16-MONTH ROBO-SIGNING INVESTIGATION -FORECLOSURE ACCORD IS SUBJECT TO APPROVAL BY FEDERAL JUDGE -FORECLOSURE DEAL PRESERVES U.S., STATE RIGHTS TO OTHER CLAIMS -FORECLOSURE ACCORD COULD CLIMB TO $40 BLN IF 14 SERVICERS JOIN And a whole lot of corner offices for America's Attorneys General. As for what the market thinks of this "severe" settlement: BAC +1.2%, WFC +0.6%, JPM +0.4%, C -0.1%. For those who don't understand what just happened, US...

YEARS before the housing bust — before all those home loans turned sour and millions of Americans faced foreclosure — a wealthy businessman in Florida set out to blow the whistle on the mortgage game. Multimedia Document Report to Fannie Mae Regarding Shareholder Complaints Add to Portfolio Federal National Mortgage Association Fannie Mae Go to your Portfolio » His name is Nye Lavalle, and he first came to attention not in finance but in sports and advertising. He turned heads in marketing circles by correctly predicting that Nascar and figure skating would draw huge followings in the 1990s. But after...

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has announced a guilty plea in a bank fraud and bank bribery scheme. Several banks were defrauded of at least $10 million after a man and his compatriots obtained commercial loans and lines of credit using ...

Germany's Deutsche Bank was aware of fraud being committed by a US subsidiary that issued thousands of bad mortgages before the 2008 financial crisis, US prosecutors have alleged. The US Department of Justice detailed the allegations in an amended lawsuit filed this week with a New York court, hitting back at Deutsche Bank's claim that it was not responsible for the actions of MortgageIT, a home finance business it took over in January 2007. "Following the merger, MortgageIT continued its wrongful conduct. And, it did so with the knowledge and/or participation of Deutsche Bank," the department said. The department is...

U.S. Mortgagegate Scandal Puts Taxpayers into the Title-Insurance Business Housing-Market / US Housing Oct 29, 2010 - 05:48 AM By: Money_Morning Shah Gilani writes: U.S. taxpayers already own pieces of such problem-plagued companies as General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC, American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG), Fannie Mae (OTC: FNMA) and Freddie Mac (OTC: FMCC). Now the increasingly problematic "Mortgagegate" saga could land American taxpayers in the trouble-ridden title-insurance business. On Oct. 8, Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) indemnified Fidelity National Financial Inc. (NYSE: FNF) against any losses that Fidelity might sustain in litigation over title insurance it writes on...

It appears to me the entire mortgage/securitization industry is one giant criminal enterprise. And yet, last Wednesday, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said, “We have not found any evidence at this point of systemic issues in the underlying legal or other documents that have been reviewed.” What! Well, look a little harder Mr. HUD Secretary. (Click here for the complete Reuters story with Donovan’s quote.) Donovan did say the foreclosure fiasco is “shameful,” but that is not the same as a criminal prosecution now is it? Where is U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in all of this? I...

Wondering if you are one of those suckers paying a mortgage in limbo, with all the payments due to some non-existent mortgage noteholder getting retained at the servicer banks? Well, if you can spare 3 minutes then "Where's the Note" is for you. The website, which is on the verge of a viral break out, has a simple message: "Whether you are facing foreclosure, have an underwater mortgage, or are just a concerned homeowner, it’s important that you contact your bank and demand to see the original note on your mortgage. It only takes a few minutes using our free...

HEY JUDGE COX, THIS IS WHAT YOUR MOTION TO QUASH IS PROTECTING!

Ummmmm…. Wow… From the Catalog… DOCX’s GetNet™ Document Recovery solution is a national network of runners that is engaged to provide document recovery, expedited recordation services, title searches, and insurance submissions. The service is unique in that our clients can request that DOCX obtain any missing recordable documents through this web site through our online GetNet™ Work Order Form. Status of existing projects can also be obtained through our Online Services. We also accept work orders the “old fashioned” way via fax or mail. Upon receipt of the work order, DOCX will access the national network of runners, place the...

President Barack Obama plans to veto a bill whose opponents say would make it harder for homeowners to stop foreclosures. The move marks the Obama administration's most direct intervention so far into a growing debacle tied to how banks foreclose on homes, and the first effective veto of Mr. Obama's presidency. The veto could make it more difficult for banks to complete paperwork and speed the foreclosure process, and could give homeowners more time to rework loans. Several of the country's largest banks, including Bank of America Corp., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Ally Bank, have moved in recent...

Live now. BofA stopping all foreclosures, due to inability to sort out faulty documents, laws suits over documents, etc.

Yesterday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott asked 27 lenders and loan service companies to freeze foreclosures in the state over concerns about the accuracy of foreclosure documents. Abbott asked that evictions of families living in foreclosed homes be halted as well.

A group of nuns from Ireland are suing Morgan Stanley, alleging improper actions by the investment bank that led them to lose at least 5 million euros ($6.4 million), about 80 percent of their total investment, a filing by Stuarts Law showed. The claim, titled "The Sisters of Jesus and Mary versus Morgan Stanley", is related to bond investments linked to Dresdner Bank debt. The filing claims Morgan Stanley’s [MS 25.90 -0.22 (-0.84%) ] Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) Saturn's Investment Europe "deliberately or carelessly failed to redeem the notes" following their downgrading in January 2009. According to the filing, The...