As a paralegal working in the bankruptcy field, I have secured many deeds and mortgages. I have not run across one mortgage that has been fradulent.
As a paralegal, you probably understand the problem here better than any of us. As I understand it, the large banks (Chase, Wells Fargo, BofA, et al) set up foreclosure shops to try and clear as many of these defaulted mortgages as possible. In the States that require some sort of judicial review, they tried to get by with hiring people with little or no experience to process paper that rightfully ought to be prepared, reviewed and submitted by a paralegal at a minimum. In some States an attorney could be required depending how complex the foreclosure is.
I’m not making excuses for anyone here. Process is process and every State is different. But at the same time Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been pushing the banks to foreclose as quickly as possible.
This is also a good distraction 2 weeks before the election, to keep people from talking about HAMP mortgage modifications that the Treasury has been bonusing Fannie Mae employees on. What has been happening is that people apply for a temporary 90 day mortgage modification from Fannie, they pay a reduced payment for three months, then the Bank lets them know they really didn’t qualify, are now in default, and owe back interest and penalties. That is potentially a much larger scandal than this one, and would make one hell of a statement about this Regime, if the media ever gets around to reporting on it.