I'm not sure that's the whole story. The homeowners who were really screwed... people whose homes were foreclosed when they were in the service, or people whose homes were foreclosed when ownership of the mortgage was unclear, on the basis of forged documents... are now unable to recover. The banks have settled with the government, who gives a dole out. The payout will mostly go to people who don't deserve it; the banks' liability is capped; and the few people who were really shafted might not be able to recover. What happens to the foreclosure mills? Do any of them go to jail?
“I’m not sure that’s the whole story. The homeowners who were really screwed... people whose homes were foreclosed when they were in the service, or people whose homes were foreclosed when ownership of the mortgage was unclear, on the basis of forged documents... are now unable to recover.”
The incidence of foreclosures on members of our military services was not either systemic or widespread (did not happen inapprpriately everywhere, all the time); and it was not always a legal error - banks/mortgage holders not following state/federal regulations regarding mortgages given to active service members, as much as it might have been a “moral” issue - were banks “morally” obliged to adopt special standards related to the mortgages of active duty service men and women, before executing a foreclosure.
As I said in my first post, the evidence for widespread enactment of foreclosures “when ownership of the mortgage was unclear” due to “robosigning” is very weak, and yet “robosigning” is the dominant legal excuse for the shakedown of the banks.
They are using the excuse of the type of errors involved with robosigning, without being able to identify the extent to which that issue and foreclosures intersected, came together (the evidence for which is weak) to extract sums of money from the banks to help all kinds of people simply because they were foreclosed on.
Its a legal scam and a government shakedown, regardless of whatever errors there were in mortgage records due to “robosigning”. Proof of a widespread intersection of “robosigning” and “foreclosures” is in fact NOT in evidence, yet, on the basis of “robosigning” the banks are told to pay money ($26 b) that the government will use for reparations for “foreclosure” problems. Its just as one could expect from the Chicago mafia.
“The payout will mostly go to people who don’t deserve it; the banks’ liability is capped;”
No it is not. They can still be sued on the same claims in civil court by individuals.