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KIM v JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, NA ..... The Court of Appeals, DONOFRIO, P.J., and STEPHENS and RONAYNE KRAUSE, JJ., reversed, concluding that because defendant was not the original mortgagee and had acquired the loan by assignment rather than by operation of law, defendant was obligated under MCL 600.3204(3) to record the assignment of plaintiffs’ mortgage to it before foreclosing by advertisement. The Court of Appeals determined that defendant’s failure to record the assignment rendered the sheriff’s sale void ab initio. 295 Mich App 200 (2012). The Supreme Court granted defendant’s application for leave to appeal. 491 Mich 915 (2012). In...

A nationwide plan to help nearly 2 million homeowners hit by the mortgage meltdown and improper foreclosure practices could be announced as early as Thursday under a multi-state settlement hammered out by states' attorneys general and the nation's major lenders. The proposed $25-billion deal would be the largest since the $206-billion settlement with the tobacco industry in 1998. Much of the bank settlement is expected to go to people who are having trouble paying their mortgages or have lost their homes to foreclosure.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — More than three years after the height of the financial crisis, federal and state regulators on Friday launched a mortgage fraud task force to investigate the pooling and securitization of mortgage securities by big banks. Regulators said the new task force will not interfere with efforts to reach a settlement with a group of five financial institutions over questionable foreclosure practices. Specifically, the Justice Department, along with other state and federal regulators, announced that the new working group will consist of at least 55 Justice Department attorneys from around the country. The team joins existing state attorneys-general...

The Florida Supremem Court is taking up PINO! ... For those of you that aren't familiar here's the story ... BONY attempts to foreclose using forged docs... BONY gets caught ... BONY attempts to drop case ... defendant PINO in a VERY unusual move fights to block BONY's dropping the case to avoid fraud charges.. BONY pays off PINO , they file a joint motion to drop Because false documents are used in at least 75% of all Florida foreclosures ... The Florida supreme court is taking up the issue. Let the games begin... http://mattweidnerlaw.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Pino.pdf

As most know by now, the ridiculously low $8.5 billion putback settlement, which was supposed to have been closed by now, and which was the key driver in preventing Bank of America from trading far, far lower (and requiring much more capital), is the wildcard that would allow the bank to package tens if not hundreds of billions of claims against the bank in a "tidy (and very small) little package." The key factor allowing this settlement to be structured in its existing form, was that the lawsuit was filed in New York State Court, which allows for a little...

Friends, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi seems to think her first duty is to protect some of Gov. Scott’s biggest corporate pals – the banks – instead of hard working Floridians. Recently Bondi fired Florida’s two leading attorneys investigating the epidemic of foreclosure fraud ravaging our communities. The attorneys investigating foreclosure fraud said they were forced out. Join me and sign this petition calling for an immediate investigation: http://www.progressflorida.org/bondi June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards were tasked by then-Attorney General Bill McCollum last year to investigate allegations of widespread fraud taking place in foreclosures occurring around the state. They did their...

Two former Florida prosecutors are accusing the state Attorney General of firing them for going after mortgage lenders too aggressively.The Sun Sentinel reported that Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson were abruptly fired by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at the end of May and say the attention they were focusing on combating mortgage fraud was the reason. "Obviously we did our job too well," Edwards told the Sentinel. "We were making too much noise." Bondi's chief of staff Carlos Muniz released a long statement to the newspaper which said that Edwards and Clarkson were let go because of problems related...

WEDDINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Officials at Charlotte-area courthouses say they are seeing epidemic of frivolous paperwork filed by people claiming the right to seize foreclosed property. The bogus deeds are being filed by people who claim to belong to the Moorish Science Temple of America, an obscure religious sect founded in the 1920s with beliefs loosely connected to Islam. In one incident, a real estate agent and a couple viewing a foreclosed $700,000 home in the Union County town of Weddington were confronted on June 1 by two men who produced a deed claiming the home in the name of...

OMG! Just when you think you've seen it all, along comes a new horror story that makes the thought of doing short sales even more disgusting than before!! .......... The last short sale we did was one we were referred to in October of 2009 (no good deed goes unpunished!!). .... We put it on the market and got an offer for $130K within a couple of weeks! Tom moved out of state to assist his mother in her remaining days on earth and we were happy to have an offer. .... we finally got approval for a sale price...

“Since his death last summer, associates of Sun Ming Sheu, an activist fighting alleged judicial corruption in New York, remain convinced that he was murdered and that police aren’t aggressively investigating his death because of a coverup.”cont'd...

On March 30, an Alabama judge issued a short, conclusory order that stopped foreclosure on the home of a beleaguered family, and also prevents the same bank in the case from trying to foreclose against that couple, ever again. This may not seem like big news -- but upon review of the underlying documents, the extraordinarily important nature of the decision and the case becomes obvious. No Securitization, No Foreclosure The couple involved, the Horaces, took out a predatory mortgage with Encore Credit Corp in November, 2005. Apparently Encore sold their loan to EMC Mortgage Corp, who then tried to...

Case involving alleged foreclosure fraud headed to Florida Supreme Court A South Florida homeowner who is fighting a mortgage foreclosure could end up reshaping state law. An appeals court on Wednesday asked the Florida Supreme Court to consider Roman Pino’s case as a matter of “great public importance,” a move legal experts say could result in reforms in foreclosure cases where there is evidence of fraud in the way documents were handled by lenders, mortgage servicers and law firms. The decision by the 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach to send the case to the state Supreme...

Federal mortgage backer Freddie Mac is taking its foreclosure cases from the Fort Lauderdale-based Marshall C. Watson law firm, one of eight Florida firms facing state scrutiny for its handling of home repossessions. Brad German, a spokesman for Freddie Mac, confirmed the removal of the cases this morning, but did not say why Watson will no longer be used. “Going forward our servicers will be directing business to other counsel,” German said. In a statement, the Marshall C. Watson law firm said the parting was a mutual decision made by both sides. “Freddie Mac and our firm mutually decided to...

*BANKS LOSE PIVOTAL FORECLOSURE CASE IN MASSACHUSETTS HIGH COURT *MASSACHUSETTS TOP COURT DECIDES CLOSELY WATCHED IBANEZ CASE *MASSACHUSETTS DECISION MAY AFFECT FORECLOSURE-CRISIS CASES

Bank of America alleged in a court filing this June: It appears as though many loans and other mortgage-related assets have been double and even triple-pledged to various constituencies As I have repeatedly pointed out, the failure of the mortgage originators and banks to prepare and record proper documentation has led to an epidemic of fraud. The pledging of the same mortgage again and again to different trusts related to mortgage backed securities is just one result. And as long-time foreclosure investigator Nye Lavalle writes: On thousands of occasions I stated to regulators, CEOS, banks, Fannie and Freddie that the...

It's a house divided that may not stand. A large proportion of the "fraudclosure" mess may lie at the feet of Fed Chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. There is currently a multi-bank nationwide moratorium on foreclosures as the banks wrestle with the fact that there has been widespread use or misuse of "robo-signing," the signing of an affidavit or attesting to the factual correctness of what was purportedly verified without actually having read it. So those who invented small print didn't have the time or chose not to take the time to read it. To further complicate...