Strange but true…bank AND attorney fraud.   No surprise either that AHMSI is named!

It’s bizarre but, it turns out, Wall Street cut corners when it created those mortgage-backed investments that triggered the financial collapse. Now that banks want to evict people, they’re unwinding these exotic investments to find, that often, the legal documents behind the mortgages aren’t there. Caught in a jam of their own making, some companies appear to be resorting to forgery and phony paperwork to throw people – down on their luck – out of their homes.

Names such as:
Akerman Senterfitt & Eidson, P.A. , American Home Mortgage Servicing, Docx, LLC, Florida Default Law Group, Law Offices of David Stern, Law Offices of Marshall Watson, Lender Processing Services, Inc., Shapiro & Fishman Law Firm

Action Date: April 4, 2011
Location: West Palm Beach, FL

On April 3, 2011, CBS’ 60 MINUTES aired a segment showing massive fraud by banks and mortgage-backed trusts in foreclosures. The segment focused on one particular document mill, Docx, LLC, owned by Lender Processing Services, Inc., a company that works for over 51 banks. One former employee confessed to forging 4,000 documents each day.

What mortgage servicing companies used the Docx forged documents in hundreds of thousands of cases?

The major mortgage servicer involved was American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. in Coppell, TX. Other mortgage servicers that used forged documents from LPS include Saxon Mortgage Services in Fort Worth, TX and Select Portfolio Servicing in Salt Lake city, Utah.

What bank/trustees most often used the Docx forged documents in foreclosures?

Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Bank of America were the top five users of these forged documents, but other banks were also involved.

American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. knew about the forgeries, but never disclosed to courts or homeowners their widespread use of forged documents.

In thousands of cases across the country, Deutsche Bank National Trust Company continues to push these documents upon the courts as proof that they own mortgages and have the right to foreclose, despite overwhelming evidence and even admissions of forgeries.

These servicing companies and bank need to begin the process of admissions, disclosures and reparations.

What law firms pushed and continue to push these fraudulent documents upon Courts and homeowners?

In Florida, the firms that used these documents and continue to use these documents are: Law Offices of David Stern; Florida Default Law Group; Law Offices of Marshall Watson; Shapiro & Fishman Law Firm and Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidson, P.A. Lawyers who used and continue to use these Docx forgeries in court should, at a minimum, lose the right to practice law.

The government focus must be on protecting the rights of homeowners and shareholders and the court system and holding the banks and securities companies accountable.

60 Minutes – Lender Fraud

The friendly folks at BankofAmericaSuck.com posted information about the screens and the access to info that your bank has about your home loan.

LPS, short for Fidelity’s Lender Process Services is the nations largest insurance & foreclosure tracking servicing and is used by many banks to handle the nitty gritty details involved in managing your home loan – specifically how to maximize profits for the bank at the homeowner’s expense AND to clean up any troublesome title issues related to cleanly foreclosing on your home by a lender who is TOTALLY DIFFERENT from the one whom you started AND different from the lender named in the recorded documents living in the property records.

My favorite rip-off is the banks’ plan to insure your home month by month when they intend to foreclose (and add it to your bill) but not naming you in the policy so you reap no reward.

Think of it this way.   The bank takes out insurance to pay off your loan if they have to foreclose.  They foreclose, collect the insurance money, SELL YOUR HOUSE keeping that money, and then SUE YOU FOR THE DEFICIENCY between what you “owed” and what they got at the foreclosure auction!  Nothing like trying to collect three times!!

Sweet deal for the bank.  Sour for the homeowner.

Fight for your rights!

– The Bank Slayer

Fidelity LPS Navigation for Foreclosure Info

While some lenders do utilize web-based proprietary systems (MortgageServ, Res.net, etc) for insurance and foreclosure tracking, the majority of the lenders in the US (including Bank of America, Aurora Loan Services, and OneWest) utilize the Fidelity LPS system, which is maintained by Fidelity National Financial. It seems almost impossible to believe all of our banks would allow a single point of failure in our nation’s financial systems, however a certain level of cockiness is certainly warranted after successfully pulling off the largest series of cons in our nation’s history.

The LPS system can be accessed several ways. Using Internet Explorer, Balboa and Assurant agents are able to query every field within the system via the web based Lending Portal Login for all of their clients. The information is then used to build all of the AxsPoint/Cool reports utilized to track Force Placed and REO information on the CCS & PAC systems. The tracker then places the information on Clientsource for the servicer to view.

These systems are all web-based, because while the banksters do practice “honor amongst thieves,” each individual banks still likes to hide a certain level of information from each other to allow the possibility of stealing from each other while stealing from you. Web-based systems allow them to control the information visible to each other.

The LPS System

Depending on the terms of the contract between the tracker and servicer, the SOR (System of Record) can either be the information on LPS (accessed via the Lending Portal Login) or CCS (accessed via Clientsource). Either way, if your attorney were to subpoena documentation in court for a foreclosure case, you will be presented with the Fidelity LPS information, if anything.

At first glance, LPS appears to be quite a confusing system. To make things even more difficult, the field values are stored in CD libraries that can only be accessed if you have CPI Navigator installed on your system, and are able to access either the physical disk or the virtual disk installed on an internal network drive. Many field values are chosen by the servicer, so they can vary. The general system architecture, however remains consistent throughout each company.

Once logged in to the LPS system, on the top left of each screen will be a 4-character field (which can be accessed by either pressing Home or clicking on the field with your mouse). The 4 characters represent a screen subset, as well as a particular screen. Each associate with LPS access (whether customer service, management,  or back-end) has at least read/print access to each of the major screens listed below.

It is important to know that many of them can not update the fields on these screens based on their particular access, however they are ALL able to access the information and provide it to you with 6 simple key strokes (Home-4 character screen name, Enter) within 10 seconds or less. The most important screen subsets for your usage are:

FOR_ (Foreclosure Screens)

These screens house all information relating to the foreclosure of your home. There are 4 screens utilized: FOR1, FOR2, FOR3, and FORN.

The FOR1-3 screens are utilized by the foreclosure agents to process your foreclosure, and are occasionally utilized by the insurance tracker to determine REO premium values, as these screens display loan specific information for your flood zone, loan investor, state, replacement cost, principal value, step code (a code assigned based on the current step of foreclosure you are in), etc.

The FORN screen is where all information is notated by the agents regarding your foreclosure, including a 3 digit code that is automatically attached to each transaction to identify the individual representative, field agent, or automated system update responsible for the update.

REO_ (Real Estate Owned Insurance Screens)

These screens house all information relating to the insurance placed on your home after the foreclosure. They are set up exactly like the FOR screen subset, with REO1-3 housing the foreclosure and REO information, while REON has notations of each transaction performed within the screen subset, including the 3 character ID of who made the change.

REO insurance is important, because depending on foreclosure laws for your particular state and investor (FNMA and FHLMC-owned loans tend to be more strictly regulated), REO insurance can be placed on your loan before the foreclosure proceedings are complete. REO insurance is always paid out of your escrow account.

If you do not have an escrow account, or if it is set up only for taxes, the LPS system is designed to automatically create one for you, rolling the balance into your account. This means that if you do not have an escrow account, and your attorney was successful in litigating your foreclosure case, you will still have paid for an REO policy (issued through Balboa, Meritplan, or Newport Insurance) of 1 month or more of insurance on your home that lists the loan servicer has the loss payee.

You, as a borrower, are unable to file a claim against this policy, as you are in no way listed on the policy, if a loss were to have occurred in this time frame. In addition, more often than not, REO policies are renewed monthly, and a new policy number is issued for each 1 month term. If you call in to have this money refunded to you, the system only allows a cancellation of the most recent policy, and you may have multiple policies listed on your account, which you can not see.

HAZ_ (Hazard Insurance Screens)

This screen subset houses all information regarding hazard insurance (whether voluntary, force-placed, or real estate-owned). It is divided once again into HAZ1-3 for maintenance and HAZN for notations.

There is also a HAZM screen which shows any historic policy placement on your loan within the last 3 years. Many lenders will not list the specific REO policy number, but will instead only list REO as the policy number, but you can still find out whether or not you’ve ever had REO insurance placed.

In addition to current insurance information, the HAZ1 screen will show the investor for your loan (along with contact information for them), the insurance company and agent with contact info (including force placed and REO), foreclosure status, property address, escrow status, escrow balance, etc.

INV_ (Investor Information Screens)

The INV screen subset will show all information regarding the current and historical investor information for your loan. This screen subset is read-only for most representatives, however, it can still be accessed by all associates and emailed/faxed to you if you call and ask.

If you were told by your servicer that any of the above listed information is not available or could not readily be accessed, you have been lied to. If it was told to you in court, your lender has officially committed perjury per United States law, as every loan tracker and loan servicer is provided a copy of the CPI Navigator disk, which is updated monthly.0

In addition, this information is documented in several departmental electronic policies and procedures maintained throughout each company involved with the maintenance of your loan , as well as in physical paper job aides, training manuals, and shortcut cards located on the cubicle walls of most associates’ desks.

If you have even a decent foreclosure attorney, you may be entitled to a free house, courtesy of your lender’s cockiness. Be sure to thank them afterward.

At IndyMac / OneWest it is very simple,  30 second per documents instead of 3 seconds.  This allows plenty of time to review if documents are legitimate.  WRONG!!!

Take a few moments to speak with Dan Welch in our office.   Maybe IndyMac should deposition him like other folks have depo’d IndyMac / OneWest employees.  Never mind, they would be too scared.

What would you find?  Well, Dan used to work for these crooks.  Yes, he used to work on the inside…supposedly helping homeowners.

What does he do now?  He helps homeowners deal with crooks and liars like many of the “loss mitigation” folks at places like IndyMac / OneWest as well as the usual too big to fail folks like Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Why did he leave a good “bank” job?  He wanted to do something that mattered.  Something where he was paid to make a difference.

How many of your go to work with the attitude or responsibility of saving a family’s financial future?  This is a very tough but rewarding job.

I tell folks all the time, we get paid for helping people.  How much better does it get…we get paid for helping people!?!

Look at the testimonials we have generated.  This is not bragging, it is making a difference in people lives.

Sure, some folks that don’t pay their bills and deserve to lose their home; but we help those that have been unjustly wronged and need help.

As I close this Sunday night , tomorrow is another day for us to make a difference.

Lord, let us make a difference for those that seek help and are willing to step forward in faith.   We know we are far form perfect.  Let us perform according to your will; doing the right thing in helping those less fortunete and in need of help.   We ask that those who need earthly help you grant us the ability to assist where appropriate.

- The Bank Slayer

IndyMac-OneWest-Deutsch bank: 30 seconds per document

OneWest Bank employee: ‘Not more than 30 seconds’ to sign each foreclosure document

The recent announcements by J.P. Morgan Chase and Ally Financial that they were freezing some foreclosures because of paperwork irregularities raises a key question: How many more mortgage companies employed “robo-signers?”

In a sworn deposition in July, Erica Johnson-Seck, an Austin, Tex.,-based vice president for bankruptcy and foreclosure for OneWest Bank, said she and her team of seven others sign 6,000 documents a week or about 24,000 a month without reading all of them.

Johnson-Seck estimated that she spends 30 seconds to sign every document.
She explained that while she does not check everything, she does check some information, “which is why I said 30 seconds instead of two seconds.”

In the past, the company had a quality control process that required signatories to check 100 percent of the debts and any figures for loans and bankruptcy, Johnson-Seck said. But the error rate was low, so now they only check about 10 percent of the documents.

She said OneWest Bank’s “outsourcing vendor,” Lender Processing Services, “checks the documents completely.”

A subsidiary of Lender Processing Services is the subject of a criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in the middle district of Florida. LPS has acknowledged problems with its foreclosure paperwork, saying there was an error in how the company handled notarization.

Johnson-Seck also said in the deposition that she had signing authority for Deutsche Bank, Bank of New York and U.S. Bank, among others.

A spokesman for the company did not immediately have a comment.

Forget a 30 or 40 year mortgage term.  How about an 8,000 year term!    This is a GREAT example of the fraud and/or negligence perpetrated by many of the mortgage servicers and trustees.

REALTORS:  Whether you are assisting a homeowner with a short sale or loan modification, it will be for naught if the homeowner is foreclosed upon.     Stopping the foreclosure is critical and one of the best ways to do it is to leverage the hidden gems that appear in a forensic audit of the mortgage and current foreclosure process.

Don’t lose another home to a foreclosure.  Contact our office today!

Thanks to 4closurefraud.org for this interesting find.

- The Bank Slayer

Mortgage Fraud – DOCX, LLC - FEDERAL HOME LOAN MORTGAGE ASSN.

Action Date: March 9, 2010
Location: West Palm Beach, FL

ON MARCH 9, 2010, researchers for Fraud Digest easily found at least 10 Assignments, for combined loan amounts well over $2 million, with the Assignment Effective Date listed as 09/09/9999. These were all prepared by Docx, LLC in Alpharetta, Georgia, a subsidiary of Lender Processing Servicesin Jacksonville, FL. These are the same “document preparers/officers of too many banks” that prepared and filed Assignments where the grantor or grantee was listed as “Bogus Assignee for Intervening ASMTS” and also the same people who listed the grantor or grantee as “A Bad Bene.” All of these documents are witnessed and notarized (by other Docx employees).

Fraud Digest researchers are now attempting to quantify the number of Assignments (in the hundreds or more likely thousands) where MERS is stated to be the original mortgagee. If the assignment is not effective until 09/09/9999, many homeowners will be able to stay in their homes a VERY long time. Each of these assignments effective in 9999 was to the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Assn.

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Now I don’t know which is better, having a BOGUS ASSIGNEE, a BAD BENE or a somewhat official looking Assignment of Mortgage that isn’t effective until09/09/9999.

Funny how these types of things keep popping up in LEE County, home of Clerk of Court Charlie Green and his quote “there should be a way to foreclose quickly against deadbeats who are destroying neighborhoods by neglecting or abandoning their homes”

By Lynn Szymoniak, Esq.