Beware: The Machiavellian Mortgage Scam Continues

In 2008, U.S. foreclosure filings shot up by 81% nationwide, and since the financial crisis began in September 2008, there have been almost 5 million completed foreclosures across the country, with millions more expected over the next few years. It's easy to conclude that this disaster was merely a result of incompetence but when you add up all of the facts, it becomes clear this calamity was the result of something much more Machiavellian (“Machiavellism” justifies power politics without ethical standards) at work. Moreover these Machiavellian powers are doing everything in their power to continue the biggest financial swindle in history.  And if you think you're in the clear just because you haven't been foreclosed upon, think again.

By design, it's very confusing, so the following is my attempt to clarify matters  for myself as well as for anyone else who might be interested. 

Firstly, we were set up.  Since the early to mid 1990s, in particular, Americans were strongly encouraged to buy their own home...whatever it takes, get yourself a home. Policies and programs (guarantees, tax breaks, etc.) were created to encourage home ownership, to finance the "American Dream".  And it worked.  The government pushed home ownership past 69% in 2004.  Not to mention, the banks opened up the floodgates and made credit available to anyone, regardless of   income. In fact, between 2003-2008, income wasn't even required!   NINJA (No Income No Job No Asset) loans and LIAR loans-loans structured to fail--predominated.

Meanwhile, Wall Street was ready to cash in on the financial ignorance of We, the Suckers. Thanks to the creation of MERS ( Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. a subsidiary of MERSCORP, Inc.), in 1995, and the securitization instruments like SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicle) or SIV (Special Investment Vehicle) they were all set up to track the transfers electronically on Wall Street, obfuscating the chain of title, as our promissory notes, split off from the deed, were securatized-- sliced and diced and sold and resold 30 times over--without our permission.  Hello robo-signing!  Of course, nothing was recorded in the land records, and the counties were not paid their fees.  In other words, the chain of title goes one way and the chain of custody, (the movement and location of physical evidence from the time it is obtained until the time it is presented in court) the other.

Most of us presume the chain of title on our property is clean and in order, however,  you may be shocked to find out otherwise, especially if you brought your home after 1997.  The financial swindlers who created the mortgage loan securitization scam made sure of it. Even if you are current--paying your mortgage on time every month--if you settled anytime over the last two decades, there is a very good chance you have a cloud on your title to the note. 

What is a clouded title? It's an apparent claim or encumbrance, such as a lien, that, if true, impairs the right of the owner to transfer his or her property free and clear of the interests of any other party. In other words, a breach in your chain of title that might jeopardize the conveyance of that title. Obviously this could very well reduce  the value and marketability of your property.

How can you tell?  Well,  it's highly recommended you either do, or get a  COTA (Chain of Title Assessment), a forensic loan audit to to determine if it was properly executed, especially to uncover any of the various misapplications of borrower's payments that generate revenue for the servicer, and/or a securitization audit which is directed at the REMIC process of sponsoring and registering the trust and its issuance of securities (Watch out for scams!). Keep in mind, the information gathered during these audits are just that, information, until it's submitted as evidence and the judge decides that the information is accurate and clearly demonstrates error or wrongdoing on the part of the other party, not to mention the judge's acceptance of the person who conducted the audit as credible.

But before you begin this arduous task, get out your deed of trust and look for a MIN # (MERS Identification Number).  It should be  right next to your document title.  If you see this number, it's almost certain your title has been compromised, as over 70 million homes are affected.  The bottom line is that the homeowner is not obliged to pay the WRONG lender!

Remember, MERS is a shell entity, a bankruptcy remote entity that is basically a computer. It has no employees, no assets, no liabilities, no income, and no expenses. It’s an electronic database managed by MERS Corp Holding, INC It is the brainchild of the Mortgage Bankers Association – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, land title association and all the major banks, yet it.has essentially destroyed 400 years of recorded property rights in the U.S. And, as admitted in testimony, most of the original notes were destroyed after the scanning, which, according to Carpenter v. Longan - 83 U.S. 271 (1872), the uncoupling of the deed and the note renders the note null and void. Hence, without the original promissory note, any copies used as evidence in court are sure to be counterfeit. So how are the banks getting around this issue? Well, so far, the ignorance of the public, and the supposed ignorance of the attorneys and judges seems to be working out quite well for them.  Nevertheless,  now that people are waking up to their scheme, the banks are doing their utmost to create pro-bankster legislation and there are already plans to legalize these  counterfeit notes, which they will call eNotes and eMortgages.

Let's take the state of Florida as an example. Currently, there is a backlog of 366,250 foreclosure cases just sitting there waiting to be processed, not to mention, they expect another 680,000 foreclosures within the next three years. What are they waiting for? More than likely, Florida's fast-track foreclosure bill,  H.B. 87 to go through.

H.B. 87 is very likely to become law by mid-June unless Governor Rick Scott decides to exercise his veto power, which seems unlikely at this point. This is a gift to the banks and to make matters even worse, they’re using the foreclosure settlement money to run it through. If this bill becomes law, it essentially gives banks that wrongfully foreclose on your property a go pass. They get to keep the house and the homeowner can’t come back and claim they’ve been wronged.

“Significantly, the new legislation will shift the burden of proof in mortgage foreclosure cases from the plaintiff (bank), to the defendant (homeowner). Thus, if H.B. 87 is ratified, the homeowner will now have to prove that the bank lacks the legal right to foreclose at the very onset of the proceedings. This shift will significantly restrict the homeowner’s ability to defend the case as banks will now be able to seek what is being termed an “expedited foreclosure.”

A title agent addressing the subcommittee on this fast-track foreclosure bill warned them not to buy a foreclosed property because it's almost impossible to tell which titles are infected with fraud. Of course, it's not just Florida; it's nationwide.  According to HUD and Fannie and Freddie, the majority of foreclosure inventory that they'll try to sell to unsuspecting people is concentrated in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, Texas. They've even admitted to relying on companies like Fidelity National Financial which has a huge myriad of title companies to whitewash the titles to these properties. In other words, when you buy one of these properties, you're indemnifying them from suit.

Pro Bankster Legislation:

H.R. 992 - This bill exempts broad swathes of trades from new regulation and could authorize bailouts for credit default swaps

H.B. 87 - see above

Washington State Bill SHB 1435 covers up the felonious business practices by covering up reconveyance issues in allowing banks to foreclose without providing official promissary note. All they will have to present is a Declaration of Ownership. These properties are being reconveyed regularly by the large lending institutions with only a “Lost Note Affidavit” and an indemnity agreement between the parties.

“Escrow and title are not bringing the original note to the table. We need a bill that mandates producing the original note, not a copy or an affidavit, before a reconveyance can occur. A homeowner does not know if they are paying off the right bank since the loan is securitized and serviced. This bill will create more red tape for the borrower and cause fraudulent defaults and foreclosure. This is not addressing the real problem, but rather it is
covering it up.“

What about government's role? 

Now,  banks are only part of the equation.  Without the protection of government, in particular, the justice department, this treasonous deception would've failed before it started. To be sure, from the get go, our oh-so-trustworthy politicians and the banksters marched in lockstep. 

From the government encouragement of home ownership to the repeal of Glass-Steagall  to deregulation  to the resignation of Criminal Division Chief, Lanny Breuer  after a Frontline documentary aired, exposing his role--and Eric Holder's role-- in allowing the banksters to bury their crimes to Breuer's return to Covington and Burling, one of Washington's biggest white shoe law firms to represent MERS in court, to the persecution, silencing and yes, even death of whistleblowers, such as Dr. Joseph H. Zernik, Ph.D. and now deceased notary, Tracy Lawrence, Lynn Szymoniak, Kyle Lagow, amongst many others, the banks and government ensure its progression.

It’s important to emphasize that the whistleblowers whose actions were False Claims Act cases involving fraud against the federal government have legal protection whereas if your whistleblowing case does NOT fall within the narrow confines of this law, you have NO legal protections and it is practically impossible to get media attention and/or legal representation even if you have money to pay attorneys.

“I believe that the level of corruption in Los Angeles increased, but also diversified. The collapse of the housing market is a huge court corruption scandal, where the judges and the bankers are acting as a racket.

And Los Angeles was identified already in the early 2000s in FBI reports as ‘the epicenter of the epidemic of real estate and mortgage fraud.’ In my reports I documented that at least as early as 1998 they had a routine for real estate fraud in the court in collusion with a straw purchaser.

The fraud being perpetrated on the people of the United States in recent years through the financial crisis is unprecedented in human history, and it results in dispossession of the people on a scale typically seen only in war.” --  Dr. Joseph H. Zernik, in hiding since 2010

Links:

Landmark National Bank v. Kesler

How Bad Can It Be for SEC Whistle-Blowers?

What is a REMIC (Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit)? They are a form of IRS tax shelter sold to investors as part of the mortgage-backed securities package (Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (“REMIC”) pursuant to I.R.C. §§860A-G). The documents that killed the REMICs may actually help save your home.



MERS – TOO MANY DEAD DUCKS

“Actually, the banks patented nearly every single move they made – even the behavioral aspects of dealing with the customers, judges, politicians, etc. as if to legitimize their scheme...The patent extensively outlines the legal requirements for the magical change of the negotiable promissory note into securities instruments chopped up into pieces for distribution to numerous investors who were to become the “Certificate-holders” of securitized REMIC trusts."

Clouded Titles (Who really owns your home?)


Banks’ Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills

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QE3 and the Global Land Grab

You can't create wealth out of thin air; therefore it's plain to see that money is not wealth, it's the mechanism used to transfer wealth from we the taxpayers to the ruling class. For instance, when Ben Bernanke prints new money (QE3), who gets first dibs on that money? His wealthy friends, of course. And then, in turn, they lend it out at quadruple the price and/or purchase up all of the finite resources--especially land, farmland, that is. Why? He who controls the food controls the world.

That's right, the global tycoons, especially since the financial crisis in 2008, have been buying up farmland all over the planet at an alarming rate, while subsistence farmers are losing their land and their way of life. They're being priced out of existence as the New World Agricultural Order unfolds.



Meanwhile, the Fed is quietly acquiring massive amounts of property in the US through their purchase of mortgage-backed securities. There are an estimated 1.5 million homes currently in the foreclosure process. Under the current QE3, Bernanke will own those properties once the foreclosure is complete. The point? To create a huge land-grab within the US where the Fed owns massive amounts of land and can leverage this acquisition against the American public as the transition becomes apparent.

Oh, and the Federal Housing Finance Administration (FHFA) recently announced that “strategic defaulters”, i.e. those homeowners who have abandoned their mortgage because they could not afford to make the monthly payments will be jailed for this “crime”.

So what we have here are banks, agencies and government "manipulating" the market toward their own agenda at the expense of we the people. Nothing new here.

Links:

'Shadow REO': As Many as 90% of Foreclosed Properties Held Off the Market, Estimates Suggest

Supposedly, these homes are being released in bulk to major conglomerates who have billions of dollars to buy them for pennies on the dollar and fix and sell them or lease them out. The banks are selling in bulk to them with the understanding that they are not to be sold within a certain amount of time

Read more...

Foreclosure Crisis: The Bankster Creation of a System to Subvert the Law

If you think this foreclosure crisis, just happened due to ignorance, stupidity, and/or sloppiness, think again. It was deliberately created.

How can we know that the groundwork was laid for this crisis, brought about by fraudulent practices - that continues on, despite the bankster's promise to halt their illegal activities - far in advance of the rampant predatory lending that date back to 1998, possibly even further?

Well, the banking industry decided long ago that people's homes could be and would be treated like a stock or bond transaction. So, in 1993, they set up an index, MISMO - which maintains voluntary electronic commerce standards for the mortgage industry - in such a way that the data files could be manipulated by Wall Street.

At the same time, the electronic system that would facilitate high-speed transactions, Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS) started to come to life, and went into action in 1995. There are over 3,000 counties in the US and MERS has infiltrated all of them. Due to MERS, the chain of title of 100 million properties established in the county land records has been circumvented, convoluted, and irretrievably broken.  Thus, without the the creation of MISMO/ MERS by the big banks, a foreclosure crisis of this magnitude is not possible. 

What is MERS? 

MERS is an entity that operates an electronic database.  It records your deed, your mortgage, your note, etc., electronically, but does not record the interest in the property at the courthouse, which is required (every conveyance of the property should have a separate document placed in your record, and it should be in a,b,c,d order) by law.  Moreover, it has a very bizarre corporate structure. It is almost a virtual company with 47-48 members   (they outsource through EDS). In addition to the 47 MERS members, there are approximately 20,000 signing officers authorized on its behalf, who have never received a dime from MERS, and who work full time for another company - sometimes a bankrupt company.

Now, MERS enabled lenders to buy and sell securities on Wall Street with nothing but an electronic handshake. Even though MERS was supposed to ensure a transfer can’t happen without both parties in agreement, almost all of the documents have the signature of the same person as representative of both parties (poorly paid robo-signers, which is still going on, despite the bank's promise to stop were/are used to sign/stamp affidavits). So, this accelerated process greatly increased the quantity of transactions, which, in turn, greatly increased the bottom line of the greedy banksters. In other words, this entity was set up so they could play with our money on Wall Street! 



However, because almost all of the intervening assignees, who bought and sold these securities, did not bother to record their interest in the land records at the courthouse, it produced breaks in the chain of title. Not only that, the counties lost/lose tens of millions of dollars in fees that MERS never paid!  In total, across the US, that's $60 billion! MERS even states that it's  not a substitute for the land records. 

And if you closed on a property, especially after 2003 (dates back to 1998), most assuredly, there was an 18-digit MERSmin located in the top right-hand corner of the title, indicating that an electronic file was already set up and waiting for you.

In a nutshell, MERS enabled the banksters to avoid fees, sped up the mortgage securitization process to allow for countless transactions, all the while, obscuring their activity.

Registrars like Thigpen in North Carolina and John O'Brien in Massachusetts say they have taken their findings to federal authorities. Except for a call from the North Carolina attorney general's office, though, Thigpen says he has been ignored for months.

What happens if you do have MERS on your mortgage?

Even if you avoid foreclosure, with MERS on your mortgage, you still may have a problem.  Eventually, the title companies will start to deny homeowners with clouded titles (MERS), coverage. So, when you go to refinance or sell the property, the title company (many of whom are owned by the big banks who created this disaster) could refuse to insure MERS properties, fearing exposure to lawsuits for a defect in the title. The title company only inusres defects previous to the issue of the warranty deed.

Meanwhile, the banks are going to court with forged and fabricated evidence (documents are backdated, include descriptions of events and actions that did not take place, are executed by individuals under titles they do not hold, and signed by someone else's name) to support their claims, in order to foreclose!

As William Galvin from Southern Essex District Register of Deeds - Salem Deeds - said, there should be a mortgage forensic auditor involved in all foreclosure court actions to ensure the information presented to judges by the banks is, indeed, accurate. Unfortunately, you cannot do this yourself as one needs access to the ABSNET Loan system, and/or the Bloomberg Terminal that actually determines where the note/ mortgage came from and who owns the note/ mortgage...the cost is $200,000 per year.

Step by Step:

Step One: Check on the status of your title.  Get out your mortgage paperwork. You should have a copy of a grant deed, warranty deed (anything with deed on it) that establishes your rights to ownership in the land and lists your name as the grantee.  There should be a legal description that is specific to that piece of property. this document gives you the right to convey, sell the property to whomever you want because you are lawfully seized of the estate which means you have it to hold in fee simple freehold.

Step One: Check Protect America's Dream to find out if you have MERS on your mortgage.

Step Two: If it is, go to your county recorder's office, and, ascertain, through the recorder of deeds how their system of recordation is set up. Go through your file and ensure that every conveyance on your property has a separately filed document or assignment. If not, your chain of title is clouded, which simply means an adverse situation that creates a break in the chain of ownership assignment in a title to real property, thus making it unmarketable.

Step Three: If you have a clouded title, if you want to know who has a potential claim on your property,get an attorney to file a Quiet Title Action,   and/or a Declaratory Judgment Action which gives the court the right to determines the interest  of the parties coming before it with a claim or disclaim

Get the book, Clouded Titles, by Dave Krieger is an excellent reference that will guide you step by step through the process.

Links:

States offer big banks deal over Robo-signing Lawsuit.

Claim that banks conspired to Fix interest rates before and after financial crisis

Goldman, Litton, Ocwen sign New York robo-signing deal

Merscorp Mortgage Registry Has Civil Racketeering Suit Dropped in New York

Read more...