Archive for the ‘Mortgages’ Category
Posted by Larry Doyle on May 1st, 2014 10:22 AM |
I sing the praises of former banking regulator Bill Black in my book, In Bed with Wall Street, for many reasons.
Black stands up, speaks out, and tells it like it is while all too many in our nation’s capital and regulatory offices prostrate themselves in service and homage to powerful financial elites. Major props to Black for bringing attention today to another in a long line of betrayals of American homeowners.
The WSJ and other periodicals recently made passing reference to an egregious travesty within the bank settlements of foreclosure abuse. Props to Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture for providing the forum for Black to expose real fraud in the system and the accompanying degradation of the rule of law in the process. Let’s navigate as Black provides the transparency that is truly the great disinfectant to a system that smells: (more…)
Tags: Barry Ritholtz The Big Picture, Bill Black, foam the runways, foreclosure abuse, foreclosure abuse robo signing, foreclosure fraud, GAO foreclosure settlement, OCC Federal Reserve, Regulators Latest Betrayal of Homeowners, regulatory capture, the bank stole my house, William Black on foreclosure settlements
Posted in financial frauds, foreclosures, General, Mortgages | 1 Comment »
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 14th, 2014 9:21 AM |
When people knowingly misrepresent critically important information to you and do so on a repeated basis, why would you ever trust them?
Human nature being what it is, you would not.
That is exactly the quandary the Department of Justice finds itself in currently. How so? Let’s navigate and review a recently released report from none other than the Inspector General’s Office of the Department of Justice which outlines how the DOJ repeatedly delivered grossly exaggerated information to the American public regarding mortgage fraud investigations. (more…)
Tags: Department of Justice Inspector General Office, Department of Justice mortgage investigations, Distressed homeowner Initiative, DOJ, DOJ mortgage fraud investigations, Eric Holder, in bed with Wall Street, mortgage fraud investigations
Posted in fraud, General, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages | 1 Comment »
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 28th, 2014 10:59 AM |
Do you plan on watching President Obama’s State of the Union address this evening?
Why do I think I hear many people who might read this blog say, “Why would I want to do that?”
In the midst of leaving an event last evening in New York City, a very informed pollster told me that the overwhelming sense in the nation today is that people are totally fed up with Washington and Wall Street. No surprise there, but why is that? Well, because all too often our politicians from both sides of the aisle over-promise and then under-deliver.
As an example of just that practice, I commend Dennis Kelleher, President of Better Markets, for releasing the following statement regarding the Obama administration’s promise he made two years ago in his State of the Union to bring real accountability to Wall Street. (more…)
Tags: Better Markets, Dennis Kelleher Better markets, Eric Holder mortgage fraud task force, mortgage fraud task force, mortgage task force, New York AG Eric Schneidermann, Obama State of the Union
Posted in fraud, General, Mortgage Cram-Down, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages | No Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 27th, 2014 8:28 AM |
I wish I had the silver bullet to address and fix the rampant abusive practices that have transpired within the mortgage servicing entities of many of our large banks and elsewhere.
I don’t.
That said, the ongoing problematic issues within mortgage servicing practices remain prevalent. How do I know? I hear from people entangled in this mess on an ongoing basis.
In my opinion, these issues go right to the core of what I believe is the problem with the structure of our banking industry in America today. That problem centers on the fact that we have a few banks (e.g., JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo) that dominate the market, especially within the mortgage realm.
As many longtime readers of my blog are aware, this economic structure known as an oligopoly allows, if not promotes, the following abusive type practices: (more…)
Tags: foreclosure abuses, fraudclosure, mortgage abuse, mortgage foreclosure abuse, mortgage foreclosures, mortgage fraud, mortgage servicers, mortgage servicing abuse, Wall Street oligopoly
Posted in foreclosures, General, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages | 3 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on October 21st, 2013 10:12 AM |
Does a $13 billion fine such as that levied against JP Morgan represent justice?
I was asked by my friends at Global Economic Intersection to weigh in on the following questions regarding this penalty seemingly so large as to be hard to fathom.
Is the reported settlement appropriate? Sufficient? Insufficient?
How many criminal charges would be appropriate? None? Operational management? Executive management?
If you believe the action by DoJ is appropriate, has it been timely?
Should there be similar action against other banks? (more…)
Tags: Angelo Mozilo, Chris Dodd, fine on JPM, JP Morgan 13 billion fine, JP Morgan Chase fine, JP Morgan fine, JP Morgan fine imposed by DOJ, JP Morgan takeover of Bear Stearns, JP Morgan takeover of Washington Mutual, Kerry Killinger, mortgage fraud, was JP Morgan fine fair
Posted in fraud, General, JP Morgan, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages | 4 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on September 23rd, 2013 10:02 AM |
I thank the many devoted readers of Sense on Cents who made sure I was aware of a riveting, must-read article in yesterday’s New York Times written by Bill Cohan, a Wall Street-Washington critic without peer.
Cohan writes of the travails of Richard Bowen, former whistleblower at Citigroup, who ran headlong into the fortress manned by Robert Rubin and friends. Bowen was a Citi employee who blew the whistle regarding the preponderance of defective mortgages running through the Citi pipeline.
He brought the knowledge of this activity to the highest perch within the bank including the attention of Robert Rubin. How was he treated? With what most would define as ‘the silent treatment.’ Once silenced, he was then subsequently shown the door.
While Bowen was pushed out of Citigroup back in 2009, he has not been silenced since then. (more…)
Tags: Bill Cohan, Cohan writes about Richard Bowen, exposing corruption, FCIC, mortgage fraud, regulatory capture, Richard Bowen, Richard Bowen Robert Rubin, Was This Whistleblower Muzzled?
Posted in Citigroup, corruption, Financial crisis inquiry commission, financial frauds, General, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages, regulation, regulatory capture, Reputation, Robert Rubin, Wall Street Washington Incest, whistleblowers | 15 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on August 12th, 2013 7:41 AM |
In what has to be one of the greatest indictments to date of the lack of meaningful integrity in Washington, news broke late last week regarding mortgage fraud investigation and enforcement statistics that totally blew me away.
Before we dive into the cesspool that defines this story, let’s set the proper backdrop.
One would think that a government initiative with the name Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force would have been incredibly busy over the last few years. For those unaware, President Obama established this initiative in November 2009. Its mission?
. . . to hold accountable those who helped bring about the last financial crisis as well as those who would attempt to take advantage of the efforts at economic recovery. (more…)
Tags: Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, financial regulators in bed with wall street, in bed with Wall Street Larry Doyle, Lanny Breuer RMBS working group, Larry Doyle Sense on Cents, mortgage fraud, mortgage fraud investigations, Obama effort to fight mortgage fraud, Obama in bed with Wall Street, RMBS Working Group results, Washington in bed with Wall Street
Posted in fraud, General, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages | 11 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on June 17th, 2013 8:45 AM |
Would you ever want to do business with an individual or an entity that lied to you? Probably not, right?
Should we add Bank of America to the list of those entities (financial institutions, regulators, our government) that have been less than forthright in engaging those with whom it was saying one thing but doing something entirely different?
A cursory review of the testimony I highlighted this past Friday, Bank America Mortgage Racket: We Were Told to Lie, might give many who read that commentary considerable reason to pause before engaging BofA. (more…)
Tags: BAC mortgage modification, BAC mortgage refi, Bank America mortgage, Bank of America Mortgage, Bank of America mortgage modification lying, BofA Mortgage, HAMP, HAMP Obama administration, lying about mortgage modification, lying in HAMP program, modifying mortgages under HAMP, Mortgage Crisis, mortgage foreclosures, mortgage servicing lying, Neil Barofsky Bailout foam the runway, Obama program to support housing, rent seeking, Simone Gordon, support for housing
Posted in Bank of America, General, HAMP, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages | 6 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on June 14th, 2013 9:02 AM |
Not that we needed any further evidence of the racketeering enterprises run within the mortgage operations on Wall Street, but with the recently delivered testimony of Simone Gordon, a senior collection officer within Bank of America’s mortgage ‘racket’ . . . we got it.
I first questioned whether the activities within the mortgage servicing enterprises on Wall Street rose to the level of racketeering in early 2011 after having becoming aware of Wall Street’s practice of robo-signing mortgage documents in order to engage in the fraudulent conveyance of countless mortgages. (more…)
Tags: BAC mortgage operation, Bank of America mortgage racket, Bank of America mortgage servicing, HAMP, Home Affordability Modification Program, mortgage modification fraud, Neil Barofsky Bailout, robo-signing, Sheila Bair Bull by The Horns, Simone Gordon, Simone Gordon Bank of America, Simone Gordon testimony, Tim Geithner HAMP, Wall Street-Washington incest, who is Simone Gordon
Posted in Bank of America, General, HAMP, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages, Wall Street, Wall Street Washington Incest | 11 Comments »
Posted by Larry Doyle on January 22nd, 2013 7:29 PM |
I will be watching Frontline this evening on PBS as a documentary on fraud within the mortgage industry airs. This show, The Untouchables, will interview a number of mortgage due diligence underwriters.
What did they have to say? This 5-minute Frontline preview says a lot, including ….
“Fraud in the due diligence world, fraud was the F-word or the F-bomb,” said Tom Leonard. “You didn’t use that word,” (more…)
Tags: fraud is the F bomb, fraud is the F word, Frontline documentary The Untouchables, mortgage fraud, PBS documentary on mortgage fraud, PBS documentary The Untouchables, PBS show on mortgage fraud
Posted in fraud, General, Mortgage Crisis, Mortgages | 2 Comments »