The Foreclosure Mess Could Last for Years
The dimensions of the foreclosure crisis keep expanding. Lenders and loan servicers including JPMorgan Chase and Ally Financial are facing an explosion in homeowner lawsuits and state attorney general investigations of claims of falsified mortgage documents. Lawmakers in both houses of Congress have called for investigations. And procedural mistakes in the handling of mortgage documents have clouded titles establishing ownership of the homes, a problem that could plague both buyers and sellers for years. "This is going to become a hydra," says Peter J. ...

U.S. Mortgage-Fraud Totally Out Of Control
A flurry of news items demonstrates that this epidemic has gotten so out of control that Wall Street banks are literally acting like there are no laws, at all. Shortly after a preliminary report that Ally Financial (the “mortgage unit” of GMAC) had suspended foreclosures in 23 U.S. states due to defective/fraudulent foreclosure procedures, two other news items emerged on this fraud-factory...There have been only 40% as many convictions of this white-collar fraud as during Wall Street's last crime-wave in the 1980's and 1990's – despite the fact that this crime-wave is (much) more than ten times larger. In other words, a white-collar criminal committing mortgage-fraud today is less than 5% as likely to be imprisoned for his crimes compared to 15-20 years earlier.

FHA: Banks Should Share Fannie, Freddie Bailout Costs
The nation's largest banks have an obligation to pay some of the cost for bailing out mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac because they sold them bad mortgages, a government regulator said Wednesday. Edward DeMarco, the acting director for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said the banks this summer have refused to take back $11 billion in bad loans sold to the two government-controlled companies, in written testimony submitted for a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday. A third of those requests have been outstanding for at least three months. DeMarco said the banks have a legal obligation to buy back the loans and called the delays "a significant concern." He said the government may take new steps to force those buybacks if "discussions do not yield reasonable outcomes soon."

Executives with criminal records slip through FHA crackdown, documents show
A crackdown on reckless mortgage lenders by the Federal Housing Administration has failed to root out several executives with criminal records whose firms continue to do business with the agency in violation of federal law, according to government documents, court records and interviews. The get-tough campaign has also been hamstrung because, even when the FHA can ban mortgage companies for wrongdoing or an excessive default rate, the agency does not have the legal power to stop their executives from landing jobs at other lenders, or open new firms.

Brian Causey part of loan scheme to sell Columbus County mobile homes
Brian Causey, who worked for Wachovia bank in Wilmington, along with Mayo, Fluharty and Ford falsified information such as employment history, income, assets and credit letters to underwrite loans between 1998 to sometime in the 2000s, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office and federal court documents...  All told, 60 loans were issued with lenders losing more than $3.5 million, according to the complaint. Additionally, all but one of the loans was foreclosed on.  Later on, in early 2000, Rooks, Williams and others started buying up the foreclosed properties and flipping – or reselling them quickly – for inflated prices.

Another local homebuilder, real estate agents, ringleader's wife added to Chico "builder bailout" scheme indictments
A man authorities identified as a Chico-area homebuilder was indicted along with seven others Thursday by a federal grand jury for alleged participation in a multi-million-dollar Chico "builder bailout" scheme. According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's office, William E. Baker, 65, former operator of Baker and Baker Construction, conspired with former Chico mortgage broker Garrett Griffith Gililland, 28, to sell six homes to "straw buyers" at inflated prices. Proceeds from loans at the artificially inflated prices were then distributed to several co-conspirators through companies operated by Gililland.

Mortgage Fraud Suspects Indicted in California: How Could They Get Away With It?
"Operation Stolen Dreams" lands another alleged mortgage fraud conspirator this week. Nationwide, the feds have stepped up prosecution of mortgage and bank loan fraud. This time, it's a builder in Chico, Calif., who has been indicted for allegedly selling unsold new homes to non-existent or straw buyers, thereby scamming loan funds from banks and other duped lenders. Per the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice, almost 500 people have been indicted nationwide since March 1, in a coordinated effort to address the problem of crime in the housing and mortgage industries. Losses from fraud schemes are estimated in excess of $2 billion.

Collateral damage: Innocent victims of the mortgage crisis
They cut the lawns, change the locks, clean and maintain the vacant, foreclosed homes that litter Texas neighborhoods. Like many small businesses, they operate on a shoestring. And dozens of them have been driven to financial ruin because they've never been paid. Banks have no way of maintaining all the homes they now own. They contract so-called "property preservation" firms to manage the work... But News 8 has found that from coast-to-coast, the mom-and-pops are suffering because the contractors who promised to pay them never have.

Protestors gathered on the streets of Chicago over Bank Greed
Things were livelier than one might expect at the American Bankers Association's annual meeting in October 2009. Protestors gathered on the streets of Chicago, mobilized by what they see as fundamental injustice in the aftermath of the bank bailout: large financial institutions are posting huge profits and awarding their employees big bonuses, while home foreclosures across the country continue to climb.  George Goehl, whose organization National People's Action helped organize the protests and Heather Booth of Americans for Financial Reform join Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL to explain why people are angry with the banks, and what they believe community groups can change across the country and in Washington, D.C.

Couple says Ryan Homes misled them: Received tax credit before bought home
A serious allegation against one of the nation's top ten builders. Unhappy clients who called 12 say they got government money they were not entitled to, and they blame Ryan Homes for giving them bad advice...They claim Ryan Homes instructed them to apply for the first time, homebuyer's tax credit with no loan pre-approval..."I'd rather expose them, Ryan, for what they did, than to accept $2,500 just to keep quiet," Jerron said.