Deputy Gets Fired For Lying About Income On Mortgage App In 2007

May 19, 2012 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

JPMorgan Chase Not Pursuing Charges

Steve Dibert, MFI-Miami

Call me a cynic or maybe it’s just because I know more about the mortgage industry than most people but something doesn’t add up about the story that appeared the local news in Naples yesterday. It was about Collier County Sheriff’s Deputy, Michael Kovar being terminated for lying about his income on a mortgage application he filled out back in 2007 for a house he wanted to buy and flip. He claimed his income from his side business of flipping homes was an additional $510,000 a year when in reality it was $88,000. The house later went into default with a $500,000 deficiency. After the foreclosure process was completed, JPMorgan Chase stated they were not going to pursue the deficiency.

Soon after, the Collier County Sheriff’s Department began digging through Michael Kovar’s finances for an undisclosed reason and discovered his mortgage application and in March of this year Kovar for “unlawful or improper conduct” and “failing to pay just debts.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning Michael Kovar for misrepresenting his income on his mortgage application and he should be punished. However, unlike most cases where homeowners get caught misrepresenting their income, lenders are more than eager to convict but in this case especially on a loan this size but JPMorgan Chase refuses to. Why?

According to WINK News, JPMorgan Chase took a $500,000 loss on the property but did they? It may appear that way on the public record but as anyone who follows my blogs knows, looks can be deceiving. JPMorgan Chases says they’re not pursuing Michael Kovar for the deficiency. Did they really take a $500,000 loss on the file? Probably not. There are two probable reasons why Chase isn’t pursuing this. The loan was insured and JPMorgan Chase got paid off by the insurance policy or they felt that if the matter was litigated they couldn’t prove enough of an ownership interest in the note and/or mortgage under Florida law to legally foreclose. So that begs the question, is this debt legitimate?

The Collier County Sheriff’s office is sophisticated enough to know this. Michael Kovar’s termination sounds more like a case of the department wanting to terminate his employment using this as an excuse.

Whistleblowing Florida Attorney to Receive $18M As Part Of National Mortgage Settlement

March 14, 2012 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

Justin T. Hilley, Housing Wire

A well-known Florida attorney and whistleblower who appeared on ’60 Minutes’ to make allegations of robo-signing against mortgage servicers will receive $18 million to settle her lawsuit over the foreclosure of her condo.

The funds will go to Lynn Szymoniak, the first in South Carolina to file a lawsuit under the whistleblower provision of the False Claims Act to settle her claims over the 2009 foreclosure of her condominium unit.

The condo is in West Palm Beach, Fla., but Szymoniak filed her lawsuit in South Carolina after her attorneys presented her case to the state’s U.S. Attorneys Office because of its “very active” false claims practice, said Bill Nettles, U.S. Attorney for the District of South Carolina. The office is devoting more resources to false claims cases, recently doubling the number of attorneys handling those case types.

The $18 million figure is a line item in the government’s $25 billion settlement with the nation’s five largest mortgage servicers, details of which were revealed in court filings Monday. The funds going to Szymoniak will come out of a $95 million payment to the Treasury that originated from Szymoniak’s initial lawsuit related to the improper foreslosure on her condo.

Szymoniak was featured on “60 Minutes” in 2011 for uncovering details of banks’ robo-signing of mortgages documents.

The state attorneys general and the Department of Justice filed the settlement with the servicers Monday. About $1.5 billion of the total settlement will be used as a “Borrower Payment Fund.” Borrowers foreclosed on between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011, who qualify for the payouts, could receive up to $2,000 each.

Legislature Gives Florida Courts A Paltry $4 Million For Foreclosure Backlog

March 7, 2012 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

Florida foreclosure courts to get money to speed cases

Kimberly Miller, Palm Beach Post

Florida’s courts will get a $4 million boost to hire additional judges and case managers who can tackle the state’s foreclosure backlog.

The one-time stipend, which is in the 2012-2013 state appropriations bill released this afternoon, still faces legislative approval.

It isn’t yet decided how the money will be allocated among the state’s 20 circuit courts, but Palm Beach County Chief Judge Peter Blanc said the statewide amount is “meaningful.”

“It will give us an opportunity to bring down some of the backlog,” Blanc said. “A lot of the debate these days is why are the cases still there and we do have some difficulty getting timely hearings sometimes.”

Statewide there is a 368,000 case backlog, including about 34,800 pending cases in Palm Beach County.

There’s $2 million set aside in the budget for the state’s clerks of court, but it was unclear Tuesday if that was additional money or just rolled into a total allocation that experienced a 7 percent cut from last year.

Palm Beach County Clerk of Court Sharon Bock said that means a $2.5 million reduction to her office and an “unbelievable backlog in the entire court system.” Any extra the office gets for foreclosure work won’t even equal what it has now to handle the case load, Bock said.

“Frankly I’m floored. We are in a state of shock,” Bock said. “They are cutting direct services to the public in order to earmark nice things that won’t make a difference in whether civil society can continue.”

Lawmakers gave the courts $6 million in 2010 to hire additional senior judges and case managers to handle the foreclosure bottleneck. The clerks of court received $3.6 million.

The money helped Florida’s judges clear 129,615 cases statewide between July 2010 and March 2011.

North Miami mayor faces foreclosure

March 4, 2012 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

Paradise Af Shar, Miami Herald

North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre has spent the better of his term dealing with economic issues in his Northeast Miami-Dade city.

He’s also facing economic woes on the home front: Records show that Bank of America is seeking to foreclose on Pierre’s house, according to court documents filed on Feb. 20.

In 2003 Pierre and his wife Bernadette bought the three bedroom, two bathroom home at 2125 NE 121st St, for $353,000, according to the Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser’s Office.

Pierre, who is a lawyer, said he was not aware that the bank was looking to foreclose on his house and he is currently negotiating for a loan modification.

“It seems to me the banks don’t care about the people,” Pierre said. He said he stopped paying his mortgage when he realized his home was underwater. “If I can be negotiating with the bank and we are constantly on the phone trying to negotiate the best deal possible under the sun, then I can see how this is happening to ordinary folks.”

Pierre said when he bought the house he took out a 20 year loan of about $282,000. He said he was making monthly payments of roughly $3,250 on that loan. In November 2007, around the height of the real estate bubble, Pierre refinanced and borrowed $560,000 against the value of his home. He took out two loans, one for $417,000 and another for $150,000.

He said he took out the loans to make improvements to his 1975 one-story home, such as fixing electrical issues, updating the air conditioner and replacing wood flooring.

At the time Pierre said he was making his monthly payment without any problems.

Deputy Gets Fired For Lying About Income On Mortgage App In 2007

JPMorgan Chase Not Pursuing Charges

Whistleblowing Florida Attorney to Receive $18M As Part Of National Mortgage Settlement

Legislature Gives Florida Courts A Paltry $4 Million For Foreclosure Backlog

Florida foreclosure courts to get money to speed cases

North Miami mayor faces foreclosure

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