A couple of weeks ago, I was in Colorado on what was supposed to be a vacation but soon turned into a business trip.  When people find out I’m traveling to a specific city, my phone starts ringing.  It’s usually lawyers who need my help on files and want to meet in person.  So two days into the trip, I decided to just go into work mode and make money while I’m there.  The only time I took off was on Saturday to go see the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls, a roller derby team I’m thinking of sponsoring.

So while I’m watching these ladies elbow each other, I get a call about a woman in Massachusetts that Martin Andelman was trying to help.  So Sunday I call Martin and ask him a bunch of questions about the foreclosure and where it stands.  Naturally, Martin has no clue what I’m talking about and I could tell his head was spinning like Linda Blair in the movie, The Exorcist.   However, to Martin’s credit he’s journalist with a communications background not a mortgage or foreclosure background.  Next time I’m in LA, I will have to stop and give him a Mortgage 101 class.

It all worked out though because One West agreed to give Lisa Ferrecchia who is a Thalidomide Baby a loan modification that would keep her in her house permanently with out the need for me to call One West.  My conversation with Martin must have made an impression because he blogged about it when he wrote about Lisa getting her loan mod from One West.  Here is the blog below:

OneWest Bank DOES IT for Lisa in Massachusetts! 

It all started early last Saturday morning when I got a call about a homeowner in Massachusetts scheduled to lose her home to foreclosure sale in just two days…

Now, I don’t mind telling you that I had just posted a DOERS ALERT the day before, and to be honest they’re all a lot of work and I really didn’t want to have to write another one the very next day… I was exhausted and looking forward to sleeping for the next couple days.

The client’s name was Lisa Ferrecchia, who I was told was one of the thalidomide babies. At the time, I did’t know if that meant she was part of a sister singing trio… you know… The Thalidomide Babies,” or what, but I’d soon find out.

So, I read about thalidomide and OneWest Bank most of the day and then started writing a DOER ALERT, which was finally ready to post at about 5:30 PM on Sunday afternoon.  I was beyond tired and feeling kind of awful, if you must know.  I hadn’t been outside of my study for yet another weekend straight… my wife wasn’t saying anything, and my daughter was saying she missed me.  But what could I do?  I mean, seriously?  Lisa Ferrecchia’s home was to be sold the very next day at 3:00 PM in Massachusetts.

Plus, in Massachusetts, do you know how they do it?  They auction the home off right on the soon to be ex-homeowner’s front lawn, for all to see.  I’ll tell you what… that is some 17th century nonsense right there.  As in… Me thinketh she is a witch!  Aye, a witch!  Might as well be making the homeowner walk around with a scarlet ‘F’ on his or her clothing.  I figured that Lisa had probably spent a lifetime seeing people stare at her, and the thought of her home being auctioned off in front of her neighbors… well… that just was not going to happen.  Not today.

I had spoken to attorney Glenn Russell early on Saturday, and told him to have a skeletal bankruptcy filing ready just in case.  I had just spent the whole weekend behind closed doors in my study typing and posting at 5:35 PM on Sunday, I wasn’t at all sure my DOERS would DO it in time… or even could DO it in time.  And if that was the case… why the heck did I just blow the whole weekend with my family… again.  I was conflicted and unsure of everything.

To make matters even worse…  and I wouldn’t normally share this publicly… but Steve Dibert of MFI Miami called me on Sunday evening… he was in Denver for something foreclosure-related.  He had read my DOER ALERT post and asked me what I was doing about Lisa Ferrecchia.  I said I posted a DOER ALERT and my DOERS would handle it.  He asked if I had called Glenn Russell and if Glenn was going to file a TRO, etc. etc. to stop the next day’s sale. He asked a bunch of other technical legal questions until I had a headache.

I said there wasn’t time for any of that, but my DOERS would handle it.  He wasn’t buying any of it.  I said, don’t worry… I’m sure it’ll be fine.

And he replied: “Dude, I think your nuts.  I’ll call Glenn and find out  what else can be done.”  He hung up.

“Oh, ye-of-little-faith-shithead,” I thought to myself.  

We all know what happened next, right?  OneWest Bank’s CEO emailed me late on Sunday night saying that he’d look into the situation the next morning… and the next morning OneWest contacted Lisa… told her that the sale had already been postponed… and that they’d do everything they could to get her a loan modification that would allow her to keep her home.  I wrote to tell everyone the good news, and said that I was certain that OneWest Bank would do exactly what they had promised.  Of course, not everyone was sure whether I was kidding… I was right… or I was a fruit loop.

One West said that they would let Lisa know by today… Tuesday, February 7, 2012.  And so here we are…

Edvard Pettersson, Bloomberg

Deutsche Bank AG won dismissal of two lawsuits in which investors in residential mortgage-backed securities accused the bank of selling them securitized loans it internally disparaged as “crap.”

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan, in an order filed yesterday, dismissed two separate lawsuits by Brussels- based Dexia SA and Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America. The investors had “in certain key respects” failed to provide sufficient particular facts to support their fraud allegations, the judge said.

Rakoff said he would issue a more specific written opinion at a later date. The investors could amend their claims in so far as these relied on loans sponsored by Deutsche Bank Structured Products, the judge said.

Read more here

Huffington Post

After 12-year-old Noah Lamaide saw how the charity he had started was helping needy families, he knew exactly what to do when his own grandmother nearly lost her home.

When Noah’s 72-year-old grandmother, Janice Sparhawk, fell behind on her mortgage payments for the home that had been in her family for three generations, the Wisconsin boy succeeded in raising $10,500 in a month, ABC News reports.

His efforts saved her house from the Feb. 15 auction just in time.

Read more here

Stacie Servetah, Bloomberg

New Jersey must work through a backlog of 50,000 to 100,000 unprocessed foreclosures because of delays caused by an investigation into how lenders handled the filings, said Richard Constable, acting commissioner of the state Community Affairs Department.

Foreclosures slowed to about 10,000 last year from 50,000 in 2010 and 150,000 two years ago after claims of “robo- signing” — unverified documents sped through the system — spurred an investigation by state attorneys general at the end of 2010, Constable said today at a meeting of mayors in the Statehouse in Trenton.

As many as 100,000 properties will soon come to market in New Jersey as banks resume processing foreclosure sales, Constable said. The state will work with towns to make sure that the foreclosures don’t blight neighborhoods, he said.

New Jersey has the second-highest inventory of homes in foreclosure after Florida, with 6.4 percent of all dwellings with a mortgage in the process, according to data released today by CoreLogic Inc., a Santa Ana, California-based data real estate information company. Nationally, 1.4 million homes, or 3.4 percent of those with a mortgage, were in foreclosure as of December.

Read more here

Brian O’Connor, Detroit News

MI AG Bill Schuette

Checks for as much as $2,000 could be headed to Michigan residents who wrongly lost their homes to foreclosure between 2008 and 2011, Attorney General Bill Schuette announced Tuesday.

The state should get more than half a billion dollars, Schuette said, as part of a nationwide settlement worth up to $25 billion between the attorneys general of more than 40 states that is still being finalized.

The negotiations with five major lenders — Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial — would settle complaints that they foreclosed on homes with illegal, forged or incomplete documents, or wrongly turned down mortgage modifications. The deal wouldn’t absolve lenders of all wrong-doing, and homeowners would retain the right to sue.

The deadline for states to sign on was Monday, but those with significant foreclosure problems — including California, Florida, Massachusetts and others — are still negotiating. Schuette said he expected the agreement to be finalized this week. It then goes to a federal judge for approval. Tuesday was the first time the attorney general’s office had announced it would join the settlement, which has been led by the Iowa attorney general and been in the works for more than a year.

“We’ve been following it closely and felt that this was an important step…,” Schuette said.

Beyond the cash settlements to improperly foreclosed homeowners, Schuette expects the state to get $101 million that he wants used to aid trouble homeowners in the state, including foreclosure counseling, restitution to people who have been scammed in phony foreclosure prevention schemes, and aid to veterans and children left homeless by foreclosure.

The prospect of more money to bolster foreclosure prevention programs sounds good to Mary Lou Keenon, communications director at Michigan State Housing Development Authority.

“We’re very excited about it,” Keenon said. “Any time we can have funds for helping with the foreclosure issue in Michigan, we’re happy.”

Read more here

Steve Dibert, MFI-Miami

JPMorgan Chase, like their competitors, has been attempting to improve their public image with an American public who blames them for the recession.   In order to show their commitment to some of the hardest hit segments of economy, JPmorgan Chase has reached out to African-American communities across the U.S. by starting a public relations campaign to help “fulfill” the “vision” of Martin Luther King Jr. to coincides with Black History Month.

Now that campaign is turning into a public relations nightmare for the banking behemoth.   Chase is now threatening to foreclose on 78-year old, Helen Bailey, a former Nashville area Civil Rights activist who stood up to police attack dogs, tear gas and fire hoses for her god given rights.

Ms. Bailey couldn’t keep up with her mortgage payments and attempted to refinance with another mortgage company and would work with her to let her stay in her home until she died.  The only thing she asked from Chase was a $9000 principal write down.

Chase refused and now are threatening to foreclose and evict this hero of one of the darkest times of American history.

According to Change.org, Civil rights leaders like Princeton Professor Cornel West have stepped up to support Ms. Bailey,

“I strongly support my dear sister Helen Bailey. Her struggle for justice is legendary. I stand with her.”

Activists have received 35,000 signatures on an online petition asking JPMorgan Chase to accept an offer to purchase Ms. Bailey’s home from a private buyer for fair market value which is $9000 less than what is owed.

Steve Dibert, MFI-Miami

After a year of nonstop criticism of the way she has handled the foreclosure fraud crisis brought on by several of her campaign donors, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a cryptic one sentence press release.  Looks like she’s feeling the political heat now that the Florida legislature is in session.

February 7, 2012
Media Contact: Jenn Meale
Phone: (850) 245-0150

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.–Attorney General Pam Bondi remains engaged in the settlement discussions in order to ensure that Floridians receive their fair share in any agreement and that bank mortgage servicers are held accountable. 

Abigail Caplovitz Field, Huffington Post

A shocking aspect of the proposed foreclosure fraud settlement among bailed-out banks, the state attorneys general, and the feds has rightly gotten a lot of attention, namely the bailed-out banks’ ability to pay their “penalty” with other people’s money. I confess, when I first heard about it, I figured it was a testament to the federal government’s craven capitulation to the bailed-out banks. (Let’s call them the B.O.B.s, rhymes with S.O.B.s) But now I know it’s much worse than that, thanks to excellent reporting by David Dayen. The federal government reallywants the B.O.B.s to use pension fund money to pay their “penalty.”

Now, readers know I’m not exactly a Pollyanna, but I feel like one now. See, I thought our federal government understood that the right way to penalize someone with a fine was to actually make them pay the bill. I thought the feds realized the best way to punish the banks was to have them cough up cash into a BP spill-type fund, and have 50 special masters (one per state) use it to pay down mortgages, thereby punishing banks and helping homeowners. I just figured the feds had rushed things so much, doing essentially no investigation, that they didn’t have the goods to leverage a better deal. But no. The feds see the banks’ ability to spend firefighters’, teachers’ and cops’ money as a design feature, not a flaw.

(Yes, private investors besides pension funds are affected too. I am fixating on the pension funds because attorneys general usually protect state pension funds from theft.)

See, on a conference call that included Dayen, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan was boasting about how the settlement would deliver up to $40ish billion in principal reductions. That boast amazed people, because that number’s never been on the table; at best it’s been $17 billion in principal reduction, plus penalties of $8 billion. Donovan then explained the feds are um, banking on the B.O.B.s using other people’s money to pay the penalty. See, the banks only get 50 cents “credit” toward the penalty total for every $1 of other people’s money they write down. So when Donovan says the feds are expecting to get $2 or more in principal reductions for every $1 in “penalty” total, he apparently means the feds are hoping every dime of principal reduction comes out of a pocket other than the B.O.B.s’.

How can the AGs wink and nod and sign off on a deal that everyone expects will steal billions from investors, including pension funds? The NY AG’s office under Eric Schneiderman’s predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, incarcerated people for stealing from the pension fund. Schneiderman himself has sued Bank of New York Mellon for defrauding the pension fund. How can he possibly ink a deal that could take money from the fund for harm the fund didn’t cause?

Read more here