Michigan agrees to foreclosure settlement

February 8, 2012 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

Deal may net $500M for state’s strapped mortgage holders

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.”

Michigan Foreclosure King Buys Influence With $200k Check For Romney Super PAC

February 2, 2012 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

Romney Super PAC Is Attacking Gingrich For Cashing In On Foreclosures

Gregory Korte and Fredreka Schouten, USA TODAY

A Detroit-area law firm that represents mortgage giants Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac in foreclosure and eviction cases contributed $200,000 to a super PAC supporting Republican Mitt Romney for president.

That super PAC, Restore Our Future, has run ads against rival Newt Gingrich attacking his ties to Freddie Mac and accusing him of “cashing in” on the foreclosure crisis.

The contribution, dated Dec. 27, was written from the corporate account of Trott & Trott PC. A 2010 Supreme Court decision allowed corporations and unions to spend unlimited amounts on independent campaigns to support or oppose federal candidates.

Managing partner David Trott is a member of Romney’s Michigan finance committee. He and his wife also contributed $7,500 personally to the Romney campaign, according to FEC reports, and Trott employees also contributed more than $11,000 to Romney.

Through a firm spokesman, Trott declined to comment.

Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul explained it this way: “To the extent anyone is supporting Mitt Romney over President Obama it is because the state of the economy and the president’s failure to create jobs.” She referred further questions to Restore Our Future.

“We don’t comment on our donors beyond what is disclosed in our FEC report,” said Brittany Gross, a spokeswoman for the super PAC. By law, super PACs can’t coordinate with candidate campaign organizations.

In debates, ads and stump speeches, Romney has blasted Gingrich for his role as a consultant for Freddie Mac after he left Congress in 1999. “He made $1.6 million in his company, the very institution that helped stand behind the huge housing crisis here in Florida,” Romney said in Dunedin, Fla., this week.

With 96 attorneys, the Farmington Hills firm is one of two law firms in Michigan authorized by both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored mortgage underwriters, to represent mortgage servicers foreclosing on government-backed mortgages.

“David Trott, either through Trott & Trott or individually, has a complete monopoly on everything that goes on post-foreclosure on someone’s home,” said Steve Dibert of MFI-Miami, who works as a mortgage investigator for homeowners in foreclosure.

Is The American Dream Worth One Women’s Life?

February 2, 2012 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

Cancer Did What Linda Orlans And An Inept Judge Couldn’t Do

Steve Dibert, MFI-Miami

“To the last, I will grapple with thee… from Hell’s heart, I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee! -Khan Noonien Singh quoting Moby Dick

For the past 18 months, I have blogged about Lynne Lucas, my client in Northern Michigan who was fighting an illegal foreclosure that contained fraudulent assignments, robo-signing, unrecorded mortgage assignments, fraudulent notary signatures and a myriad of other illegal activity committed by the staff of Orlans Associates. She also had to deal with the second most incompetent judge in the state of Michigan, Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Martha Anderson. She did this all while battling terminal cancer.

Last October, a video crew from the Korean Broadcasting System spent two days interviewing Lynne for a documentary. During the interview, she proclaimed that she was going to win both the battle to keep the house and the battle against cancer. She vowed to fight for both until her last breath. She did and she wanted others to know they could stand up and take on their banks as well.

I am amazed at the number of people knew who she was because of my blogs. Every attorney and every reporter I have spoken to during the past year ask me how my “client with cancer” is doing and if she is still in her house.

Yet, I don’t know if she fully understood the yet unwritten legacy she will leave behind for the thousands of people in this country fighting against the odds to save their home from illegal foreclosure by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and unscrupulous foreclosure mills.

A fight I had the privilege of being a part of for the past 22 months and one that has spawned huge legal cases and investigations across the US.

The investigation MFI-Miami did on her file has led to criminal investigations into robo-signing by employees of Orlans Associates by both the Michigan and Massachusetts Attorney Generals, propelled Marshall Isaacs to robo-signing super stardom and was the genesis of two class action lawsuits filed by Ingham and Branch Counties against the banks, mortgage servicers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Orlans Associates and Trott & Trott for failing to pay the Michigan Real Estate Transfer Tax on properties in foreclosure. The follow up investigation done by MFI-Miami indicated these entities defrauded nearly $1.2 billion from Michigan counties and the Michigan School Aid fund since 1998. Her foreclosure has also helped an investigation MFI-Miami will release in the next few weeks showing how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac foreclosures are illegal in 5 states hardest hit by the financial crisis and how FHFA and the U.S. Treasury have some serious explaining to do to the American people.

Like most people, Lynne didn’t seek the glamour of being a revolutionary, she was content being a waitress at a casino and living in her house on the lake in Northern Michigan but her fight, the fight of one person, can serve as an inspiration. I know her fight will live on and hopefully will serve as an inspiration to others to stand up against an unjust system that puts profits and individual greed against the simple concepts of community and love thy neighbor.

Filed Under: Michigan, Mortgage News, Steve's Blog Tagged With: economic meltdown, Fannie Mae foreclosures, financial crisis, foreclosure, foreclosure crisis, foreclosure defense, foreclosure fraud, foreclosure help, foreclosure help Michigan, foreclosure rescue, foreclosures, Housing Crisis, illegal foreclosures, illegal michigan foreclosures, Linda Orlans, Lucas v. Orlans Associates and BAC Home Loan Servicing LP, Lynne Lucas, Marshall Isaacs, MCL600.3204(3), mfi-miami, Michigan Court of Appeals, michigan document fraud, michigan foreclosure fraud, Michigan Foreclosure Law, Michigan foreclosure problems, Michigan Foreclosure Task Force, michigan foreclosures, michigan mortgage fraud, mortgage backed securities, Mortgage Crisis, mortgage fraud, mortgage fraud investigation, mortgage help, mortgages, Orlans Associates, robo-signing, Steve Dibert, Too Big To Fail

Hertel Sends Letter To MI AG Encouraging Him Not To Sign Robo-signing Deal

January 31, 2012 By Steve Dibert Leave a Comment

Michigan AG asked not to sign on to foreclosure fraud deal with feds

Todd Heywood, American Independent

Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel, Jr., sent a letter to Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on Tuesday asking him not to sign on to a rumored foreclosure fraud deal brokered by the U.S. Department of Justice with all 50 states and two of the nation’s largest banks.

The proposed deal has to be approved by Feb. 3, reports Bloomberg News Service.

Hertel is urging the state’s top law-enforcement officer to talk to the Michigan people about the deal, which he says has been “shrouded in secrecy.” Hertel says the deal is rumored to include immunity from criminal prosecution for executives and employees of JP Morgan Chase and CitiGroup — something he vehemently opposes.

“If a person committed this kind of widespread forgery and fraud, they would go to jail,” Hertel told The American Independent in a phone interview. “Therefore, we believe the banks should meet the same fates.”

In Michigan, Hertel has been a leading voice in ferreting out robo-signing foreclosure fraud. Robo-signing is a term used to describe the mass production of forged signatures on legal documents related to mortgage foreclosures and other matters.

Hertel has had a close working relationship with Schuette’s office and has referred several cases for criminal investigation. He is also suing several banks and foreclosure firms for allegedly failing to pay millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes. He is also suing the Mortgage Electronic Registration System alleging the same tax dodges.

In his letter, delivered to Schuette’s office Tuesday morning, Hertel wrote the attorney general:

I am writing to ask that you stand firm, and refuse to add Michigan to any settlement that would give criminal immunity to the defendants. Our ongoing investigations have demonstrated that the major banks in this settlement, and their hired document mills, were engaged in the practice of robo-signing. Hundreds of residents here in Ingham County, and thousands of residents across the state, were illegally foreclosed upon because of this practice.

These illegalities have stolen due process from our own citizens, and robbed them of precious time that could have been used to recover and resume their mortgages, or obtain a modification. A family who is facing a foreclosure is already vulnerable; this practice insured that they could not possibly reclaim their home.

The full letter is embedded below.

“Those crimes were committed in our offices and essentially destroyed our land property records,” Hertel says of the alleged frauds. “You shouldn’t be able to buy your way out of criminal investigations.”

Michigan agrees to foreclosure settlement

Deal may net $500M for state’s strapped mortgage holders

Michigan Foreclosure King Buys Influence With $200k Check For Romney Super PAC

Romney Super PAC Is Attacking Gingrich For Cashing In On Foreclosures

Is The American Dream Worth One Women’s Life?

Cancer Did What Linda Orlans And An Inept Judge Couldn’t Do

Hertel Sends Letter To MI AG Encouraging Him Not To Sign Robo-signing Deal

Michigan AG asked not to sign on to foreclosure fraud deal with feds

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