US bankers’ foreclosure fraud

This video from the USA is called ‘Robo-Signing’ Paperwork Breakdown Leaves Many Houses in Foreclosure Limbo.

By Tom Eley in the USA:

US banks fake documents to rush foreclosures

7 October 2010

Major US banks systematically faked documents in order to speed up foreclosures for hundreds of thousands of homeowners, a mounting body of evidence shows. It appears likely that federal and state laws were broken in the process.

The scandal speaks both to the dimensions of the social crisis and the criminality of the big banks. The immediate cause of the mortgage lenders’ rampant cheating on foreclosure paperwork is the tidal wave of families ruined by the economic crisis—a crisis itself set into motion by the banks’ predatory lending practices. The goal was to get people out of their homes as efficiently and ruthlessly as possible, skating over legal requirements relating to documentation.

Politicians have responded with calls for investigations and temporary suspensions of foreclosures. …

The scandal emerged last month after evidence of fraud forced Ally Financial (formerly GMAC Mortgage), the fourth largest US mortgage lender, to stop foreclosures in the 23 states where a court order is needed to take over a property. This was followed last week by similar moves from financial giants JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. Also implicated is Wells Fargo, and it is generally accepted that all the major banks were using similar methods to speed the dispossession of homeowners.

In the 27 states that do not require judicial review, lenders continue to prosecute foreclosures even though they employed the same dubious, and likely illegal, practices. Among states that do not require judicial review is California, the nation’s most populous state and leader in the total number of mortgage foreclosures.

Flawed Foreclosure Documents Thwart Home Sales: here.

Challenging foreclosures could become more difficult for homeowners if the president signs a bill that passed through the Senate last week. The little-noticed bill comes at a time when the validity of foreclosure proceedings across the nation has been called into question: here.

CALLS FOR FORECLOSURE FREEZE: here.

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner on the Foreclosure Crisis and Her State’s Lawsuit Against Ally Financial: here.

Bank of America to halt foreclosures in all 50 states: here.

Banks Accused of Illegally Breaking Into Homes Facing Foreclosure: here.

Debunking Banks’ “Procedural Problems” Defense on the Foreclosure Crisis: here.

Every State To Participate In Massive Investigation Into Possibly ‘Deceptive’ Foreclosure Practices: here.

Fannie, Freddie Ditch Foreclosure King: here.

In Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, director Oliver Stone once again turns his attention to the crimes of the financial elite, which he first addressed in his 1987 film Wall Street: here. And here.

Socialism? The Rich Are Winning the US Class War: Facts Show Rich Getting Richer: here.

The Great American Stick-Up: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street: here.