Jawdropping Mother Jones article - Fannie and Freddies's Foreclosure Barons

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

Particular heads-up for Florida DU'ers

http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/07/david-stern-djsp-foreclosure-fannie-freddie?page=1
EXCLUSIVE: Fannie and Freddie's Foreclosure Barons

How the federal housing agencies—and some of the biggest bailed-out banks—are helping shady lawyers make millions by pushing families out of their homes.

Wed Aug. 4, 2010 12:01 AM PDT
— By Andy Kroll

LATE ONE NIGHT IN February 2009, Ariane Ice sat poring over records on the website of Florida's Palm Beach County. She'd been at it for weeks, forsaking sleep to sift through thousands of legal documents. She and her husband, Tom, an attorney, ran a boutique foreclosure defense firm called Ice Legal. (Slogan: "Your home is your castle. Defend it.") Now they were up against one of Florida's biggest foreclosure law firms: Founded by multimillionaire attorney David J. Stern, it controlled one-fifth of the state's booming market in foreclosure-related services. Ice had a strong hunch that Stern's operation was up to something, and that night she found her smoking gun.

It involved something called an "assignment of mortgage," the document that certifies who owns the property and is thus entitled to foreclose on it. Especially these days, the assignment is key evidence in a foreclosure case: With so many loans having been bought, sold, securitized, and traded, establishing who owns the mortgage is hardly a trivial matter. It frequently requires months of sleuthing in order to untangle the web of banks, brokers, and investors, among others. By law, a firm must execute (complete, sign, and notarize) an assignment before attempting to seize somebody's home.

A Florida notary's stamp is valid for four years, and its expiration date is visible on the imprint. But here in front of Ice were dozens of assignments notarized with stamps that hadn't even existed until months—in some cases nearly a year—after the foreclosures were filed. Which meant Stern's people were foreclosing first and doing their legal paperwork later. In effect, it also meant they were lying to the court—an act that could get a lawyer disbarred or even prosecuted. "There's no question that it's pervasive," says Tom Ice of the backdated documents—nearly two dozen of which were verified by Mother Jones. "We've found tons of them."

This all might seem like a legal technicality, but it's not. The faster a foreclosure moves, the more difficult it is for a homeowner to fight it—even if the case was filed in error. In March, upon discovering that Stern's firm had fudged an assignment of mortgage in another case, a judge in central Florida's Pasco County dismissed the case with prejudice—an unusually harsh ruling that means it can never again be refiled. "The execution date and notarial date," she wrote in a blunt ruling, "were fraudulently backdated, in a purposeful, intentional effort to mislead the defendant and this court."

complete story at link

This is a long story that goes off in a number of directions - it's well worth reading. If you are a Floridian, it looks like there are some class actions brewing that might be of interest to you.

[madrchsod]

1. interesting to say the least....

our friends are moving to florida and are looking at foreclosed properties...i guess they better do a really good title search.


the local community bank that holds our mortgage "buys back" homes and either lists or auctions the property. they also work with mortgage holders who get behind in payments.

[enlightenment]

2. Good grief. That is one of the most disgusting

stories I've read recently (I'd say 'ever read', but these days they come so thick and fast that 'ever' has become meaningless).

I'm not sure which part is worse; Stern, a monster masquerading as a human; the government and the lenders that continues to feed him; or the investors who sit like slavering dogs waiting for their chunk of flesh.

[madrchsod]

3. delete

[PA Democrat]

4. Must read article. If Mr. Stern isn't sent to jail, then he should be tarred & feathered.

What a filthy despicable piece of human excrement. He has made hundreds of millions by gouging people at the lowest points in their lives. He could have still become a rich while complying with the law but he needed more, more, more and was willing to break the law to make an even more obscene profit off of the misfortune of others.

What shocked me was the pittance in fines assessed to these vultures when they break the law. The system is rigged.

[jgraz]

5. At this point, people need to start asking what Rahm Emanuel knew and when did he know it.

Rahm and Stern should be sharing a jail cell.

[femrap]

6. K and R

This shows 'humans' as pure evil. May he choke on his money while his jet-propelled yacht sinks.

A must read. Thanks Mother Jones!

[snot]

7. K&R'd

[PA Democrat]

8. Stern routinely sexually harassed female employees as well.

What a pig.

[nashville_brook]

9. k n r

[Wilms]

10. k&r n/t