"Bank of America Halts Foreclosures in All 50 States"

[Clio the Leo]

Bank of America Halts Foreclosures in All 50 States
By ANNIE LOWREY 10/8/10 11:15 AM

Breaking news, from Zero Hedge:

As we expected when we reported that the Delaware AG got into the foreclosure fray (Delaware not being a judicial state), it was only a matter of time before foreclosures would be halted in all 50 states. Sure enough, Diana Olick has just reported that BofA has just expanded its foreclosure halt from the 23 judicial states, to all 50 states. And so, the pendulum swings from populist anger to adulation. The only question is when will Tarp 2 be enacted now that banks are facing tens of billions in losses.

To translate: The big mortgage servicers had halted foreclosure-related evictions in the 23 states that require a judge to sign off, due to concerns about robo-signing and fraudulent affidavits. Of course, if there were systemic problems in those 23 states, there must have been systemic problems in the others. Yesterday, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden called for a stop to all foreclosures in Delaware — not one of the 23. Now, Bank of America has stopped foreclosing nationwide. More to come.

http://washingtonindependent.com/100096/bank-of-america-halts-foreclosures-in-all-50-states

More...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704657304575539963605720860.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[treestar]

1. Well surely those corporatists have not done this out of the goodness of their hearts

How does it benefit them?

[GodlessBiker]

4. Fewer overt acts in a racketeering indictment.

[kentuck]

2. They are starting to feel the fucking heat...

They see jail bars...All we need is an investigation.

[flyarm]

3. Foreclosuregate and Obama's "Pocket Veto"

t r u t h o u t | Foreclosuregate and Obama's "Pocket Veto"

http://www.truth-out.org/foreclosuregate63953

Foreclosuregate and Obama's "Pocket Veto"
Thursday 07 October 2010

by: Ellen Brown, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed



snip:
The White House issued a statement regarding the veto, citing the need for "further deliberations on the intended and unintended impact of bill on consumer protections, including mortgages, before this bill can be finalized."

snip:

By most reports, it would appear that the voluntary suspension of foreclosures is underway to review simple, careless, procedural errors - errors which the conscientious banks are hastening to correct. Even Gretchen Morgenson in The New York Times characterizes the problem as "flawed paperwork."

However, those errors go far deeper than mere sloppiness; they are concealing a massive fraud. They cannot be corrected with legitimate paperwork, and that was the reason the servicers had to hire "foreclosure mills" to fabricate the documents. These errors involve perjury and forgery - fabricating documents that never existed and swearing to the accuracy of facts not known.

Karl Denninger at MarketTicker is calling it "Foreclosuregate." Diana Ollick of CNBC calls it "the RoboSigning Scandal." On Monday, Ollick reported rumors that the government is planning a 90-day foreclosure moratorium to deal with the problem. Three large mortgage issuers - JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and GMAC - have voluntarily suspended thousands of foreclosures, and a number of calls have been made for investigations.

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray announced on Wednesday that he is filing suit against Ally Financial and GMAC for civil penalties up to $25,000 per violation for fraud in hundreds of foreclosure suits.

These problems cannot be swept under the rug as mere technicalities. They go to the heart of the securitization process itself. The snowball has just started to roll.