Cease & Desist Orders for: Citigroup, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, MetLife, PNC, SunTrust, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo Bank

Cease & Desist Orders for: Citigroup, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, MetLife, PNC, SunTrust, US Bancorp and Wells Fargo Bank

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

The latest round of Cease and Desist orders issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) are against some of the largest “too big to fail” banks.  Notably missing so far is Deutsche Bank National Trust Company along with Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas and of course OneWest Bank.

The gist of these Cease and Desist orders is that certain “deficiencies” were found and the banks are operating with “unsafe or unsound” practices in residential mortgage servicing and in the Bank’s initiation and handling of foreclosure proceedings.

We hail the OCC for these efforts, but the problem is following up.  How are the banks going to immediately comply with this order?  They would have to stop processing nearly every single foreclosure they are working on today.

It seems to me that this is equivalant to a parent very nicely informing a 4 year old child not to take any cookies sitting out on the coffee table and then the parent leaves the room for an hour.  The OCC has to know that it is virtually impossible for these institutions to follow these orders.

Look at my own case as an example.  US Bancorp as Trustee is Trustee of the Securitized Trust -> GMAC-RFC (Residential Funding) is the Master Servicer -> Wells Fargo Bank is the sub-servicer -> MERS is the alleged “beneficiary” of my Deed of Trust -> Dolan Media owns NDEx West the alleged substituted Trustee of my Deed of Trust -> NDEx West works with (and/or is the same as) Barrett Daffin Frappier Turner & Engle which is the law firm hired by Wells Fargo Bank to foreclose.

Of these entities listed, US Bankcorp, Wells Fargo Bank and MERS have received Cease and Desist orders.   Dolan Media’s president appears to have publicly violated Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) regulations.  Barrett Daffin Frappier Turner & Engle is a foreclosure mill that appears to knowingly file forged, false and fraudulent documents with county records, in my case on behalf of MERS, Wells Fargo and US Bancorp.   Of course MERS, Wells Fargo and US Bancorp all know full well what Barrett Daffin Frappier Turner & Engle are doing.   Why?  Because the documents are filed with the county and are considered trailing documents.  These trailing documents are added to the mortgage loan file – which in my case is in the custody of Wells Fargo Bank (as custodian) for US Bancorp as Trustee for the benefit of the investors who purchased securities from the trust.

It appears to me the only way they can NOT violate the Cease and Desist orders is if they immediately rescind all documents they filed with the county recorders office that initiated foreclosure.

Here is an exact line-up with the findings for Wells Fargo that apply DIRECTLY to my case (this is NOT all inclusive):

 Article I(2)(a)

filed or caused to be filed in state and federal courts affidavits executed by its employees or employees of third-party service providers making various assertions, such as ownership of the mortgage note and mortgage, the amount of the principal and interest due, and the fees and expenses chargeable to the borrower, in which the affiant represented that the assertions in the affidavit were made based on personal knowledge or based on a review by the affiant of the relevant books and records, when, in many cases, they were not based on such personal knowledge or review of the relevant books and records;

Article I(2)(b)

filed or caused to be filed in state and federal courts, or in local land records offices, numerous affidavits or other mortgage-related documents that were not properly notarized, including those not signed or affirmed in the presence of a notary;

Article I(2)(c)

litigated foreclosure proceedings and initiated non-judicial foreclosure proceedings without always ensuring that either the promissory note or the mortgage document were properly endorsed or assigned and, if necessary, in the possession of the appropriate party at the appropriate time;

Article I(2)(d)

failed to devote sufficient financial, staffing and managerial resources to ensure proper administration of its foreclosure processes;

 Article I(2)(e) 

failed to devote to its foreclosure processes adequate oversight, internal controls, policies, and procedures, compliance risk management, internal audit, third party management, and training;

Article I(2)(f) 

failed to sufficiently oversee outside counsel and other third-party providers handling foreclosure-related services; 

The above are all standard industry practices.  The only way to “Cease and Desist” is to undo that which they have done.