The Mortgage Meltdown of 2006-2010: A Crisis of Fraud, Plausible Deniability, and Failed Legal Oversight

By Daniel Edstrom *
September 24, 2024

The mortgage meltdown of 2006-2010 wasn’t just the result of risky loans or Wall Street’s greed. It was a perfect storm where nearly every step of the process—from mortgage origination to foreclosure—was marred by misrepresentation, fraud, and systemic negligence. Central to this crisis was the culture of plausible deniability, where every participant could claim ignorance of wrongdoing, allowing the entire system to collapse without anyone being held fully accountable. And even when the crisis hit, the legal and regulatory system showed significant leniency toward financial institutions while homeowners were left to face severe consequences.

Continue reading “The Mortgage Meltdown of 2006-2010: A Crisis of Fraud, Plausible Deniability, and Failed Legal Oversight”

Glaski vs Bank of America NA et al – FOR PUBLICATION

Glaski vs Bank of America NA et al – FOR PUBLICATION

Edstrom_MortgageSecuritization_POSTER_17_x_22_v4_1By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

On August 8, 2013 the Fifth Appellate District in the Court of Appeal of the State of California ordered the Thomas A. Glaski vs Bank of America, NA et al decision published, stating:

 

 

As the nonpublished opinion filed on July 31, 2013, in the above entitled matter hereby meets the standards for publication specified in the California Rules of Court, rule 8.1105(c), it is ordered that the opinion be certified for publication in the Official Reports.

Based on the importance of this case, the text of the July 31, 2013 ruling is listed verbatim:

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FIFTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

THOMAS A. GLASKI,Plaintiff and Appellant,v.

BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION et al.

Defendants and Respondents.

F064556

(Super. Ct. No. 09CECG03601)

OPINION

 

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Fresno County.  Alan M. Simpson, Judge.

Law Offices of Richard L. Antognini and Richard L. Antognini; Law Offices of Catarina M. Benitez and Catarina M. Benitez, for Plaintiff and Appellant.

AlvaradoSmith, Theodore E. Bacon, and Mikel A. Glavinovich, for Defendants and Respondents.

-ooOoo-

INTRODUCTION

            Before Washington Mutual Bank, FA (WaMu) was seized by federal banking regulators in 2008, it made many residential real estate loans and used those loans as collateral for mortgage-backed securities.[1]  Many of the loans went into default, which led to nonjudicial foreclosure proceedings.  Some of the foreclosures generated lawsuits, which raised a wide variety of claims.  The allegations that the instant case shares with some of the other lawsuits are that (1) documents related to the foreclosure contained forged signatures of Deborah Brignac and (2) the foreclosing entity was not the true owner of the loan because its chain of ownership had been broken by a defective transfer of the loan to the securitized trust established for the mortgage-backed securities.  Here, the specific defect alleged is that the attempted transfers were made after the closing date of the securitized trust holding the pooled mortgages and therefore the transfers were ineffective.

In this appeal, the borrower contends the trial court erred by sustaining defendants’ demurrer as to all of his causes of action attacking the nonjudicial foreclosure.  We conclude that, although the borrower’s allegations are somewhat confusing and may contain contradictions, he nonetheless has stated a wrongful foreclosure claim under the lenient standards applied to demurrers.  We conclude that a borrower may challenge the securitized trust’s chain of ownership by alleging the attempts to transfer the deed of trust to the securitized trust (which was formed under New York law) occurred after the trust’s closing date.  Transfers that violate the terms of the trust instrument are void under New York trust law, and borrowers have standing to challenge void assignments of their loans even though they are not a party to, or a third party beneficiary of, the assignment agreement.

We therefore reverse the judgment of dismissal and remand for further proceedings.

Continue reading “Glaski vs Bank of America NA et al – FOR PUBLICATION”

Failure to Allege Lack of Default

Edstrom_MortgageSecuritization_POSTER_17_x_22_v4_1Failure to Allege Lack of Default

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

One of the main reasons many cases do not make it to daylight is because of the failure to allege lack of default.  Despite many lawyers knowing that this is the case, and that there is no default, many still fail to make the allegation.  On what basis can a lawyer allege lack of default for a homeowner facing foreclosure?

The Note and Security Instrument

The note is not the obligation but evidence of the obligation (for proof of this, in many cases the security instrument refers to the note as the evidence of the obligation).  Lawyers usually describe the obligation arising when one party accepts money from another party.  The note usually describes who the parties are that are obligated in the section titled OBLIGATIONS OF PERSONS UNDER THIS NOTE.  This section of the note states:

If more than one person signs this Note, each person is fully and personally obligated to keep all of the promises made in this Note, including the promise to pay the full amount owed.  Any person who is a guarantor, surety or endorser of this Note is also obligated to do these things.  Any person who takes over these obligations, including the obligations of a guarantor, surety or endorser of this note, is also obligated to keep all of the promises made in this Note.  The Note Holder may enforce its rights under this Note against each person individually or against all of us together.  This means that any one of us may be required to pay all of the amounts owed under this Note.

Continue reading “Failure to Allege Lack of Default”

Securitize This


Securitize This

By: Jim Macklin
Secure Document Research

In a recent article published, a staggering statistic was announced about the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the United States. Let me preface this by stating that twenty years ago, the financial services industry only contributed 16% of the GDP, while manufacturing, goods and services comprised the bulk of the GDP for the U.S. Meaning that goods were being manufactured, services were rendered and the economy is flourishing because of work product that actually produces something that is consumed, or services that are performed to promote the sale of goods. When money moves through the system, the system is healthy and grows. Conversely, when the system is stagnant and money stalls, the system tries to bury its head and consumers suffer all forms of malady.

Fast forward to today’s reality. The financial services industry now contributes 48% of our nations’ total GDP! Nearly half of what we are “worth” as a nation is derived from an intangible, non-product industry. Let’s examine the cause and effect of this crippling statistic. When Banks and lenders like Washington Mutual, World Savings, Countrywide and their ilk began using Wall St. profits from the sale of AAA rated mortgage-backed securities, then allegedly pooled them into REMIC Trust entities for reporting purposes, a dragon was released with an insatiable appetite for more, more, more.

Continue reading “Securitize This”

INVESTORS COMING OUT OF THE SHADOWS: BANKS’ WORST NIGHTMARE

INVESTORS COMING OUT OF THE SHADOWS: BANKS’ WORST NIGHTMARE

By Neil F. Garfield
LivingLies.wordpress.com

http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2012/01/06/mbs-investors-in-revolt-ultimatums-to-us-bank-and-wells-fargo/

EDITOR’S ANALYSIS: For those who have followed this Blog for any length of time, this news will come as no surprise. Ultimately, the proof and the relief sought by homeowners will come from investors who demand answers to what happened to their money when they purchased mortgage backed securities and pooled their money to fund mortgages.

The result is a pincer action, to put it military terms, where the creditors and the debtors are making the same allegations against the intermediaries who stole from both sides, “borrowed” the loss to claim Federal bailout money, and left both sides holding the bag. Continue reading “INVESTORS COMING OUT OF THE SHADOWS: BANKS’ WORST NIGHTMARE”

Judge Schack Hammers HSBC for False Paperwork

Judge Schack Hammers HSBC for False Paperwork

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

Here are Neil Garfield’s comments regarding this case from LivingLies (http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2011/12/30/schack-bangs-hsbc-for-false-paperwork/):

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Neil Garfield

EDITOR’S NOTE: Plausible deniability went out the window as HSBC tried to get out of the consequences for submitting false, fabricated papers to the court in support of a fraudulent foreclosure. They tried to say they didn’t know. Schack didn’t buy it and slapped them with a $10,000 fine.

But the real story is yet to be told. We are getting closer to the real question, yet the inquiry into WHY false papers are being submitted on such a widespread basis has not occurred. This is the industry that practically invented dotted i’s and crossed t’s. They processed tens of millions of mortgages just the way they wanted them without error. Now they are claiming that they messed up the paperwork because of the same volume that they processed without a problem. And they are layering the responsibility by outsourcing the fabrication, forgery and fraud. Continue reading “Judge Schack Hammers HSBC for False Paperwork”

Attorneys General of California and Nevada Announce Mortgage Investigation Alliance

Attorneys General of California and Nevada Announce Mortgage Investigation Alliance

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

Press Release December 6, 2011

Attorneys General of California and Nevada Announce Mortgage Investigation Alliance

LOS ANGELES — Attorneys General Kamala D. Harris of California and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada today announced that their states have entered into a joint investigation alliance designed to assist homeowners who have been harmed by misconduct and fraud in the mortgage industry.

By forging this alliance, California and Nevada will combine investigative resources, including litigation strategies, information, and evidence gathered through their respective ongoing investigations, assisting each state as it pursues independent prosecutions.

This alliance will link the offices’ civil and criminal enforcement teams, speeding along the full, fair and adequate investigation of wrongdoing in the two states, which have experienced similar foreclosure and mortgage fraud crises. Continue reading “Attorneys General of California and Nevada Announce Mortgage Investigation Alliance”

The Internal Revenue Service is Investigating the Tax-Exempt Status of REMICs

The Internal Revenue Service is investigating the Tax-Exempt Status of REMICs

By Daniel Edstrom
DTC Systems, Inc.

Reuters has announced that “The Internal Revenue Service has launched a review of the tax-exempt status of a widely-held form of mortgage-backed securities called REMICs.”  This comes after many years of homeowners, lawyers and securitization experts having discussed the shenanigans of Wall Street.  The standard industry practice is that loans were never perfected into these REMICs, which required the loans as “qualified mortgages” to be in the REMIC within 90 days of the “startup day”, which corresponds with the trust “closing date”.  However, in nearly every case we have seen, the REMIC servicers are doing an assignment of the security instrument into the trust after the loan is in foreclosure in order that whoever is foreclosing has the right to foreclose.  Unfortunately once a loan is in default it is no longer a “qualified mortgage” under REMIC laws, not to mention that it is years past the REMIC “startup day”.  Nor as Judge Arthur Schack puts it in New York, why is the trustee accepting the conveyance of a non-performing loan into the trust?

Specifically the article says “These banks’ transgressions, confirmed in court decisions and through recent action by federal bank regulators, include the failure to formally transfer ownership of mortgages to the trusts that invested in them and the subsequent creation of fraudulent mortgage assignments and other false documents.”  Cease and Desist Consent Orders were just issued against Bank of America, Citibank, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Aurora Bank, EverBank, EverBank Financial Corporation, IMB HoldCo LLC, OneWest, Sovereign Bank, DocX, LPS Default and MERS.  Just wait until the Securities and Exchange Commission decides to investigate Sarbanes-Oxley legislation against the statements these entities have made under oath with what the bank regulators found actually happened with them. Continue reading “The Internal Revenue Service is Investigating the Tax-Exempt Status of REMICs”