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Why Bank of America Hates WikiLeaks

Bank of America and Countrywide wishes WikiLeaks never existed.

For millions of Americans that had Countrywide Loans, now serviced by Bank of America, and realized the loans they were given are – to put it nicely – not the best loans in the world, or to put it not so nicely – a piece of crap, at least we can rest assured that Bank of America is on the defense.  Bank of America is being sued left and right after they took over Countrywide.  Fraud is everywhere in these loans, and most Americans that have Countrywide loans know that is a fact.   The article below provides a good summary why we need WikiLeaks, and why banks, including Bank of America, Citimortgage, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, and other lenders are on the defense.

The question is what can the average American do about all this fraud against homeowners like us?  If you have a lot of money  you can file your own lawsuit against your lender, but just one person against these large powerful banks is a huge uphill battle.  Or you can join the masses and be part of a Class Action Lawsuit.  Watch the video for details.

The Voice of the White House
TBR News February 20, 2011

Washington, D.C., February 20, 2011: “The most hated person today in Washington is Julian Assange, head of the WikiLeaks. An overall view of the Bank of America material now held by WikiLeaks reveals that starting in 2008, the Bank of America acquired Countrywide Mortgage, a very aggressive mortgage company that specialized in creating fraudulent loans to individuals that were unable to make continuing payments on their mortgages. Countrywide then sold these fraudulent mortgages to larger banking houses like Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and others.  The results of this takeover of Countrywide? Bank of America now has over 1.3 mortgage holders in foreclosure.  Bank of America was subsequently sued by California, Illinois and eight other states over its predatory lending policies. The bank was forced to produce a settlement of over $8.4 billion in loan relief plans for those victims holding Countrywide mortgages.

  • In June of 2010, Bank of America had to pay out $108 million because of a suit by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for “having extracted excessive fees” from their borrowers facing foreclosure.
  • In August of 2010, Bank of America was forced to pay out $600 million to settle shareholder lawsuits which claimed that Bank of America’s Countrywide Mortgage had “concealed the riskiness” of its lending standards.
  • In June of 2010, the State of Illinois once more had to sue the Bank of America for “racial discrimination” in its lending practices.

The WikiLeaks documentation shows thousands of in-house emails circulating among top Bank of American personnel showing with shocking clarity that the bank was not only fully cognizant of the illegality of their actions but were, in fact, continuing these actions because of the assurance of protection by “senior American legislators and officials.”

Additional material in the WikiLeaks found concerns the brokerage house of Merrill Lynch which Bank of America acquired for $50 billion in January of 2009. The aforesaid “senior American legislators and officials: quickly loaned the Bank of America $20 billion in loans to facilitate this purchase. Subsequently, it was revealed that Merrill Lynch had lost over $16 billion at the end of 2008 but had paid out over $4 billion in bonuses to all the top Merrill Lynch personnel. In sum, the Merrill Lynch people, secure in the knowledge of a connived Federal bailout, took the funds for personal gain. The WikiLeaks documents clearly show all of this in detail, complete with boasting emails on the part of the recipients of the monies.

As another aspect of this enormous financial scandal furthered purely for gain, corporate and personal, the Bank of America has been the instigator of the so-called “robo-signing” scanda.l As a single example of this illegal conduct, in February of 2010, a Bank of American employee testified on deposition that they had personally signed over 8,000 official foreclosure documents without ever reading any of them. This is a clearcut violation of the law but there are so many such examples of this, not limited to the Bank of America alone, that there is not sufficient space to list them all. The WikiLeaks documents clearly show that these illegal actions were fully known to senior Bank of America officials and that extensive cover-ups were ordered from the very top levels of that bank.

WikiLeaks documentation shows clearly that the “senior American legislators and officials.” Who connived with the Bank of America include the leadership of the Federal Reserve, top Congressional leaders (mostly Republican) and even senior members of the White House staff, both in the Bush and Obama administrations. With this pending dam collapse release to the public, it is no wonder that the government itself, the officials of the Bank of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the most powerful, arch-conservative business cabal would all join forces in an attempt to discredit or permanently silence Assange and his organization.

The front organization, HBGary Federal, a specialist in computer manipulations, was hired by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Bank of America to attempt to plant false information with WikiLeaks, double-heading frantic government attempts to get Assange physically into their hands. When WiliLeaks struck back and, in turn, infiltrated the government and private sector’s attempts to infiltrate them, it was discovered that HBGary Federal was involved with Stuxtnet, a very sophisticated computer virus developed by Israeli and American experts and designed to infiltrate and destroy computer systems deemed “unacceptable” to Washington.

Bank of America officials have been warning Washington that if they crash, the damage to the American ecnomoy wouild be catastrophic because of their size and pervasiveness and this message has resonated very clearly in official circles, prompting frantic but clumsy attacks on Assdange and his organization.”

San Diego Foreclosures up 34% in January (DataQuick)

San Diego Foreclosures Rise Steeply in January 2011

A report today in the Union-Tribune / Data quick estimates that foreclosures have risen fast in San Diego. You can stay in control and not be foreclosed on by short selling your home.

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Foreclosures and mortgage defaults in San Diego County both increased in January, after three consecutive months of drops, Wednesday’s DataQuick Information Systems numbers show. The upticks could signal an incoming wave of distressed properties coming onto the market in coming months, experts said.

Foreclosures rose to 959 in January from 715 in December, a 34 percent increase, the largest monthly jump since December 2009. Year-over-year, foreclosures fell from 986 in January 2010, or 2.7 percent.

There were 1,548 mortgage defaults in January, up slightly from 1522 in December, or 1.7 percent. Year-over-year, that number is down from 1,741 in January 2010, or 11.1 percent.

DataQuick spokesman Andrew LePage said the monthly jump in foreclosures could partly be due to “a little catch-up” after some banks froze foreclosure activity following discoveries of robo-signing, the practice of approving loan paperwork without proper review.

LePage added that monthly fluctuations in both data sets are normal given factors such as the role of government mortgage programs, lender log-jams and new housing laws, he said.

“We don’t expect any smooth trend lines going forward,” LePage said. But there’s “more catch-up to come,” he said.

Bob Kevane, president of the San Diego Association of Realtors, agrees more foreclosures are in the pipeline.

He’s heard local lenders saying they plan to stop delays in foreclosure processes and complete more of them this year, leading him to believe foreclosures will increase at the rate seen last month.

In DataQuick’s previous report in December, foreclosures and default notices in the county fell to their lowest levels in three years. However, industry experts warned not to read too much into that, given the expectations of a shadow inventory of distressed homes and an increase in short sales.

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TARP Funds Used to Help Banks Rather Than Homeowners Revealed

TARP Funds and Homeowners

If you ever thought the government was on our side – out to help us as homeowners, think again.  Recent information revealed that TARP money requested to be used for homeowner assistance was not allowed to be used to help homeowners.  Basically our treasury barred the use of TARP funds – and we set aside to help only banks out.  If that TARP money had been applied to only helping homeowners, where would we be today?  Probably in a lot better shape. 

It just goes to say we cannot expect the government to help us – we need to help ourselves.  Data shows that you are unlikely to get a loan modification, so your choices are either get out of the house using a short sale, or file a lawsuit against your lender for fraud (almost every loan since 2000 has fraud in it – but that’s another topic).  Many are choosing a class action lawsuit - to sue your lender – rather than an individual lawsuit. 

For assistance with your bad loan, give us a call at (619) 631-4545.

From NakedCapitalism:Thursday, December 9, 2010

Treasury Bars Use of TARP Funds to Help Borrowers Facing Foreclosure

 If you had any doubts about whose side the Administration is on, this story should settle all doubts.

From the Nation:

Consider this: the recent Fed audit revealed over $3.3 trillion in emergency assistance to the banks and other corporate behemoths during the financial crisis–no strings attached…. Then consider the 19 states which are recipients of the Hardest Hit Fund (HHF)–a portion of TARP money set aside to help homeowners in states struggling with the highest unemployment rates and steepest declines in the housing market.

Some of those states, including Ohio, let Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner know as far back as this past spring that they wanted to use some of those funds to assist legal aid groups that help individual homeowners…. Treasury solicited the opinion of an outside law firm, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. Never mind that the firm’s clients include BB&T Corporation and payday lender CNG Financial Corp. The firm said, in essence–sorry, no can do on the legal aid. Not permitted under the TARP. Huh? Hold on a sec–is this the same TARP that granted the Treasury Secretary all those “extraordinary powers” to protect people’s home values, preserve home ownership, promote economic growth, etc.?

Yves here. The skepticism is well warranted. This isn’t an area in which a law firm would have much (any) liability on an opinion. Ergo, a combination of Treasury body language and selection of the firm would have determined the outcome. Besides, the TARP explicitly put the Treasury secretary above the law. So why is Treasury even getting an opinion? This is clearly an exercise in creating an excuse for an action it wanted to take.

The article also details actions by Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Sen. Sherrod Brown to reverse the Treasury action. Kaptur has introduced a bill (HR 5510) to amend the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to enable nonprofits, both counseling firms and law firms, to receive TARP funds to help single family homeowners to prevent foreclosures. Brown introduced a parallel measure (S 3979) in the Senate. Please contact your Senators and Representative and ask them to cosponsor these measures. And annoy Treasury by calling or e-mailing them (try the Domestic Finance and Economic Policy contacts) to tell them they are on the wrong side of this issue.

San Diego Home Foreclosures Up in 3rd Quarter – Failure of HAMP

 San Diego Real Estate and other Real Estate Nationwide has seen an Increase in Foreclosures - Resulting from the Failure of the HAMP Program as well as Lender Fraud.

 According to the report below the banks have “exhaused” their options – more likely they have place insurance policies against the delinquent homeowners, which will result in the lender/servicer getting a bigger paycheck if the house goes to sale rather than modifying the loan.  Most lenders/servicers are stringing homeowners out for 8-12 months only to be denied the loan modification right before the foreclosure sale.  By this time it is too late for the homeowner to do much else with the property.  San Diego foreclosures will continue to increase.

The homeowners have several options:

  1. Short Sale – sell the home
  2. Take legal action – join a Class Action Lawsuit against your lender
  3. Get a Forensic Loan Audit - then determine which course of action is best for you

Our team of experts can help guide you through this program.  Call today: (619) 631-4546.

By Dave Clarke WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 29, 2010 4:44pm EST

 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. home foreclosures jumped in the third quarter and banks’ efforts to keep borrowers in their homes dropped as the housing market continues to struggle, U.S. bank regulators said on Wednesday.

 The regulators said one reason for the increase in foreclosures is that banks have “exhausted” options for keeping many delinquent borrowers in their homes through programs such as loan modifications.  Newly-initiated foreclosures increased to 382,000 in the third quarter, a 31.2 percent jump over the previous quarter and a 3.7 percent rise from the same quarter a year ago, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) said in a quarterly mortgage report.  The number of foreclosures in process increased to 1.2 million, a 4.5 percent increase from the second quarter and a 10.1 percent increase from a year ago, according to the regulators.   They said during a briefing that the numbers could send “mixed signals” about the health of the U.S. housing market.

 Regulators also said a possible reason for the foreclosure uptick in the quarter was that a large pool of borrowers who were being considered for home retention programs but did not qualify moved through the system.

 ”I think you’ll see more stabilization now,” said Bruce Krueger, a mortgage official at the OCC. Foreclosures have become a hot political topic and mortgage servicers have come under fire in recent months amid accusations they did not properly review documents before attempting to take borrowers’ homes.

 These concerns prompted the country’s 50 state attorneys general to coordinate an investigation of lenders such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Ally Financial’s GMAC unit.

 Some banks, including BofA, temporarily suspended foreclosure proceedings late in the third quarter to review procedures.  Officials from the OCC and OTS declined to say what type of impact this might have on fourth-quarter foreclosure numbers.

 BANKS LOOK OUTSIDE HAMP

 State attorneys general and regulators have been pushing banks to perform more loan modifications and the report shows these efforts have had mixed results.

 Overall home retention actions taken by banks dropped by 17 percent compared to the second quarter, but most of that was due to decreases in the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), the Obama administration’s leading foreclosure prevention effort.  In the third quarter, HAMP loan modifications slid by almost 46 percent, according to the report.

 Regulators said the drop in HAMP modifications is likely due to a few factors, including that a large pool of borrowers who were being considered for the program turned out not to be eligible once their qualifications were fully reviewed. Treasury launched HAMP to try to find a way to reduce mortgage payments for struggling homeowners who wanted to keep their homes but who were at imminent risk of foreclosure.  But it is widely regarded as a flawed program, and the incoming Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Representative Darrell Issa, has called for it to be ended.   Regulators pointed out that mortgage servicers are pursuing more modifications outside of HAMP and such efforts increased by 10 percent in the third quarter.

 The report, which covers 33 million loans serviced by national banks and federally regulated thrifts, shows that the amount of borrowers making their mortgage payments on time remains steady at 87.4 percent.

 The amount of seriously delinquent loans, those 60 days or more past due, dropped 6.4 percent from the second quarter. The amount of loans that were 30 to 59 days past due, however, increased 4.3 percent.

San Diego Homes Worth Less – Nationwide Home Inventory Up

 San Diego Home prices continue to fall as a double dip recession is predicted. San Diego Short Sales on the Rise.

Unfortunately 2011 may not look any more promising for San Diego homeowners looking to sell their home.  Seeing you equity drop to a point where there is negative equity means that you will need to short sale your home if you are in San Diego, or in other parts of California. For those having to move, or lost their income a San Diego short sale may be a good move for many.  It allows the homeowner to get out from the debt, partcularly as home prices continue to fall, and move on with you life. 

For those that have discovered that the lender/servicer has not been playing fair purusing legal means may be a good solution.  Many homeowners are turning toward a class action lawsuit against their lender to save their home.   A forensic loan audit may reveal fraud in your loan.   Call (619) 631-4546 today.

By Les Christie, staff writerDecember 28, 2010: 11:24 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Home prices took a shockingly steep plunge on a monthly basis, an indication that the housing market could be on the verge of — if it’s not already in — a double-dip slump.

Prices in 20 key cities fell 1.3% in October from a month earlier, an annualized decline of 15%, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index released Tuesday. Prices were down 0.8% from 12 months earlier.

Month-over-month prices dropped in all 20 metro areas covered by the index. Six markets reached their lowest levels since the housing bust first began in 2006 and 2007. They were Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Miami, Portland, Ore., Seattle and Tampa, Fla.

“The double-dip is almost here,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s. “There is no good news in October’s report. Home prices across the country continue to fall.”

The report was far more dire than anticipated by industry experts, who had forecast an almost flat market in October. It followed weak September numbers.

“It was a bit of a surprise,” said real estate analyst Pat Newport of IHS Global Research. “I wasn’t expecting it to lag so badly in all 20 cities.”

He, along with many other experts, has been forecasting further price erosion over the next few months of 5% to 7%, but didn’t expect the price drop to hit so fast and so hard. It’s mostly attributable to the end of the tax credit for homebuyers, the effects of which started to vanish beginning in June.

“The trends we have seen over the past few months have not changed,” said Blitzer. “The tax incentives are over and the national economy remained lackluster in October, the month covered by these data.”

Sales volume continues to lag, off 25% even from last October, when markets could hardly be described as robust.

Why the housing bulls are wrong

The inventory of homes on the market is up about 50% compared with last year at this time, and there are millions of potential homes for sale waiting on the sideline for markets to improve.

Much of that “shadow inventory” is held as repossessed properties by banks, who will eventually have to release them back on the market.

Most (and least) affordable cities

Prices in Atlanta, down 2.9%, and Detroit, off 2.5%, took a particular beating in October. Las Vegas and Washington came out of the month only slightly bruised, down just 0.2%.

The report ran counter to what have been generally positive signs of economic recovery, according to Richard DeKaser, an independent housing market analyst and founder of Woodley Park Research.

“The market is not showing much improvement after the summer slump,” he said. “Housing is acting as a drag on recovery.”

The coming of the second of the double dip is icing on the cake for homebuyers, who already have benefited from prices not seen in years in most markets.

“Prices have already adjusted, and are probably undervalued in most cities,” said Newport. “This will make them even more undervalued.”

Home price plunge is widespread

Record plunge in foreclosures, thanks to robo-signers

Obama’s mortgage mod plan is still lacking

Bank of America to resume foreclosures