Vulture debt buyers are buying up questionable debt (credit card, student loan, auto, you name it) for pennies on the dollar and filing lawsuits in volume, obtaining default judgments in bulk, on junk evidence.  The CFPB is going to step in with some new rules.

Full article in the American Bar Association journal here.

Here are three names to watch out for:

THE BIG 3

The debt-buying industry plays a legitimate role in righting the economy, providing some compensation (pennies on the dollar) to banks and other lenders that discharge unpaid debts and sell them. And it is huge, having become so in less than 15 years.

The biggest firm is Encore Capital Group, based in San Diego; it is the parent of Midland Funding, the company that pursues payment. Encore last year surpassed $1 billion in revenues, a 39 percent increase over 2013, spurred by major acquisitions, among…

This could get interesting. It’s complicated but it looks like the administration is closing in on the so-called REMIC Trusts. I personally doubt if anyone is going to be willing to sign the REMIC Tax Reports. The reason is simple: the REMIC Trusts never operated and never received any investments dollars or any startup funds. They exist only on paper. Writing a trust instrument does not create a trust. It is only when there is property transferred into the Trust that the Trust is created and becomes a legal entity.  The blizzard of paperwork, forged and fabricated assignments, endorsements, backdating, etc. was meant to distract judges from the truth. It worked — up until now.

If the Trustee has some fool robo-sign the Tax reports, it is subjecting the person and the Company (frequently US Bank) to multiple Federal criminal and civil liabilities. If they say the Trust did operate…

Bank of America, N.A. v. Casey, 517 B.R. 1 (D. Mass. 2015) –

A Chapter 7 trustee sought to avoid a mortgage using “strong-arm” powers based on a defect in the acknowledgement. The mortgagee contended that the defect was cured by a subsequently recorded affidavit. The bankruptcy court found in favor of the trustee, and the mortgagee appealed.

“Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.”

In her first appearance on Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show,” Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton took a firm stance against America’s big banks.

Clinton stopped by to chat about various aspects of her campaign, including her staunch support for a stable middle class and an increase to the minimum wage. She even let it be known what she and Bill like to binge-watch after 11-hour-long congressional hearings. (“The Good Wife,” “House of Cards” and “Madam Secretary.” Duh.)

When Colbert turned his questioning to Wall Street reform, he asked directly if Clinton were president, “and the banks are failing, do we let them fail?”

“Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” the former secretary of state responded. “Their shareholders have to know that yes, they will fail. And if they’re too big to fail, then under my plan and others that have been proposed they may have…

This time, the revolving door smacked Goldman Sachs on the backside.

Lloyd Blankfein’s bank is expected to pay a roughly $50 million fine and an ex-banker is expected to plead guilty to federal criminal charges that he took confidential documents from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The Post has learned.

The civil penalties against Goldman are among the harshest ever levied by New York. The settlement is being ironed out between Goldman and the Department of Financial Services.

Read on.

39% of appraisals contained property quality or condition ratings that conflicted with previous ratings on the same property in the third quarter of 2015, according to a report from Platinum Data Solutions.

For the report, the company analyzed its database of over 300,000 appraisals that were evaluated by RealView, its appraisal quality technology, in Q3 2015.

This infographic shows what the company discovered.

(Source: Platinum Data Solutions)

“More than one in three appraisals contain inconsistencies in property ratings,” said Phil Huff, president and CEO of Platinum Data Solutions. “Causes aren’t easy to determine, so they need to be investigated. Doing this after Uniform Collateral Data Portal (UCDP) submission opens lenders up to numerous issues. Costly delays are just one of them.”

Read on.

A quick note on the subject of criminal prosecution of bankers. The excuse is the four dog defense.

As a refresher, the first part is “I don’t have a dog.” In the case of the mortgage crisis, it started with the banks claiming that trusts, derivatives, mortgage backed securities had nothing to do with the loans. Actually, they were telling at least part of the truth. It was the banks and servicers that brought the foreclosures to the door of homeowners. Then it evolved into “U.S. Bank as Trustee for [either the certificate holders or a named REMIC Trust]”. Now they have gone back to naming the bank as though there was no trust, claiming no securitization.

Part 2 is “OK I have a dog but my dog doesn’t bite.” In the courts this translates as it was “legal” because it was disclosed. In part, that is true. But the…

Among the criticisms that Osceola County Clerk of Court Armando Ramirez has received for various policies and personnel moves since taking office in 2013, backing down from a legal challenge isn’t one of them.

For further information please call 954-495-9867 or 520-405-1688

This is not a legal opinion on any case. Consult with an attorney.

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see Rodriguez v. Wells Fargo

“The core element concerning to whom the note was payable on the date suit was filed was not proven.”

Bottom Line: You can’t file a lawsuit without standing. Judgment reversed with instructions to enter Judgment for the homeowner. And you can’t cure standing by getting it later. That would be like filing suit for a slip and fall in front of a super market, and once the suit was filed, you then go to the supermarket, get out of your car and proceed to slip and fall. And the second story is that the BURDEN OF PROOF is on the foreclosing party, not the homeowner.

Many courts are now leaning away from the legal fantasies being promoted by “servicers”, “trustees’ and other parties…