Wenzel v. Green Tree Servicing, LLC (In re Wenzel), 554 B.R. 861 (Bankr. W.D. Wis. 2016) –

A chapter 7 trustee and a debtor sought to avoid as a preference a mortgage assignment that was recorded within 90 days prior to the bankruptcy filing. Underlying this claim was their contention that the original mortgage was void as against subsequent purchasers (thus allowing the trustee to avoid the lien) because no legal description was attached to the mortgage.

For the past 15 years there has been a huge chasm between what a document says and what actually occurred. In foreclosure settings, the conscious decision has been made to ignore the Truth and proceed on the falsehoods promulgated by the banks. This arises from the “national security” fear that if the banks are not allowed to continue their fraudulent behavior, the entire financial system will collapse taking the entire society down with it. This myth is promulgated by the Banks, who supply the government with people to regulate the banks. Even as a theory it is untested, and unsupported by any real evidence. Unfortunately for Americans, too many people believe it.

On November 30th, 2016, President-elect Trump named Steve Mnuchin to be the United States Treasury Secretary.

Also known as the “Foreclosure King,” Mnuchin earned the nickname for his bank’s practice of buying distressed mortgages during the financial crisis and evicting thousands of homeowners.

As the Chief Executive Officer and owner of OneWest Bank, Mnuchin oversaw what housing advocates called a “Foreclosure Machine.”

How did the “Foreclosure Machine” work?
The “Foreclosure Machine” repossessed the homes of tens of thousands of American families between 2009 and 2015. These actions only intensified the economic pain of the Great Recession.

Programs were created and available specifically to help banks like OneWest work with families to modify their mortgages and keep them in their homes.

Instead, OneWest pursued an aggressive strategy of foreclosing on families to rack up profits. In one case in Minnesota, a homeowner in a foreclosure dispute with OneWest came home in…

“reapplying the “signature images” upon stored copies.”

I have obtained confirmation from a large bank vendor (Visionet Systems, Inc.) that it rectifies “lost notes” by reapplying the “signature images” upon stored copies. —- Bill Paatalo, December 10, 2016

Kudos to Bill Paatalo who has quantified and identified what I have been talking about for years — the production of “original” notes that were previously destroyed. The sarcasm from the bench has dripped ridicule on anyone even suggesting that the “blue ink” signature is merely a reproduction on a fabricated document. The revelations in this article might be a step toward changing that attitude. — Neil Garfield

“Automated Affidavit Verifications” And “Lost Note” Reproductions. For…

The country’s first black president contributed to a significant disintegration of wealth for people of color.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/obamas-failure-to-mitigate-americas-foreclosure-crisis/510485/

Housingwire:

Lately it seems that Wells Fargo can’t even go a few days without another round of bad news. And Tuesday was another one of those bad-news days.

In September, Wells Fargo’s reputation was shattered after the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the city and county of Los Angeles fined the bank $185 million because more than 5,000 of the bank’s former employees opened approximately 2 million fake accounts in order to get sales bonuses.

That fine led to explosive hearings before both houses of Congress, followed by theresignation of Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, who took a beating at both Congressional hearings.

The scandal is far from over as Wells Fargo is still fighting off regulatory and furtherCongressional inquiries over the fake accounts.

The bank also lost business from several states, and then the OCC slapped additional sanctions on…

http://www.wired.co.uk/gallery/infoporn-cities-on-the-edge

Using data on 2,100 cities, Robert Muggah has found which factors make an area more likely to become violent, unsafe and fragile

The 21st Century is inching ever closer towards chaos… and the time to get out of the big city is upon us.

America is on the brink of harsh economic realities, growing crises, desperate populations barely getting by, and more division than at any previous point in American history.  American cities could rapidly descend into dangerous and unruly territory, if the market bubbles implode via 2008 but worse.  If you remember the housing bubble, it was not a slow deceleration of the market but a rapid collapse.

People are living in bigger urban communities that are more blighted than ever before.  Urban centers are dangerous place to be in a collapse. Crime is rampant, order is shaken and many people become willing to take advantage of the…

NEP’s Bill Black appears on The Real News Network. “Despite promises to ‘drain the swamp,’ Trump chose a man for Deputy Secretary of Commerce who enriched himself at expense of labor and consumers and shipped jobs overseas.”

The brokerage industry’s self-regulator has asked employees fired by Wells Fargo & Co. WFC, -2.38%   and stripped of their securities registrations to come forward if they have concerns over their treatment, the latest sign of growing scrutiny on the bank.

The request from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, comes as lawmakers question whether Wells Fargo wrongfully fired employees who pushed back on questionable sales practices and sometimes mischaracterized their behavior on their industry records.

In response to an inquiry by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), and Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), Finra has said that more than 600 Wells Fargo employees fired during the five-year period that encompassed the bank’s cross-selling scandal had received termination filings known as Form U5s. Such forms document the reasons for the dismissal of brokerage employees, and negative justifications can hinder an adviser from gaining employment elsewhere in the…

U.S. insurer Prudential Financial Inc (>> Prudential Financial Inc) said on Monday it had suspended the distribution of a low-cost life insurance policy through Wells Fargo & Co (>> Wells Fargo & Co), pending a review of how the product was sold by the bank.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones told Reuters on Monday he had ordered an investigation into allegations, the latest regarding Wells Fargo’s sales practices, that retail bankers signed up customers for life insurance policies from Prudential without their permission.

The New Jersey Division of Insurance is also investigating, according to a Prudential spokesman and a news release from Jones’s office. Spokesmen for the New Jersey office had no immediate comment.

The allegations are part of a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by three former managers in Prudential’s corporate investigation division. The lawsuit was filed in New Jersey state court last week.
Read on.