Nearly 17,000 consumers helped.

Nearly 17,000 Floridians will receive an excess of $1 billion in relief from the Bank of America (BAC) record settlementwith the Department of Justice, which is almost 14% of the total $7 billion that was allotted to consumer relief, according to the office of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Those eligible will receive relief in the form of first and second lien principle reductions and loan forgiveness.

“Our office worked closely with Bank of America to ensure that Florida homeowners would be treated fairly in any settlement, and I’m pleased that Floridians will be receiving one-seventh of the overall consumer relief,” Bondi said.

The $16.65 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, certain federal agencies and six states was to resolve claims over toxic residential mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations and an origination release on residential mortgage loans sold to Fannie Mae and

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, there has been a steady militarization of police forces in many of America’s cities. This has become increasingly obvious when the subject of dealing with public protests has arisen. Whether in dealings with Occupy protesters a few years ago, or with the unrest caused recently by the killing of Michael Brown (an unarmed teenager) by police in Ferguson, Missouri, many question the use of some of the brutal tactics and military style weapons used by police across the nation. There often seems to be a difference in opinion between police and protesters (particularly when they are dealing with mainly unarmed, peaceful demonstrators who feel they are simply exercising their civil rights to peaceably assemble and speak their minds freely as is written in the Constitution and Bill of Rights), as to what is the appropriate way in which each should act.

Granted…

Case Information

Case Title

Policemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund Of The City Of Chicago v. Bank of America, NA et al

Case Number

1:12-cv-02865

Court

New York Southern

Nature of Suit

Other Statutory Actions

Judge

Katherine B. Forrest

Law360, New York (August 19, 2014, 11:36 AM ET) — A New York federal judge on Monday made way for a settlement by Bank of America NA and U.S. Bank NA of an investor suit over residential mortgage-backed securities, finding the pending deal makes moot a bid to certify a class of investors who alleged the banks failed in their role as the trustees of pools of the securities.

U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest cited the potential settlement, first disclosed to the court in a June 5 letter, in an order terminating a pending motion…

 
Read on.

The issues at 1053 Janet Ave. are nothing new in Ypsilanti Township.

The derelict and once unsecured home’s grass is mowed by neighbors and the odor from a severe mold infestation is identifiable from the sidewalk.

And like multiple other homes the Ypsilanti Township Office of Community Standardstackled in recent years, its mortgage is nowheld by Freddie Mac, which officials say has neglected the property and let it deteriorate to a point that the township considers it a public nuisance and is asking a judge to order it secured and cleaned.

The condition also prompted Township Attorney Doug Winters to rip Freddie Mac in a letter to the company detailing issues at the 1,008-square-foot home and offer his thoughts on the failure to maintain or secure the property since it took over the mortgage in March 2013.

“This is absolutely unbelievable and even more egregious when…

(Reuters) – Private equity firms The Blackstone Group LP and TPG Capital Management LP [TPG.UL] are close to buying subprime mortgage lender, Kensington, Britain’s Sky News reported on Sunday.

Sky News said the sale of Kensington, owned by Anglo-South African financial services provider Investec, had not yet been finalised, but a deal could be announced this week.

The television and multimedia news agency said the two firms had lined up a new management team to take charge once the deal is completed. (http://bit.ly/1oGhSi0)

Blackstone and TPG are also expected to pump capital into the business, Sky reported.

Investec bought Kensington, which had specialised in lending to home buyers with a poor credit history, in a 283-million-pound deal in 2007.

Read on.

In an unique settlement, Bank of America Corp. will hand over $26.4 million in mortgage loans to the bankruptcy liquidation trustee for defunct Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp.

Ocala-based Taylor Bean and ex-CEO Lee Farkas perpetrated a $2.9 billion fraud, causing the collapse of Montgomery, Ala.-based Colonial Bank in the process. Taylor Bean was the nation’s largest private mortgage origination company when it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009 after manufacturing fake loans and failing to service 528,000 others.

Farkas is serving a 30-year prison sentence.

“This is the largest fraud case nobody has ever heard about,” said attorney James Gassenheimer, a Miami partner at Berger Singerman, who represents the liquidating trustee Neil F. Luria, senior managing director of Solic Capital in Evanston, Ill.

A settlement plan was approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry A. Funk in Orlando in 2011, and Luria has been pursuing clawback lawsuits to reimburse…

Great piece by Liberty Road Media website:

Nixon, 9th Circuit and how fake money became “Lawful Money”

Here’s what happened in a nutshell: 1) Bank of America picked Dick Nixon, 2) Dick Nixon picked some federal judges, 3) Dick Nixon created the pure fiat/imaginary/out-of-thin-air/fictional money we now use and that is a banker’s wet dream, 4) and then Dick Nixon’s judges affirmed that the fake money is real money.  So let’s take these four points one at a time.

1. Obviously, we have the letter from H.L. Perry pictured above, which is on display at Nixon’s birthplace in Yorba Linda, CA.  We also have the following account from pioneering independent journalist Mae Brussell, from an August 1972 issue of The Realist magazine:

“In August, 1945, a Committee of One Hundred Men located in California placed an advertisement in 26 newspapers:

WANTED — Congressman candidate with no previous political…

(Reuters) – Activist Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP filed its second lawsuit in two days against the U.S. government over bailout of Fannie Mae (>> Federal National Mortgage Assctn Fnni Me) and Freddie Mac (>> Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp), court documents show.

In Friday’s complaint with the U.S. District Court, Pershing Square alleged that the Department of the Treasury illegally seized tens of billions of dollars in Fannie and Freddie profits.

Pershing Square, the largest shareholder of both the mortgage companies, said in the complaint that it was told the Fannie and Freddie stockholders no longer have fundamental shareholders rights.

Fannie’s and Freddie’s conservator, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), denied “written demands by Pershing Square to the companies’ boards of directors for a books and records inspection”, according to the complaint.

In the second lawsuit, Pershing suggests the mortgage companies’ dividends being paid to…

(Reuters) – Mortgage applicants who can’t provide tax returns or pay stubs to show their income are getting stated income loans again as companies such as Unity West Lending and Westport Mortgage chase customers they can no longer afford to ignore.

Lenders say these aren’t the same products as the so-called “liar loans” that were pervasive before the housing bust. Instead, the loans are going to borrowers such as small business owners or investors buying properties they intend to rent who can demonstrate an ability to repay, verifiable through bank or brokerage statements. Lenders said they look for enough assets to pay six to 12 months of payments, while also demanding high down payments to reduce the chance of default.

“This is not a return to the wild and wooly days of, if you fogged the mirror, you can have a loan,” said Paul Lebowitz, founder of Westport Mortgage. “They…