Report finds HUD “failed to adequately oversee” more than $16 billion in FHA loans

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s lack of oversight into borrower-financed down payment assistance programs for Federal Housing Administration-insured loans puts borrowers and the FHA’s flagship insurance fund at “unnecessary risk,” HUD’s watchdog said in a new report.

According to the report from the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD “failed to adequately oversee” billions of dollars in loans that may have “questionable down payment assistance,” thereby putting the FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund at risk because of borrowers with higher than market interest rates.

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Rodriguez v. Nelabovige (In re Kirst), 559 B.R. 757 (Bankr. D. Colo. 2016) –

About a year before filing bankruptcy, a debtor conveyed his interest as a joint tenant in a residential property to his mother-in-law in consideration for $10. The chapter 7 trustee sought to avoid the conveyance as a fraudulent transfer.

Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brain Moynihan believes it is the right time to introduce changes to the Volcker rule of the Dodd-Frank Act. Moynihan was speaking with Handelsblatt Global, a German language business newspaper published in Dusseldorf.

The Volcker rule is a federal regulation that keeps banks from conducting some investment activities using their own accounts. It also limits the banks’ ownership of and their relationships with hedge funds.

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“Fake news” is now the dominant form of spreading disinformation in our marketplace. The banks are in control of media outlets — some created by the banks — that keep spewing out false data about the foreclosure crisis being over. It isn’t true. It never was true. We still have millions more to go and that doesn’t include the new “delinquencies” that will hit the shores as the race continues to move money through false claims of securitization.

see http://www.dsnews.com/headline/02-22-2017/delinquency-rate-shows-improvement

While most of the banking sector is claiming that the mortgage mess is over, the data shows that we (a) never hit any bottom and (b) that foreclosures are beginning to spike again.

The threat to…

With a ruling Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court revived a long-running whistleblower lawsuit that accused Wachovia’s investment bank of violating accounting rules and skirting internal controls to pursue short-term profits.

The Supreme Court vacated a judgment in August 2016 by the U.S. Appeals Court for the Second Circuit that had affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss the case filed by two whistleblowers, including one who had worked in Charlotte.

The high court ordered the appeals court to give the case further consideration in light of a June 2016 Supreme Court ruling that interpreted an aspect of the federal whistleblower law called the U.S. False Claims Act.

“It has obviously breathed new life into our case, which is very important for everyone involved,” said Joel Androphy, a Houston-based attorney representing the plaintiffs. “This has been a very long road.”

USA v. Minas Litos and Adrian and Daniela Tartareanu | 7th Circuit halts fraud restitution, urges fine for ‘reckless’ Bank of America

The Indiana Lawyer-

Three defendants convicted of wire fraud in the purchase of 16 properties in Gary were clearly guilty of the crimes, but the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Friday threw out a restitution order against them and urged the district court in Hammond to consider fining Bank of America for “facilitating a massive fraud.”

“The bank was reckless,” Judge Richard Posner wrote in United States of America v. Minas Litos and Adrian and Daniela Tartareanu, 16-1384, -1385, 2248, 2249, 2330. The defendants were convicted of wire fraud, and the 7th Circuit affirmed those convictions, but reversed an order that they pay the bank restitution of $893,015, the amount it claimed was lost in the scheme.

The defendants were convicted on wire fraud charges filed in…

Below is a letter from Arkansas Congressman French Hill, a whip at the House Financial Services Committee.  Hill is interested in writing a bill that actually empowers the consumer and small lenders including credit unions called the Financial Choice Act.

Send your emails to : French.Hill@mail.house.gov

Subject line: “Dodd-Frank Anecdote.”

Dear Friends,

Much of my professional life was spent in banking, with the last 15 years spent running a community bank in Little Rock. It was here that I saw first-hand the damaging effects the Dodd-Frank Act had on smaller banks and the customers who had traditionally come to us seeking capital and access to credit. In part, this is what inspired me to seek public office and use my 30-plus years in the banking industry to provide sound input in creating financial regulations that make sense for the American people.

At our bank, our primary customers were small business…