By Andy Metzger, Matt Murphy and Michael Norton STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, SEPT. 17, 2015…..The Senate took a big step on Thursday toward giving some legal assurances to those who purchase homes in foreclosure, a controversial step opposed by the branch’s liberal wing. On a 31 to 7 vote in its first formal session since July, the Senate passed a measure that would limit property title challenges to a three-year window going forward. The bill now goes to the House.

Source: Foreclosure title clearing bill clears Senate | masslive.com

Great job David Dayen!

A Seattle housing activist on Wednesday uploaded an explosive land-record audit that the local City Council had been sitting on, revealing its far-reaching conclusion: that all assignments of mortgages the auditors studied are void.

That makes any foreclosures in the city based on these documents illegal and unenforceable, and makes the King County recording offices where the documents are located a massive crime scene.

The problems stem from the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems(MERS), an entity banks created so they could transfer mortgages privately, saving them billions of dollars in transfer fees to public recording offices. In Washington state, MERS’ practices were found illegal by the State Supreme Court in 2012. But MERS continued those practices with only cosmetic changes, the audit found.

That finding has national implications. Every state has its own mortgage laws, and some of the audit’s conclusions may not necessarily apply elsewhere…

A former paralegal at a personal injury firm forged the signatures of 76 state Supreme Court justices to create more than 100 bogus judicial orders in structured settlement matters, prosecutors allege.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office said Thomas Rubino, while a paralegal at Paris & Chaikin, forged 117 orders that purported to be judicial orders authorizing the transfer of structured settlement rights.

See Indictment, Statement of Facts, and Voluntary Disclosure Form.

Rubino, 42, pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Wednesday on 117 counts of second-degree forgery and 117 counts of second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument.

Both are D felonies, which carry statutory maximums of 2 1/3 to 7 years.

Read more: http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/id=1202737413993/Paralegal-Indicted-for-Forging-Signatures-of-76-Judges#ixzz3m41hiDAq

Originally posted on Findsen Law:Harvard Amicus Brief on MERS Some of the best quotes, Mortgage servicing companies, banks, courts and government agencies haveall expressed astonishment at the extent to which MERS database is inaccurate. (p. 24) “Simply put, ‘MERS is the Wikipedia of land registration systems.’ Culhane v. Aurora Loan Services, 826 F. Supp.…

https://findsenlaw.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/mers-lacks-legal-authority-and-public-accountability-2/

After raising the benchmark interest rate for its standard modification program twice in the last three months,Fannie Mae is set to drop the benchmark rate back down to the lowest level it’s ever been.

Beginning Sept. 15, Fannie Mae will lower its required interest rate for standard modifications from 4.25% to 4%.

The standard modification rate has only been that low three other times since the modification interest rate was first established in Jan. 2012.

Read on.

The Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut are charging three former Nomura Securities Internationalresidential mortgage-backed securities traders with fraud, accusing the trio of “repeatedly lying” to customers about the pricing information of mortgage bonds and defrauding customers of millions of dollars.

The SEC alleges that while employed as RMBS traders at Nomura, Ross Shapiro, Michael Gramins, and Tyler Peters misrepresented the bids and offers being provided to Nomura for RMBSs, as well as the prices at which Nomura bought and sold the securitizations and the spreads the firm earned intermediating RMBS trades.

According to the SEC, Shapiro, Gramins and Peters also trained, coached, and directed junior traders at the firm to engage in the same misconduct.

The SEC stated that the actions of Shapiro, Gramins and Peters helped to “illicitly generate” millions of dollars in additional revenue for Nomura.

In a…

A federal judge in Florida has dismissed two class action lawsuits against non-bank mortgage servicerOcwen Financial, according to court filings.

U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, dismissed lawsuits filed by Ocwen Financial shareholders andAltisource Portfolio Solutions shareholders accusing the Atlanta-based servicer of fraud.

“We are pleased that the Court has dismissed these two separate actions against the Company,” Ocwen spokesman Jon Lovallo said in an email to DS News. “We agree with the Court’s rulings, and will continue to vigorously defend ourselves as necessary.”

Read on.