Chloe Williams <chloe@legalforensicauditors.

com>
To
ajmanning820@aol.com
BCC
exclusiveips@att.net
08/24/12 at 1:13 PM

BankClassActions.com
Our attorneys sue predatory lenders

Two landmark developments on August 16th give

Registrars of Deeds
momentum to the growing interest of cities and
starting to refuse
counties in addressing the mortgage crisis using
robo-signed
eminent domain:
documents. This is
(1) The Washington State Supreme Court held
what we need ladies
in Bain v. MERS, et al., that an electronic database
and gentlemen, put
called Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems
pressure in your
(MERS) is not a “beneficiary” entitled to foreclose
local county on the
under a deed of trust; and
registrar of deeds.
(2) San Bernardino County, California, passed a
resolution to consider plans to use eminent domain to Robo-signed
address the glut of underwater borrowers by documents rejected
purchasing and refinancing their loans. by John O’Brien
MERS is the electronic smokescreen that allowed banks following 60 Minutes
to build their securitization Ponzi scheme without show featuring
worrying about details like ownership and chain of Lynn Szymoniak
title. According to trial attorney Neil Garfield, properties Massachusetts
were sold to multiple investors or conveyed to empty Register of Deeds
trusts, subprime securities were endorsed as triple A, and John O’Brien is
banks earned up to 40 times what they could earn on a rejecting foreclosure
paying loan, using credit default swaps in which they bet documents signed by
the loan would go into default. As the dust settles from known robo-signers.
collapse of the scheme, homeowners are left with
underwater mortgages with no legitimate owners to O’Brien is one of
negotiate with. The solution now being considered is for a handful of
municipalities to simply take ownership of the officials nationwide
mortgages through eminent domain. This would allow who began pulling
them to clear title and start fresh, along with some other court documents
lucrative dividends. following a 60
A major snag in these proposals has been that to make Minutes story
them economically feasible, the mortgages would have on foreclosure fraud
to be purchased at less than fair market value, in that featured a Palm
violation of eminent domain laws. But for troubled Beach County
properties with MERS in the title—which now seems to homeowner. On
be the majority of them—this may no longer be a Tuesday, Obrien said
problem. If MERS is not a beneficiary entitled to he rejected two
foreclose, as held in Bain, it is not entitled to assign that robo-signed
right or to assign title. Title remains with the original documents submitted
note holder; and in the typical case, the note holder can to his registry for
no longer be located or established, since the property recording and plans to
has been used as collateral for multiple investors. In continue doing
these cases, counties or cities may be able to obtain the so. Some quotes from
mortgages free and clear. The county or city would then the press release...
be in a position to “do the fair thing,” settling with
stakeholders in proportion to their legitimate claims, and “the buck stops here”
refinancing or reselling the properties, with proceeds “My Registry will not
accruing to the city or county. be a knowing
Bain v. MERS: No Rights Without the Original Note participant in this
Although Bain is binding precedent only in Washington fraud against
State, it is well reasoned and is expected to be followed homeowners. From
elsewhere. The question, said the panel, was “whether today forward,
MERS and its associated business partners and lenders be on notice,
institutions can both replace the existing recording the Southern Essex
system established by Washington statutes and still take District Registry
advantage of legal procedures established in those same of Deeds will not
statutes.” The Court held that they could not have it record robo-signed
both ways: documents.”

Simply put, if MERS does not hold the note, it is not

a lawful beneficiary. . . . ~
MERS suggests that, if we find a violation of the act,
“MERS should be required to assign its interest in any “I find this practice
deed of trust to the holder of the promissory note, and very troubling on
have that assignment recorded in the land title records, many levels. It has
before any non-judicial foreclosure could take place.” completely jaded
But if MERS is not the beneficiary as contemplated by my understanding that
Washington law, it is unclear what rights, if any, it has a notarized document
to convey. Other courts have rejected similar was something that
suggestions. [Citations omitted.] could be relied upon.”
If MERS has no rights that it can assign, the parties are
back to square one: the original holder of the promissory ~
note must be found. The problem is that many of these
mortgage companies are no longer in business; and even “If these documents
if they could be located, it is too late in most cases to are signed by
assign the note to the trusts that are being tossed this hot anyone other than the
potato. noted signatories,
Mortgage-backed securities are sold to investors in these notaries and
packages representing interests in trusts called REMICs those that
(Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits), which are employed them
designed as tax shelters. To qualify for that status, should be held
however, they must be “static.” Mortgages can’t be accountable for the
transferred in and out once the closing date has occurred. fraudulent documents
The REMIC Pooling and Servicing Agreement typically that they
states that any transfer after the closing date is invalid. have produced and
Yet few, if any, properties in foreclosure seem to have the havoc they have
been assigned to these REMICs before the closing date, caused to chains of
in blatant disregard of legal requirements. title
The whole business is quite complicated, but the bottom everywhere.”
line is that title has been clouded not only by MERS but
because the trusts purporting to foreclose do not own the
properties by the terms of their own “Knowing what I now
documents. Legally, the latter defect may be even more know, it would be
fatal than filing in the name of MERS in establishing a a dereliction of my
break in the chain of title to securitized properties. duties as the keeper of
What This Means for Eminent Domain Plans: Focus on the records to record
San Bernardino these documents and
Under the plans that the San Bernardino County board of any other documents
supervisors voted to explore, the county would take that contain
underwater mortgages by eminent domain and then help questionable
the borrowers into mortgages with significantly lower signatures. To do so,
monthly payments. would make me a
Objections voiced at the August 16th hearing included willing participant in
suspicions concerning the role of Mortgage Resolution a continuing
Partners, the private venture capital firm bringing the scheme which has
proposal (would it make off with the profits and leave corrupted the chain of
the county footing the bills?), and where the county title of thousands of
would get the money for the purchases. Essex County
A way around these objections might be to eliminate the property owners. I
private middleman and proceed through a county land have decided to put a
bank of the sort set up in other states. If the land bank stop to this reckless
focused on properties with MERS in the chain of title behavior and hold
(underwater, foreclosed or abandoned), it might obtain a these lenders and their
significant inventory of properties free and clear. agents accountable for
The county would simply need to give notice in the local the authenticity of
newspaper of intent to exercise its right of eminent what they are
domain. The burden of proof would then transfer to the attempting to record
claimant to establish title in a court proceeding. If the in my Registry. I do
court followed Bain, title typically could not be proved not believe this to be
and would pass free and clear to the county land bank, unreasonable.”
which could sell or rent the property and work out a fair
settlement with the parties.
That would resolve not only the funding question but ~
whether using eminent domain to cure mortgage
“Now that Register
problems constitutes an unconstitutional taking of
Thigpen has joined
private property. In these cases, there would be no one
with me, I am
to take from, since no one would be able to prove
hopeful that my
title. The investors would take their place in line as
other colleagues
unsecured creditors with claims in equity for actual
around the country
damages. In most cases, they would be protected by
will also take the
credit default swaps and could recover from those
same action. I
arrangements.
strongly believe that
The investors, banks and servicers all profited from the
this will send a
smokescreen of MERS, which shielded them from
message, loud and
liability. As noted in Bain:
clear, that we as
Critics of the MERS system point out that after bundling Registers and
many loans together, it is difficult, if not impossible, to Recorders of Deeds,
identify the current holder of any particular loan, or to whose responsibility
negotiate with that holder. . . . Under the MERS system, it is to protect the
questions of authority and accountability arise, and integrity of the land
determining who has authority to negotiate loan recordation system,
modifications and who is accountable for will not be a party to
misrepresentation and fraud becomes extraordinarily any fraudulent
difficult. scheme that may
Like MERS itself, the investors must deal with the damage individual’s
consequences of an anonymity so remote that they property rights”
removed themselves from the chain of title.
On August 15th, the Federal Housing Finance Agency
threatened to take action against municipalities ~
condemning federal property. But to establish its claim,
Jeff Thigpen joins
the FHFA, too, would have to establish that the
O’Brien’s effort
mortgages were federal property; and under
saying...
the Bain ruling, this could be difficult.
Setting Things Right “The basic question
While banks and investors were busy counting their here is whether we as
profits behind the curtain of MERS, homeowners and Recorders are going
counties have been made to bear the losses. The city of to sit on our hands, in
San Bernardino is in such dire straits that on August 1, it the face of what
filed for bankruptcy. appears to be clear
San Bernardino and other counties are drowning in debt fraud or are we going
from a crisis created when Wall Street’s real estate to stand up for 400
securitization bubble burst. By using eminent domain, years of integrity in
they can clean up the destruction of their land title land records? John is
records and 400 years of real property law. And by on the right side of
setting up their own banks, counties and other this question and
municipalities can use their own capital and revenues to these are reasonable
generate credit for local purposes. actions that he
Homeowners who paid much more for a home than it is taking.”
was worth as a result of the securitization bubble have
little chance of challenging the legitimacy of their
underwater mortgages on their own. Insisting that their ~ There are 67
state and local governments follow the lead of million MERS loans
Washington State and San Bernardino County may be where the land
their best shot at escaping debt peonage to their record has been
mortgage lenders. screwed up and
______________ requires illegal
Ellen Brown is an attorney and president of the Public assignment filing in
Banking Institute,http://PublicBankingInstitute.org. In order to
Web of Debt, her latest of eleven books, she shows how foreclose. It may be
a private cartel has usurped the power to create money true that quiet title
from the people themselves, and how we the people can actions need to be
get it back. Her websites arehttp://WebofDebt.com and filed on every single
http://EllenBrown.com. one of these for these
homeowners to
deliver clear title.
 Be sure to send this
Class Actions Filed...
press release to your
local recorder…

Need a securitization
audit/Chain of title
analysis?

There are 67 Class

action cases against predatory lenders listed on Our contact
If your lender told you to go behind on your mortgage - information
or- if your lender has lost your modification documents BankClassActions.co
multiple times -or- your lender gave you a temporary m, LLC
modification and then DID NOT apply your temporary 183-2 Keith Street
payments towards your interest or principal -or- your Warrenton, VA
lender promised you a perminent modification and did 20186
NOT follow through... Please fill out the LONG form
registration here: (540)-341-1481 x 2or
http://bankclassactions.com/registration.php 3
Questions?? Call 540-341-1481
info@bankclassactions.com
If you need help with
a foreclosure reach
out to us. One of
our quiet title
attorneys in
California just won
ANOTHER quiet
title action last
week. We have 26
of these filed now
nationally and
growing.

Also, if you find us to be helpful, help us.

Like us on facebook to get the word out
Facebook
Chloe Williams
Mortgage Analyst
Legal Forensic Auditors, LLC
540.341.1481
703.853.5540 cell
540.359.6223 fax
chloe@legalforensicauditors.com

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their
currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that
will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their
children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe
that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing
armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to
the people, to whom it properly belongs." -Thomas Jefferson