Chain of Title (43 page)

67
a way to “foam the runway”:
Neil Barofsky,
Bailout: How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012), 156–57.

67
his administration pressured congressional leaders:
Paul Kiel and Olga Pierce, “Dems: Obama Broke Pledge to Force Banks to Help Homeowners,” Pro Publica, February 4, 2011. Also David Dayen, “Portrait of HAMP Failure: How HAMP Went from the Bank's Counter Offer to the Whole Enchilada,” September 13, 2010,
http://shadowproof.com/2010/09/13/portrait-of-hamp-failure-how-hamp-went-from-the-banks-counter-offer-to-the-whole-enchilada
.

67
“frankly own the place”:
Ryan Grim, “Dick Durbin: Banks ‘Frankly Own the Place,'”
Huffington Post
, May 30, 2009.

67
Treasury Department bigwigs would come in afterward:
Kiel and Pierce, “Dems: Obama Broke Pledge.”

67
The banks blamed homeowners:
Pat Garofalo, “Banks Blame Borrowers for Lack of Progress on Mortgage Modifications,”
ThinkProgress.org
, December 9, 2009.

67
Servicers turned HAMP into a predatory lending program:
Dayen, “Portrait of HAMP Failure.”

68
Bank of America employees later testified they were given:
David Dayen, “Bank of America Whistleblower's Bombshell: We Were Told to Lie,”
Salon
, June 18, 2013.

68
Robert “Jack” Wright:
Denise Richardson, “Why We Need the Right to Receive a Monthly Mortgage Statement,”
GiveMeBackMyCredit.com
, April 24, 2008.

68
Fairbanks would eventually settle:
“Fairbanks Capital Settles FTC and HUD Charges,” Federal Trade Commission press release, November 12, 2003. Also “Fairbanks Capital Changes to Select Portfolio Servicing, Inc.,” Select Portfolio Servicing press release, July 1, 2004,
PRNewswire.com
.

68
Mike Dillon:
Link to
GetDShirtz.com
is now dead. Mike's story can be found at the
Home Preservation Network
,
http://homepreservationnetwork.com/2012-10-23-03-10-19/stories-from-homeowners/item/2776-mike-dillon-manchester-nh
.

68
“My foreclosure was filed August 2008”:
Living Lies
, “Florida Petition Seeks Mediation of Foreclosures,” March 11, 2009, comment by user bt.

68
“Can a foreclosure, in Florida, still take place”:
Living Lies
, “Reality Check: Holder in Due Course Doctrine Is Not Some Fancy Trick to Get Out of Paying,” April 5, 2009, comment by user Viper.

69
Ana Fernandez:
Gretchen Morgenson, “Guess What Got Lost in the Loan Pool,”
New York Times
, March 1, 2009.

69
Samuel Bufford:
Ibid.

69
Judge Walt Logan:
Mike McIntire, “Tracking Loans Through a Firm That Holds Millions,”
New York Times
, April 24, 2009.

69
“If you are going to take away someone's house”:
Michael Powell, “A ‘Little Judge' Who Rejects Foreclosures, Brooklyn Style,”
New York Times
, August 31, 2009.

69
Anna Ramirez:
Todd Wright, “My Bad! Woman's House Mistakenly Auctioned by Bank,” NBC6 Miami, August 20, 2009.

69
Tony Louzado:
Drew Griffin and Jessi Joseph, “Are Some Law Firms Cutting Corners on Foreclosures?”
CNN.com
, October 23, 2010.

70
someone with the username “Fraud in FL” commented:
Living Lies
, “NY Times Exposes MERS,” April 24, 2009, comments by users Fraud in FL, Alina, and Lisa E.

71
“They may sit there all day for a week”:
Susan Martin, “Tampa Bay Companies Help Lenders Transfer Home Loans, Foreclose,”
Tampa Bay Times
, May 1, 2009.

72
Florida Default Law Group withdrew that affidavit and then filed one:
Available in Lisa's comment to the Florida Supreme Court, October 7, 2009,
www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/documents/foreclosure_comments/Filed_10-07-2009_Epstein.pdf
.

76
“And then it started like a guilty thing”:
Shakespeare quoted in Lisa Epstein, “Wells Fargo: Who Are They and Why Did They Have the Power to Deny a Solution to My Mortgage?”
Foreclosure Hamlet
, October 17, 2009.

76
“This Blog is NOT to be viewed as a source”:
Lisa Epstein,
Foreclosure Hamlet
homepage,
www.foreclosurehamlet.org
.

76
“When I get those large white envelopes”:
Lisa Epstein, “FDLG New Filing with the Court: Plaintiff's Response to my Request for Production,”
Foreclosure Hamlet
, October 6, 2009.

77
The Kansas Supreme Court decided the case of Boyd Kesler:
Landmark National Bank v. Boyd Kesler
, Kansas Supreme Court, No. 98,489, August 28, 2009. Also Neil Garfield, “Kansas Supreme Court Sets Precedent—Key Decision Confirming Living Lies' Strategies,”
Living Lies
, September 23, 2009.

77
The Arkansas Supreme Court made a similar ruling:
Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc v. Southwest Homes of Arkansas
, Supreme Court of Arkansas, No. 08-1299, March 19, 2009, available at
https://livinglies.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/arkansas-supreme-court-denies-mers-legal-standing
.

77
Kurt Aho:
Neil Garfield, “The High Cost of Losing Homes: Death by Gunshot,”
Living Lies
, September 30, 2009, comments by users Lisa E and Foreclosure Fraud.

6. Mr. Anonymous

80
the Boynton Beach campus shut down:
Marcia Heroux Pounds, “Motorola to Close Boynton Plant,”
Orlando Sun-Sentinel
, January 23, 2004.

80
retail and residential development called Renaissance Commons:
Brian Bandell, “Renaissance Commons Loses $52m Foreclosure as Auction Looms,”
South Florida Business Journal
, August 16, 2013.

84
a sweetheart deal for JPMorgan Chase to purchase WaMu:
Christopher Palmeri, “JPMorgan Chase to Buy Washington Mutual,”
Bloomberg News
, September 26, 2008.

85
Nye's report about Ocwen employee Scott Anderson:
Nye Lavalle, “Sue First and Ask Questions Later: A Pew Mortgage Investigations Report on the Predatory Servicing Practice of False & Forged Signatures Employed by Ocwen & Others,” 2008,
www.scribd.com/doc/20955838/PMI-Ocwen-Anderson-Report-Sue-First-Ask-Questions-Later
.

86
This assignment was dated April 20, 2009:
Clerk of St. Lucie County Public Records, book 3081, page 231, recorded April 20, 2009.

88
“I have researched this in my county records”:
Susan Martin, “Tampa Bay Companies Help Lenders Transfer Home Loans, Foreclose,”
Tampa Bay Times
, May 1, 2009.

88
“Looking Up Public Records”:
Michael Redman, “Looking Up Public Records,”
4closurefraud.org
, October 18, 2009.

90
“Any feedback is welcomed, good and bad”:
Living Lies
, “Double Funding, Fabrication of Documents and Forgery of Signatures Revealed,” October 5, 2009, comment posted on October 11 by user Foreclosure Fraud.

90
“This is so blatant and outrageous”:
Karl Denninger, “A Birdie on Possible Foreclosure Frauds,” Market Ticker, October 15, 2009, available at
www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/59786-2009-10-15-a-birdie-on-possible-foreclosure-frauds.htm
.

91
Michael started
4closurefraud.wordpress.com
:
Michael Redman, “Foreclosure Fraud—Guide to Looking Up Public Records for Fraud,”
4closurefraud.org
, October 18, 2009.

91
One of his early posts was Nye Lavalle's report on Scott Anderson:
Michael Redman, “PMI Ocwen Anderson Report—Sue First Ask Questions Later,”
4closurefraud.org
, October 21, 2009.

91
Living Lies
was holding a seminar:
Neil Garfield, “Only One (1) Day Left to Pre-Register: Workshops Scheduled for Florida—November 1–2, 2009 Sheraton Sand Key Resort in Sunny Clearwater Beach FL,”
Living Lies
, October 24, 2009.

7. When Michael Met Lisa

94
“We're not going to convert you into lawyers today”:
Neil Garfield, “Foreclosure Defense—What You Need to Know,” Cameron/Baxter Films, uploaded October 31, 2009,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9L4eRaIxLQ
(part 1) and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ6lPaiKmwg
(part 2).

96
“By way of introduction, I am a working mother”:
Lisa's first letter to the Florida Supreme Court, October 7, 2009,
http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/documents/foreclosure_comments/Filed_10-07-2009_Epstein.pdf
.

97
short column in the Sarasota
Herald-Tribune
by Tom Lyons:
Tom Lyons, “Foreclosure Chicanery Not a Funny Lawyer Joke,” Sarasota
Herald-Tribune
, September 29, 2009.

98
The clerk said the court could accept:
Lisa's second letter to the Florida Supreme Court, October 21, 2009,
www.floridasupremecourt.org/pub_info/summaries/briefs/09/09-1460/Filed_10-21-2009_Epstein.pdf
.

100
Isaac Dieudonné:
Tony Pugh, “Child's Death Mired in Nation's Foreclosure Crisis,” McClatchy Newspapers, October 29, 2010.

8. Happy Hours

104
Someone with the name Erin Cullaro was working:
Michael Redman, “Scandalous—Substantiated Allegations of Foreclosure Fraud that Implicates the Florida Attorney General's Office and the Florida Default Law Group,”
4closurefraud.org
, March 26, 2010.

104
the almost comically titled U.S. Foreclosure Network:
Erin Collins Cullaro, “Is There a Right of Redemption after a Foreclosure Sale in Florida?” U.S. Foreclosure
Network, 2006,
www.usfn.org/AM/PrinterTemplate.cfm?Section=USFN_E_Update&template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=3885
.

104
That was the former name of Florida Default Law Group:
“On the Move,”
Florida Bar News
, September 15, 2005.

108
According to rule 1.420(e):
Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, 91, available at
http://www.floridabar.org/TFB/TFBResources.nsf/Attachments/10C69DF6FF15185085256B29004BF823/$FILE/Civil.pdf?OpenElement
.

108
Chemrock v. Tampa Electric
:
Opinion from First District Court of Appeals, decided November 17, 2009,
https://cases.justia.com/florida/first-district-court-of-appeal/08-4895.pdf

109
“PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that it appears”:
U.S. Bank NA as Trustee et al v. Vincent Savoia et al
., Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County, Florida, Case No. 50-2007-CA-008051XXXXMB.

110
“virtually all paper documents of the note and mortgage”:
Comments of the Florida Bankers Association, Florida Supreme Court, Case No. 09-1460,
www.floridasupremecourt.org/clerk/comments/2009/09-1460_093009_Comments%20(FBA).pdf
.

110
“Typically, the plaintiff in a foreclosure action”:
Michael Redman, “Freddie Mac Comments on the Final Report and Recommendations on Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Cases, Florida Supreme Court,”
4closurefraud.org
, November 11, 2009.

111
Antonio Ibanez:
Jenifer B. McKim, “Ruling Upheld on Sale of Property,”
Boston Globe
, October 15, 2009.

111
Federal bankruptcy judge Robert Drain:
Gretchen Morgenson, “If the Lender Can't Find the Mortgage,”
New York Times
, October 25, 2009.

111
Even a bankruptcy judge in Idaho:
In re Sheridan
, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Idaho, Case No. 08-20381-TLM, March 12, 2009, available at
https://livinglies.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/sheridan_decision-idaho-bkr-j-myers.pdf
.

9. The Network

113
special delinquent servicing prior to foreclosure:
On the Veterans Administration, see the VA Servicer Guide, 59–72,
www.benefits.va.gov/homeloans/documents/docs/va_servicer_guide.pdf
. For FHA loans, see the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Loan Servicing Guidance home page,
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/federal_housing_administration/healthcare_facilities/residential_care/loan_servicing
.

113
12 USC 1701x(c)(5):
Accessed at the Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School,
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/1701x
.

114
she had to meet clients in the lobby:
Mike Stuckey, “‘Angel' of Foreclosure Defense Bedevils Lenders,” MSNBC, December 19, 2008,
www.nbcnews.com/id/28277420/ns/business-real_estate/t/angel-foreclosure-defense-bedevils-lenders
.

115
“nothing-backed securities”:
Christopher Ketcham, “Stop Payment!”
Harper's
, January 2012; April Charney, “Direct or Indirect, Mortgages Are Flawed,”
New York Times
“Room for Debate,” October 16, 2012.

117
“The Document Execution team is set up”:
Dory Goebel and Chrys Houston, “Department Spotlight: Document Execution,”
The Summit
(internal newsletter produced by Fidelity National Foreclosure Services) 2, issue 3 (September 2006): 16–17.

117
Max Gardner's bankruptcy boot camp:
Prashant Gopal, “Foreclosure Lawyers Go to Max's Farm for Edge,” Bloomberg, October 27, 2010. Also Max Gardner's Bankruptcy Boot Camp website at
www.maxbankruptcybootcamp.com
.