Blog posts with "foreclosure"

As the December 31, 2012 deadline for submission of foreclosure review claims under the OCC program has passed, more and more people are seeing the consultant-driven audit as “a ruse and a waste of time and money,” just as described by the former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Sheila Bair. According to sources at the NY Times, the OCC review has already cost banks $1.5 billion, and yet aggrieved homeowners have yet to see any meaningful recovery under thi...

Shaun Donovan, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary, announced today that HUD is rapidly responding to the needs of the victims of Hurricane Sandy. The disaster aid referred to is primarily directed at homeowners and low-income renters forcibly displaced from their homes by the storm. President Obama has so far declared seven New York counties, including Bronx, Kings, Nassau, New York, Richmond, Suffolk, and Queens, to be disaster areas covered by these aid programs. Here are some...

  A recent article from Reuters illuminated an interesting dilemma that the IRS is currently facing in reference to what may be the largest example of tax fraud in US history. The alleged fraud involves the improper handling of the transfer of mortgages into and out of a legal entity known as a Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit (REMIC), investments which totaled $3 billion in 2010 alone. The IRS allows for special tax treatment of REMICs, exempting the securities created by the REMIC f...

The mandatory Florida Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation (RMFM) Program was eliminated through Administrative Order No. AOSC11-44 this past Monday the nineteenth, signed into effect by the Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles T. Canady. The program was established on December 28, 2009 by Administrative Order No. AOSC09-54, signed into effect by then Chief Justice Peggy A. Quince. The more recent Order summarized the issue with this statement: The program was established as a means...

  Former Credit Suisse broker Eric Butler was found guilty yesterday of conspiracy and securities fraud. The evidence established that Butler and another broker, Julian Tzolov, defrauded clients to obtain higher sales commissions. Butler and Tzolov sold auction rate securities (ARS) backed by mortgages to clients who had placed orders to buy ARS that were backed by government backed student loans. Butler and Tzolov convinced clients that the student loan backed securities were secure and hig...