[I am stunned that someone in government is standing up for the rule of law. This one is for Mary Malone.]
http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=14360
John O’Brien isn’t camping out on the streets of New York with Occupy Wall Street, but he might as well be. O’Brien, the embattled register of deeds for Southern Essex (Salem), has been carrying on his own fight with the big banks, which, he says, have ruined his registry of deeds by swamping it with fraudulent documents and victimizing registry users.
O’Brien, who has been waging his war with the banks since before OWS first camped out in Zuccotti Park, says his registry is “a crime scene because of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase.” The big banks, he says, have left the registry awash with more than 30,000 robo-signed or otherwise fabricated documents.
O’Brien calls the flooding of registries across the U.S. with falsified documents “the largest scandal to affect the integrity of the land recordation system in this country since its inception.” He uses the services of a mortgage fraud analyst to help identify false documents, and he and his staff maintain a list of people they know to be robo-signers not actually working for the lenders they sign for. He invites people to bring him paperwork they believe is fraudulent, and he supplies them with affidavits they can take to court attesting that the documents are suspect.
The militant register is angry not only at the chaos the phony documents are creating, but at the use to which they’re being put.
“I don’t record robo-signers,” O’Brien told the Advocate. “These banksters should be sitting across the table from people, saying, ‘How can we help you stay in your house?’
“I see people come into my registry—they’re losing their homes, they don’t have a job, and nobody’s helping them. I’m giving them a sworn affidavit saying that the documents are fraudulent and they’ve been signed by a robo-signer.”
And O’Brien goes farther than that. Since last April, he’s been trying to get the state to let him take his registry’s deposits—which he estimates have grown by $15 million since the spring—out of Bank of America, and put the money in a local bank.
Why, he asks, should Bank of America profit from a registry in which it, along with Wells Fargo and other “too big to fail” institutions, has made a mess of the recording process?
“I really and truthfully do not think we should be depositing any taxpayer money in a bank that has infected my registry with thousands of fraudulent documents,” O’Brien insists.
*
It used to be that registers in the commonwealth, including O’Brien, who has been at his post since 1977, could place registry deposits in whatever institutions they chose. O’Brien deposited his registry’s revenues in Bank of Boston, but after a series of mergers the money landed with Bank of America. Meanwhile, in 2000 the state took over the registries.
Now O’Brien has to ask permission to move the money, which amounts to some $25 million a year. From April until last week he was bounced back and forth between the Massachusetts Secretary of State and the state Treasurer, he says, and has been unable to get a clear statement about whether he can move the money or not.
In particular, O’Brien wants his registry’s money out of any bank that’s part of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), a system used by a number of large lenders. Touted as a system that streamlines the technicalities of deed and mortgage transfer and recording, MERS has faced many court challenges because it blurs roles—acting, for example, both as mortgage assignee and agent for the assignee—in ways that muddy the question of who actually owns a mortgage and has the right to foreclose. Among other things, it can circumvent state land transfer recording rules. Earlier this year, the network was served with a cease and desist order by federal regulators for “deficiencies and unsafe or unsound practices.”
At press time, state treasurer Steve Grossman had issued an invitation to banks to bid for the registry’s deposits. But in a letter transmitted to the Advocate by the treasurer’s office, Grossman wrote O’Brien that the treasurer’s office could not exclude any potential bidders because it was obliged to look for the best deal for the commonwealth, and because the state could be sued for “arbitrarily excluding” possible bidders.
But O’Brien, who moved the registry’s money half a dozen times before the state takeover in 2000, wants it in a local bank that does not belong to MERS and that follows the commonwealth’s protocols for recording deeds.
*
In the Valley, registers of deeds are also concerned about falsified documents; as Franklin County register Joseph Gochinski put it, “It’s frustrating. Sometimes I feel that my hands are tied.”
But they’re waiting for guidance from state Attorney General Martha Coakley on exactly what they should do when they are presented with suspect documents by registry users. “Once we get an opinion, we will have the legal process to reject these documents,” said Hampshire County Register Patricia Plaza.
“We have listed the names we thought were robo-signings and the AG is investigating it,” said Hampden County Register of Deeds Donald Ashe, whose website posts an invitation to registry users to check with their lenders about who holds their mortgages, and to consult the registry about anything suspicious.
For his part, O’Brien isn’t waiting for anything. He’s determined to mobilize registers around the country, and has made a start by holding Webinars to educate them. Squarely in his camp is Jeff Thigpen, the register of deeds for Guilford County, N. C., who has found his own registry contaminated with forged documents.
“I’ve got registers across the country joining with me,” says O’Brien. “I’m trying to get registers every single day. I have to defend the integrity of the land recordation system despite the fact that these banksters think it’s a joke.”
Mary Malone says:
Great post, Yojimbo.
John O’Brien is a patriot – cut from the same cloth as Patrick Henry and Paul Revere.
His work is making a difference – just not as quickly as he and all of us would like. There’s a level of antipathy and fear that is paralyzing other people of good will.
For some strange reason in America, today, it’s perfectly OK for a financial institution to steal someone’s home.
John commissioned Marie McDonnell, a forensic analyst, to audit his Southern Essex County Registry. Their findings?
-75% of all assignments examined are invalid
-27% of the invalid assignments are fraudulent
-35% of the assignments examined are robo-signed
And 683 assignments of mortgage are missing, depriving Southern Essex County of $180,000 in lost recording fees. (www.mcdonnellanalytics.com)
The Southern Essex Registry is the oldest in America. Goes back to the Salem witch hunt days.
We’ve used this data to persuade NJ government to pursue $87 million in unpaid mortgage recording fees and another $90 Billion in transfer taxes. So far, crickets.
There’s a new AG and we have the Gov’s attention, so we are hoping NJ will move quickly to sue the TBTF and recover those funds. Clearly, NJ needs the money.
We could file a whistle-blower suit, but would prefer NJ step up to the plate first.
BTW – for all those who believe mortgage fraud is irrelevant to them – cause they didn’t buy too much house, or fall for re-fi fever – think again.
We’re finding a slew of “Satisfaction of Mortgages” that are signed by known robo-signers..
Attorneys have examined the docs and told us the fraudulent signatures deem the docs invalid. Which means the lien has not been legally extinguished from the property.
In NJ, title companies are “curing” the problem. But judges here, refuse to award clear title to property owners. An attorney was telling us about a client who just can’t get relief from the courts -he’s now in the Federal court system. Costing him a fortune to clear title on his home.
So, the document fraud that John O’Brien is talking about affects every property owner in America – not just the people who have fallen behind on their payments.
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12th January 2012 at 10:07 am
AKAnon says:
Evidence that, just as not all baby boomers ES, not all gov’t drones ES. Sometimes it’s a good thing to be the 1%.
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12th January 2012 at 10:59 am
Thinker says:
A story like this needs to go viral, which it well may. Even better if it ends up on 60 Minutes so more American sloths can see it.
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12th January 2012 at 11:12 am
KaD says:
And why did the banks do this you ask: The Obama administration, in conjunction with federal regulators and led by the overseer of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is very close to announcing a pilot program to sell government-owned foreclosures in bulk to investors as rentals
http://www.cnbc.com/id/45925851
Here’s where the big haircut comes in.
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12th January 2012 at 11:16 am
KaD says:
Btw, the ‘loan modification’ programs were never meant to help people stay in their houses; it was meant to make it LOOK like the government and banks were trying to do something. The fact is that if you have equity in your house the banks want to foreclose on it as quickly as possible. A whistleblower came forward from Wells Fargo and said this.
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12th January 2012 at 11:39 am
Mary Malone says:
KD: “a pilot program to sell government-owned foreclosures in bulk to investors as rentals”
The government is now in the business of selling stolen houses. That is their solution.
Telling the truth, like John did, would take courage. Not much courage in DC these days, is there?
But this is not a federal issue – it’s a state issue. Property law is state law.
So, every homeowners should march into their registry, look up all recorded documents on their property. The mortgage. The assignments. The satisfaction of mortgages. Xerox them all.
Then, go home, log on and start googling.
Google each and every name that has a signature – which is not your own. Google name, robosigner, title, (usually Asst. Secretary), VP, Notary.
Check the notary – see if they are independent, or work for a lender. If they have notarized a doc without revealing they have a real interest in the property (like being employed by the bank who has been assigned the property) they can be charged with notary fraud.
Your goal is to find out if a known robo-signer has signed any of your docs. Make copies of everything you find.
If you find robo-signers on your docs, go nuts.
Contact your Registrar of Deeds. Show him evidence – and demand they take action immediately.
Get your friends, neighbors to do property – robo-signer searches too.
Contact the local press. Show them evidence that your registry has been destroyed.
Contact local Pols and tell them you will not stand for this. Go nuts.
Your largest asset has clouded title and can be considered unmarketable down the road, when title companies start refusing to insure properties with MERS and robo-signers in the chain of title.
And when you can no longer pay, the Feds will allow the Wall Street firms who ruined your title to seize the home and rent it back to you.
They expect you to be thankful. Are you?
Or, will you stand up and say, “No more.”
Your choice. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
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12th January 2012 at 11:50 am
Mary Malone says:
KaD: ‘loan modification’ programs were never meant to help people stay in their houses; it was meant to make it LOOK like the government and banks were trying to do something.”
Absolutely right KaD.
People are trying to negotiate new terms of their contracts, but the bank does not have authority to renegotiate anything.
Why?
These banks are servicers – and make their money foreclosing on properties. They get penalized if they report a loan is in default. It’s cheaper for them to make the monthly payment to the investor and foreclose. Then, they get all the money. The investor gets bubkus.
The whole modification scheme is a hoax. The intent is to dangle false hope and run down the clock.
It’s the final phase of a perfectly executed crime. Many in law enforcement believe that the banks, with feds permission, are running the clock on the statute of limitations.
There’s a five or 6 year window for fraud – clock started wither in 2007 when Paulsen knew there were no mortgages to back MBS, or in 2008, when Wall Street begged for a bailout to cover-up their crimes.
The window on prosecutions for crimes on $17 trillion heist ($11 T from investors, $6 T homeowners) is almost closed.
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12th January 2012 at 1:13 pm
Bruce Favinger says:
Mary,
I think you are right about them running down the clock. After seven years the justice system can do nothing. But before seven years the justice system won’t do anything. Unless of course you’re protesting something. Keep in mind though, that being hunted down and hung from lamp posts by vigilantes has no statute of limitations.
At this point after years and years and millions upon millions of acts of injustice, brutality, fraud, financial depredations and tyranny against the people by government, banks, bureaucrats, and the corporate elite with no recourse or justice it’s amazing that no one has gone ballistic and started shooting. For example Jon Corzine’s huge scam must have certainly taken money from some very powerful people who utilized the commodities markets. It also stands to reason that at least a few of them are mean badass types who don’t have the patience to let the legal system handle things even if functioned properly. So why hasn’t he been found in a heap somewhere double tapped in the head or simply disappeared? Surely out of all the millions of frauds and scams a least a few bankers have screwed someone from the mob or some vengeful psychopath who can plan well and handle a weapon. If you jack with enough people sooner or later one of them will nail your ass courts and consequences be damned. Why has nothing legally or illegally been done to the guys? Out of 300 and some odd million people not even one has gone after these guys with a warrant or a pistol? Something just doesn’t seem right or natural about all this.
I don’t know weather to praise the American People (especially those who have been directly victimized) for their incredible tolerance and commitment to peace, justice and a civil process even when they receive none, or condemn them for being masochistic schmucks that bitch and moan but love the pain so much they want more.
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12th January 2012 at 3:40 am
Mary Malone says:
@Bruce: I also marvel at the restraint of the American people. It is quite simply a miracle that fleeced investors or homeowners have not gone postal. It is.
I wonder, tho, if they are in shock. The crime is so massive and the implications so wide reaching that I think people just can’t process it. Some call it the normalcy bias.
Kinda like 911. You see the planes fly into the towers. But you tell yourself it’s impossible. Even tho you’re standing there, and watching it up close and personal. You see the flames. You smell the smoke. And you still think it’s OK to cross the Hudson and go to work, cause nothing that awful could happen in America.
Don’t we have the most sophisticated and best trained military in the world? The CIA, FBI? Surely, this could not happen without someone detecting it and stopping them.
And the towers are built of steel – they’ll never collapse. People have time to evacuate.
No, I’m not watching two giant office buildings in downtown NYC collapse – with people in them and under them. Can’t be happening.
Think about it.
We’re telling Americans that financial firms that stole their pension money, their annuity funds are also stealing their house. In plain sight. With the tacit approval of our government.
These criminals are stealing freak’in houses. Not ipads, purses, or SUVs. They are stealing houses. Millions of them. And nobody in power is stopping them. With the exception of a handful of state AG’s and county clerks.
We make the case that there are no mortgages in MBS. Public official reactions – blank stares.
We tell people that their neighbors homes are being stolen – yawn.
We tell people to protect their IRAs, 401Ks – they shrug. Won’t happen to me.
If it’s not shock, normalcy bias, then something is in the water. Cause these reactions are just not normal.
Or, maybe collective compliance is the new normal. I dunno.
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12th January 2012 at 9:39 am
Drowning in Parasitism says:
“We’re telling Americans that financial firms that stole their pension money, their annuity funds are also stealing their house. In plain sight. With the tacit approval of our government.” – MM
The even bigger crime is fractional reserve banking. When one comprehends that these homes are being taken by institutionals that never even really loaned a penny of their own money attained through honest labor but rather from funny money created as a digital entry on some computer on the basis of someone’s deposit, the scope of the malfeasance is fully appreciated.
Diabolically brilliant are these timeless Money Masters who’ve had centuries to perfect their fine art of fleecing.
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12th January 2012 at 1:08 pm