CBS 60 minutes exposes bank fraud on massive scale:

[jimlup]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/01/60minutes/mai...

Why have we not tar and feathered these people and run them the hell out. This must end. The time to take matters into our own hands (the people's) has long passed. Time to act folks. We need to force the banks to stop ALL foreclosures and if the law won't do it we need to take out the banks. How? I can certainly think of some creative solutions - all of them legal.

[elleng]

1. Its beyond time.

'Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chair Sheila Bair tells Scott Pelley banks should be forced to contribute billions to a clean-up fund that will help stressed homeowners stay in their homes and stave off lawsuits - there are 30,000 already - that threaten the

economic rebound. Pelley's report on this latest chapter in the incredible mortgage meltdown story will be broadcast on "60 Minutes" Sunday, April 3 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.'

Good for Sheila Bair.

[jwirr]

31. Robber barons. These banks made their billions off of the people

and it is now time to give it back. Enough. Wonder how they would like to have crowds like the ones in WI standing in front of their banks all across the US? One thing for sure these monopolies need to be broken up until they are no longer too big to fail. We want to localize our economy again and this is a good place to start.

[RedCloud]

37. Who said, "If you want to get rich, don't rob the bank,. Own the bank."

I think I am paraphrasing Al Capone.

[jwirr]

38. LOL

[Dokkie]

59. Just standing?

How about we start storming the banks and taking what is ours? They got trillions and trillions of dollars ofr our money in fed and US treasury bailout and inexchange sold off their toxic asset to us. When is enough every going to be enough. The govt is unresponsive to the complaints of its citizens.

If I ever find myself with a mob in front of one these wall street banks, I can assure you that I wont be just standing outside. Not even sure what I will do but am not the just stand and see what happens type of guy

[jwirr]

61. Just standing because in this country the law would call storming

the banks and taking what is ours bank robbery.

[girl gone mad]

62. That would amount to another slap on the wrist for the banks.

No one should accept bribes from the FDIC so the banks can get away with fraud, again.

[Riley18]

2. It would be nice if the banks were made to act responsibly.

[robinlynne]

8. nationalize them. That is how to fix this.

[roxiejules]

51. The real story is that LPS is owned by Fidelity (as in Title Co.)

Too bad CBS didn't mention that little fact.

The company allegedly issuing the documents with "Linda Green's" signauture is part of the Fidelity National Financial brand. The same company that you buy Title Insurance from. Get the connection?

http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/070308/bus_29...

http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/102306/bus_56...


"Fidelity National Information Services Inc. completes the spin-off of its mortgage processing services division today into a separate public company called Lender Processing Services Inc., or LPS. Fidelity National Information Services, or FIS, was itself spun off from Fidelity National Financial Inc. in 2006"


Lender Processing Services, Inc.

http://www.lpsvcs.com/AboutUs/Pages/CompanyTimeline.asp...

[Canuckistanian]

3. Eric Holdingpattern will do nothing

Only legal medical marijuana growers have reason to fear arrest from THIS DOJ.

[truedelphi]

46. So very true, and so very sad.

Last few months under Gov Ahnold, and California dispensaries of medical marijuana had nothing to fear.

Ahnold leaves, I guess taking his desire to legalize marijuana with him, and all of a sudden the medical marijuana dispensaries are under attack.

[Fuzz]

4. It is almost unbelievable.

[EFerrari]

6. When I told Thom Hartmann one of these stories about a year and a half ago

I don't think he believed me. They got my mom early in the whole stick up and I didn't really blame Thom. *I* could hardly believe it and I saw all the paper.

[Loge23]

5. Not a thing will be done about it.

The banks didn't comment for this report - they don't have to.
They know it as well as we do.
For all the fraud committed by these thugs, only their less fortunate victims will pay.

[jimlup]

7. Unless WE do it!

What if everyone deposited exactly $ 0.02 on May 1st in every major bank which you use. Do it in the most complex way possible making the most possible work for them. It is a little thing now but at least it is something.

I support the any No Foreclosure action that I am aware of. We need a national movement supporting those being foreclosed. Any ideas anyone?

[BobbyBoring]

24. Why deposit money?

If everyone here withdrew ALL their money from B of A, Shitty Bank, Chase, etc, it would have a better chance of doing something~

[Kokonoe]

47. We did and got a bank bailout.

But we must not give up.

[lark]

54. I did that 20 years ago

I had had it with the stupid banks cheating me all the time and their callous attitudes about it. I went to a credit union and they are so much more sane. They never threw out the lending rules in the pursuit of bigger profits and so didn't have the meltdowns that the big shark banks did.

I have never once regretted my decision and it reduced so much totally unnecessary stress from my life.

[lark]

55. Easy - ask them to produce the title showing they own the mgt.

A great deal of the time, they can't produce this, so there can be no trial as they lack the standing to file suit.

[progressoid]

10. Yep - the system is rigged in their favor. nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

11. +1

[russspeakeasy]

39. They will get more fed money, pass around the bonus bowl

and start the cycle all over again.. Eric Holder is a loser.

[sad sally]

40. Wouldn't doubt for a minute this scenario.

Almost choked when Shelia Bair said the banks should set up a fund to buy off the homeowners that it would just be simpler (yeah, right Shelia, these folks don't really want to stay in their HOMES - they'd rather rent them from the investors who are swooping them up for chump change from the benevolent bankers.) Why didn't she say, along with the DOJ, we'll aggressively pursue the criminal activity the banks pursued in forging legal documents? Oh, right, the $10 an hour "Linda Smith bank presidents" will probably be the sought after criminals.

[rhett o rick]

9. It would be nice if we had a DOJ that was on our side. Time for a change. nm

[bobbolink]

16. If you are sure to vote in 2012, I'm convinced you will get your wish.

[rhett o rick]

32. Do you think Pres Obama will be more progressive in his second term? nm

[bobbolink]

33. I have no idea why you ask that. There certainly isn't much "hope" for that, is there?

Was this a trick question?

[rhett o rick]

65. There isnt much hope one way or the other unless Pres Obama makes a drastic change.

I am torn between playing the game and rebelling. You tell me that Pres Obama will be more than the corporatists he has been and maybe I will listen. Otherwise, I want to fight. I want civil disobedience. I want to shut down Bank against America and G fucking E.

How long can we play the game of voting corporatist A vs. Corporatist B.

[bobbolink]

66. I said nothing of the kind. I haven't much use for Obama, for which I get vilified.

But, have at it.... This is Criticism Underground.

[rhett o rick]

67. Maybe I misunderstood. You said we need to be sure and vote.

But voting isnt worth much if both candidates represent CorpAmerica.

[bobbolink]

69. I thought it was so obvious that a sarcasm tag wasn't necessary.

Pardon the omission:



I was just aping all the silly admonitions. Those of us who have been totally ignored now get to be lectured to and threatened. Like that is going to change anything.

I'd like to have a video camera and follow the GOTV from house to house, threatening people. LIke that is going to work......

[rhett o rick]

70. Shame on you for trying to use sarcasm on the simple minded.

Actually, I have a huge chip on my shoulder and it sometimes blinds me to such. I seem to be looking for a fight and your "unmarked" sarcasm is only baiting me on. I think we are on the same page damnit.

[bobbolink]

71. Well fuck that shit. How DARE you be on *my* page, dammit!

[rhett o rick]

72. What's "My Page"? Is that like My Space Book or Face Page or one of them

newfangled soc media things I been hearing about?

[TacticalPeek]

12. The MSM is willing to cover practices that banks have been forced to admit they engage in . . .

. . . The MSM is willing to cover practices that banks have been forced to admit they engage in and they claim to be cleaning up. This is helpful in terms of public outrage, as in validating the charges made on specialist blogs for blogs for more than two years, but is still far from the hot button issues now, such as servicer-driven fraud or chain of title problems.

One aspect that is distressing is that per her remarks in this clip, Sheila Bair does not appear to understand or worse, understands but is not willing to admit the seriousness of the chain of title issues. Often, the banks botched the transfer process in such a fundamental manner that retroactive fixes are not possible. This isn’t a matter of “if the banks spend enough time, they can prove the trust they are acting for owns the note” as Bair contends. It’s that in many cases the note didn’t get to the trust as stipulated, and the trust doesn’t have the ability under New York law, which governs virtually all of these trusts, to accept it now. A party earlier in the securitization chain is typically the owner, but no one wants that party to foreclose, since it would confirm the failure to handle the assignment of the note properly.

Yves Smith

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/04/60-minutes-on-mo...

Sheila Bair's term is up in June, iirc.

I remember when I would have felt good that a D prez was appointing her replacement for a five year hitch. Good times.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

18. I was very taken aback by Ms. Sheila

She made very poor eye contact with Scott Pelley and kinda giggled her way through the seriousness of his questioning. What the....? I never heard of her before.

[lovuian]

27. where the HELL is the Department of JUSTICE!!!

this is so wrong!!!

[Travelman]

57. Nowhere to be found, apparently.

I am just agape at the sheer naked corruption of it all.

[girl gone mad]

63. They've got their hands full..

with the real menaces to society. You know.. medical marijuana patients and whistleblowers and whatnot.

[underpants]

13. I missed that last night

Marking for later read

[jimlup]

15. Here is the video link:

Video:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7361572n

It wasn't available yet when I made the initial post. Definitely good reporting. CBS seems to sometimes be the one exception to the rule about mainstream reporting (I'm excluding MSNBC which is considered a counter pole to FAUX though actually it is much more legit than they are).

[kimsarah]

14. Heck

We can't even find our 2nd-term wannabe a comfortable pair of shoes, let alone look in the past at any wrongdoings. It's all about looking forward.

[fascisthunter]

17. Unfortunately all the folks who should do something are corporate friendly shills

[jimlup]

19. Maybe not! We do have power if we can organize against them...

Think about Tom Hartman's post about the real Boston Tea Party two hundred of years ago. We just need to be creative and willing to risk it. If we are careful - and that is possible - we could scare the hell out of them. I don't know if we could actually take them down but we could scare the hell out of them.

Look, they actually hire smart guys (math Ph.D's and stuff) who sit around and think of ways to skim more money from us. I know this because I colleagues son does this as their job and they make a very good living at it. We can play the game too but only if we organize.

I'm sure the idea of making a phony company in Georgia to have people sit around and sign bank mortgage documents with false names came from some big head in the corporate office. They made damn sure not to leave a trail. Hopefully the media will stay on the case but we can't count on it. Look, they defraud us. Why should we just take it? Really why? Or are you guys not mad enough yet?

[fascisthunter]

20. I'm Down for the Fight

[jimlup]

21. +1

Me too. I wasn't two years ago but now they've taken enough from me that my anger has reached the boiling point.

[bobbolink]

45. Gee, I thought it wasn't OK on DU to feel anger.

Maybe that is just for some groups, but not others.

Sometimes a good, healthy rage is.... healthy.

[Le Taz Hot]

22. Now, now.

We only look forward, not backward.

[jimlup]

23. I am Linda Green!

We should all start going by the name of Linda Green to our banks. She is the name that they picked while forging mortgage documents. I mean really, is this being investigated by the attorney general's office? I mean this is major league fraud committed by the banks. Let's hold their feet to the fire god damn it!

[Le Taz Hot]

25. The only thing being investigated by the

Attorney Generals' office is medical marijuana growers and dispensaries in states where MM is legal. They do have their priorities don't 'cha know?

[WhoWantsToBeOccupied]

26. Banks will pay speeding ticket fine for committing financial murder

The 60 Minutes piece said all 50 state Attorneys General are pursuing this and want $40 billion in damages.

While I'm glad they're pursuing this, and $40 billion is hardly chump change (for us 99%ers, at least), it is chump change for the banks, a rounding error relative to the scale of the intentional fraud (which even Sheila Bair admitted to 60 Minutes was "pervasive"). AGs will give banks a get-out-of-jail-almost-free card.

Nothing will change until bankers and mortgage fraudsters go to jail and financial punishments equal or exceed the magnitude of the ill-gotten gains.

I don't see either of these happening. The way things work in DC, banks buy their Congressmen and their President and then those banks browbeat and negotiate with the legislators and regulators they empowered (many of whom are their own former employees!). That's why it's STATE attorneys general and not Congress or the President doing anything about this.

Banks will undoubtedly apply enough pressure that whatever penalties they accept will be cosmetic relative to the damage they've done to the U.S. and world economies and pension funds everywhere.

The AGs will get a settlement and pat one another's backs for "winning," but the bankers will cackle in private, knowing they paid a speeding ticket fine for committing financial murder.

[jimlup]

28. Yeah, they probably folded this into the calculation when they decided to do it.

Which is why we need real national leadership not the wimpy kiss ups to the banks that we have. Sorry Barack but it's true.

[loudsue]

35. North Carolina has become a big banking state...Charlotte, NC. Our legislature

has been bought and paid for by the banks. This last election, for the first time in over 100 years, we now have republican controlled house AND senate. Our Democratic governor SUCKS, and the guy who ran against her, and who will run against her again, is from Charlotte. This time, he'll win hands down. The banking and insurance and pharmaceutical industries have got to be stopped.

[lonestarnot]

29. "I can certainly think of some creative solutions - all of them legal. "

So spill...

[raouldukelives]

30. But we'll keep investing and banking with them

Why let a little fraud against your fellow man stand in the way of some extra change in the nest egg.

[Fearless]

34. Absolutely unacceptable!

[Mark D.]

36. The Banks Are Robbing Us

[ljm2002]

41. What if everyone with an active mortgage...

...did a "produce the note" action? I'm not suggesting not paying one's mortgage -- what I suggest is that, everyone with a mortgage who is paying it, do a "produce the note" on their bank and at the same time start paying their mortgage payments into an escrow account, until the proper note is produced.

Well it's a thought. I'd hesitate to do it as a single homeowner, but if there was a concerted action I would definitely do it. Seems like it would gum up the works real good, and of course as a side benefit it would force the issue of the chain of title which seems to be pretty FUBAR these days for most of our homes.

One wonders, also, how the Title Companies can possibly be earning the $$$ they get every time there is a real estate transaction? Given that a huge percentage of homes do not have clear titles based on the state requirements for a clear owner of the note? Just another little side note to the whole sorry state of affairs.

[Politicalboi]

48. I think that would be a great idea

Make them show the papers. If some attorney would put up a commercial like they do with recalled medicine I think a lot of people would give it a try. I think the banks would shit if they got thousands and thousands of requests that they cannot produce. Somethings got to be done.

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

42. Florida Judges are PO'd

A little good news.

Foreclosure crisis: Fed-up judges dismissing cases, giving homes back to homeowners, and boldly accusing bank lawyers of “fraud upon the court.”
Posted by Real News Reporter on April 3rd, 2011

Angry and exasperated by faulty foreclosure documents, judges throughout Florida are hitting back by increasingly dismissing cases and boldly accusing lawyers of “fraud upon the court.”

(snip)

In February, Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Maxine Cohen Lando took one of the largest foreclosure law firms in the state to task in a public hearing meant to send a message. She called Marc A. Ben-Ezra, founding partner of Ben-Ezra & Katz P.A., before her to explain discrepancies in a case handled by an attorney in his Fort Lauderdale-based firm.

“This case should have never been filed,” said Lando, who referred to the firm’s work on the case as “shoddy” and “grossly incompetent.” She called Ben-Ezra a “robot” who filed whatever the banks sent him, and held him in contempt of court. She then gave the homeowner the home – free and clear – and barred the lender from refiling the foreclosure.

Attorney Maria Mussari, who represents the homeowner, said she wasn’t surprised.

http://www.realnewsreporter.com/?p=1995

[JDPriestly]

43. In the portion I heard, there was no comment on the fact

that mortgages were sold to people without requiring the mandatory supporting documentation. That was the most obvious fraud I am aware of.

Face it. An ordinary couple with no experience goes to see a real estate agent. Maybe they just pass a nice "open house," walk in and get a sales pitch. The agent asks them a few questions, jots down the information and then says, "According to my preliminary calculations, you qualify for . . . ."

An honest mortgage broker demand documents. And if everyone from the employer on up are honest, the documents will reflect the hopeful homebuyer's true capacity to pay a loan.

But, during the mortgage crisis, that system broke down. Brokers did not demand to see documents, encouraged buyers to lie about who would live in the house and how much the people living there earned. To top it off, in some cases, brokers sold loans to people knowing that the people were not creditworthy and could never pay off the house.

In addition, real estate agents and mortgage brokers reassured homeowners who were knowingly getting in over their heads with the promise that a refinance would be available if the mortgage rate rose. Ordinary people should know more about money, banking and finance. But they don't.

Our financial crisis is due to a tsunami of fraud. We are not going to get it cleaned up until we are honest that the fraud has destroyed the core of our system. Shows like 60 Minutes need to show how a lie by one lone little real estate agent or mortgage broker became part of a mechanism that was exploited for profit at the very, very top of the government of our country -- to transfer wealth to the rich from the middle class. But, of course, what sponsor would pay to put such a program on TV?

[Locrian]

44. sounds like misdirection....

Did the talk about CDO's and Securitization? If not, then they're just focusing on where the "juice" came for the gambling done at the HIGHEST levels.

WO Securitization (Glass Steagall anyone?) AND CDO's none of this would have ammounted to 1/100000 of what we had.

Matt Taibbi's "GRIFTOPIA" should be REQUIRED reading. It lays bare in all the ugly details precisely what went down.

[girl gone mad]

64. I agree..

why did they not cover the REASON that the banks didn't want to assign ownership to these mortgages?

Hello... doing so would have hindered their ability to bundle the CMOs into tranches rated AAA, AA, etc.

60 Minutes made it seem as if the banks were just being lazy or cutting corners, when in fact they were actively breaking the law in order to make more money. There's a name for this type of behavior and even a special place the people who engage in it get to live.

[Blue Owl]

49. Ever wonder what's it like to commit financial homicide?

Must be something like this.

[indimuse]

50. People are committing suicide and losing everything because of the criminals..

and you'd think a Democratic president would shut'm down..STOP the Madness.NO. Homeowners get arrested!
What the hell IS going on in this country? (breath..)

[felix_numinous]

52. Cleaning up corruption would be a perfect Democratic platform

-especially if they meant it. Imagine the landslide.

[lark]

56. It would just be another lie

like alll the other lies that we were sold on to make us be thrilled with candidate Obama. Al Franken is the only politician I trust - the rest are corproate teat sucking scum bags who don't give a damn about the working class in this country.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

53. K&R

[colsohlibgal]

58. We Have Been Robbed Blind

Good for "60 minutes". Must watch video - "Inside Job" and the PBS Frontline show "The Warning" - you can watch it at the PBS site.

[libmom74]

60. nt

http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/

[L0oniX]

68. ...and some of them are in Obama's admin.