4um: MAN BEATS BANK - And Creates Mortgage Banking MERS Bomb - Lost Paperwork Means Free Homes For Borrowers

Title: MAN BEATS BANK - And Creates Mortgage Banking MERS Bomb - Lost Paperwork Means Free Homes For Borrowers
Source: The Daily Bail
URL Source: http://dailybail.com/home/man-beats ... -banking-mers-bomb-lost-p.html
Published: Jan 24, 2011
Author: Unattributed
Post Date: 2011-01-24 20:13:21 by Original_Intent
Keywords: MERS, Bank, Fraud, Foreclosure
Views: 168
Comments: 4

Very interesting story, and not without ramifications for other states.

Walter Keane poses for a portrait at his office. Keane filed and recently won a lawsuit that resulted in several homeowners in Utah getting title to their property, even if they owed the full mortgage, all because of chaos introduced into the nation's property recording system by MERS.

The attorney for another man in Draper, Utah, says he has won two other cases this way, and another attorney in Utah got a default judgment giving title to borrowers who owed $417,000 on a home.

Utah Professor Chris Peterson weighs in on the significance of the rulings.

In Utah, missing paperwork means a lot; Borrowers gain title for free.

Sources

David Dayen at FDL

Salt Lake City Tribune

A Utah court case in which the owner of a Draper townhouse got clear title to the property, even though he still owed $132,000 on it, raises new legal and financial questions about a property-records database created by mortgage bankers.

The award of a title free of liens means that whoever owns the promissory note on the Draper property — likely a group of faraway investors — no longer has the right to foreclose to collect on a delinquent loan. Indeed, the townhouse owner has sold the property and kept the money. Those who own the promissory note probably don’t even know what occurred.

Decisions such as the one 3rd District Judge Glen Iwasaki handed down in the Draper case could have a big impact as the state wends its way through hundreds of lawsuits involving foreclosures, loans on properties for more than they’re worth and predatory lending practices that led Utahns to lose their homes as the real-estate bubble burst.

More from David Dayen...

This is all tied up with MERS, the online database that has stood in for the land records system in as many as 60% of the mortgages in America over the past decade or so. As we’ve seen, MERS is essentially a way for the largest banks to avoid recording fees, by naming them as the mortgagee on the original record and then transferring the mortgage and the note through their database. The problem is that MERS is named as an owner on loans in which it has no financial interest, and the judicial system doesn’t yet know how to manage that. This has confused the hell out of title insurance companies, who cannot determine who holds the note or even who can collect payments on it. As a result, in this case, the courts and the title company failed to figure any of that out, so they gave title back to the homeowner.

The attorney for the man in Draper, Utah, says he has won two other cases this way, and another attorney in Utah got a default judgment giving title to borrowers who owed $417,000 on a home.

The owners of the note could always go back and try to recoup this money, but as Christopher Peterson of the University of Utah says in the article, MERS calls into question their ability to succeed:

Under laws adopted by all 50 states, the owner of a “negotiable instrument” such as a promissory note must be in physical possession of the document, said Peterson. Otherwise it would be like someone trying to cash a photocopy of a check instead of the actual check.

“One cannot be a holder of a note unless one is in physical possession of that note,” he said.

But Peterson said evidence is coming out in courts that shows the actual promissory notes or mortgages signed by buyers were not transferred as the notes made their way into the mortgage-backed securities investment pools.

That could mean in these cases that no one is in a position to try to collect because the actual notes are lost or destroyed, potentially making some promissory notes investors think they hold worthless.

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Start watching at the 1-minute mark. Includes excellent testimony from foreclosure lawyer Thomas Cox, and Utah professor Dr. Chris Peterson. Detailed article on MERS inside.

Hearing took place Dec. 15, 2010.

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More detail on this clip is here, including a transcript...

Video: Congressional Testimony On MERS - Does It Have Legal Authority To Foreclose?

Here's some very interesting information that was leaked out last Friday concerning the CEO of MERS. Interesting to add that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are also included to be sued for their part in this scam. Fox News relayed this last week!

Zero Hedge quotes from a Wall Street Journal article claiming that R.K. Arnold, the CEO of MERS, will leave the company in a matter of days. MERS is the bank-funded electronic database that has been used to track millions of mortgage transactions. It has become the subject of lawsuits and scrutiny because it allows banks to avoid recording fees at county offices, because of the questionable assignment of mortgages tracked through the MERS system, and because of the legally suspect role of MERS as a mortgagee with the ability to foreclose on borrowers. The chief executive of the privately-held Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, or MERS, is planning to leave the company and an announcement could come within days, according to people familiar with the matter. The company has been under fire by Congress and state officials for its role in the mortgage-document crisis. The firm’s board of directors has met in recent days to address the fate of the company and its chief executive, R.K. Arnold, the people said. Arnold and other MERS executives didn’t respond to requests for comment. A MERS spokeswoman Friday declined comment. Arnold, a former U.S. Army Ranger, has served as the CEO and president of Merscorp Inc., the parent company of MERS, since 1998 and has been with the company since its inception 15 years ago, according to a corporate biography. I couldn’t actually find this article at the Wall Street Journal’s website, and it looks like they may have pulled the story. Interestingly, however, CNBC asked a spokesman for MERS to comment on the rumors, and they refused. The ouster of Arnold wouldn’t put an end to the troubles for MERS. Several states have ongoing court cases questioning MERS’ standing to foreclose. The legislature in Virginia may act to restrict MERS from operating in that state, although the banks are rallying not only to avoid that, but to change the state’s Uniform Commercial Code to retroactively fix the illegalities in the MERS recording process. Federal regulators are investigating MERS as well. And House Democrats have introduced a bill to cut off MERS’ association with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Since they’re basically the only ones doing securitization these days, I don’t know how MERS would be able to survive in that event.

My point of view can be summed up as screw MERS and SCREW the banks. It is their fraudulent practices have helped to crash the U.S. Economy. They are a bunch of criminals and I hope the home owners walk away free and clear with MERS and the Banksters left with the bag.