Image via WikipediaWells Fargo Won’t Settle Fannie/Freddie Put-Back Cases
By: David Dayen Wednesday January 19, 2011 2:01 pm
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Bank of America wound up with what many observers found to be a favorable settlement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over repurchase claims on mortgage backed securities where the bank violated clear representations of the product. But Wells Fargo continues to maintain that they’re the “good” bank in all of this. Despite clear evidence that Xee Moua, a Wells employee, robo-signed thousands of foreclosure affidavits, they have yet to acknowledge the error or suspend foreclosure operations. And despite clear evidence that they engaged in the same poor securitization processes as BofA and others, which led to the repurchase demands from the GSEs, they won’t settle the claims.
Wells Fargo & Co. won’t seek a settlement with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac on disputed mortgages, and terms offered to rival banks may not have been as generous as some portrayed, Chief Financial Officer Howard Atkins said.
“The quality of our securitizations was of a much higher caliber than all of the other large bank peers,” Atkins said today in an interview. “It doesn’t make sense for us to pay up to get rid of the remaining small amount of problems we have.”
This is just a falsehood. Wells has exactly the same problems as the other large banks, and virtually the same exposure. And ironically, Wells’ adamant stance may lead to an actual court case from the GSEs, which would expose them MORE than banks who took the settlement, and lead to a host of private claims from investors.
Incidentally, Wells Fargo was the servicer in the case of the family whose home I visited yesterday in North Portland. Connie and Michael Umphress sought a private modification from Wells as they were struggling to meet payments on their mortgage (though they remained current on the loan). Wells told them to skip a payment to qualify for a modification (not true), then strung the family along for 10 months with a trial modification, ruining their credit along the way, before rejecting them and demanding payment on the balance, or foreclosure. After the Wall Street Journal jumped on the story, all of a sudden Wells Fargo got very accommodating to the family, and helped negotiate a legitimate modification.
This activity mirrors pretty much every other servicer-driven default I’ve heard about. This notion that Wells is immune from all this is just laughable. Before long you’ll hear about Wells Fargo in cases like these:
Banks in recent weeks have been dropping hundreds of their Southwest Florida foreclosure lawsuits instead of facing defendants at trial, according to local attorneys and court records.
Opinions varied sharply on whether that means banks are just taking a breather before refiling with stronger evidence – or giving up for good on hopelessly flawed cases [...]
But eight voluntary dismissals were filed Tuesday alone by seven different banks including Bank of America, one of the largest filers of foreclosures in this area. Bank of America did not reply to a request for comment Tuesday.
At one court hearing alone, attorney Kevin Jursinski said, one of his associates watched as “50 in a row” were withdrawn.
“Can they re-litigate?” Fort Myers-based attorney Carmen Dellutri asked. “I don’t think so.”
This is highly unusual, by the way, and evidence that the banks have run into a brick wall with their fraudulent foreclosures and need to reassess their options.
And that includes Wells Fargo. This public front that they’re immune is just that, a front.
Tags: foreclosures, foreclosure fraud, loan modifications, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, repurchases, GSEs,
Wells Fargo Exec Admits Faulty Document Review, as Borrowers Get Wise to Foreclosure Fraud October 4, 2010
Connecticut Suspends All Foreclosures; BofA Close to Doing the Same October 1, 2010
Foreclosure Fraud Updates: Fannie and Freddie Plan to Penalize Banks, BofA Becomes Title Insurer October 12, 2010
Answering Marcy’s Question on Principal Reductions October 29, 2010
Foreclosure Fraud Issue Sizzles: Regulator Calls for Internal Review, Ohio SoS Refers Cases to Federal Prosecutor October 1, 2010
I think they’re paying a lot of money for bad legal advice. There is still a lot of information to come out in the open, the price of settlement will never be lower.
Boxturtle (Mr. Atkins, there’s a Mr. Reality here with some paperwork for you)
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lawgrace January 19th, 2011 at 10:31 pm
2
Since Wells Fargo (WF) is a PREDATOR, it has no greater function than to forge forward until its Titanic sinks with everyone aboard. According to the Super Future Equities lawsuit, LITIGATION –at the expense of Investors, associated with foreclosure frauds is exactly what Wells Fargo relishes. Mortgage-default insurance, as well as IRS credits after submitting fraudulent “acquisition” form 1099-A’s are standard methods of operation for this brazen company. The mere audacity of an entity attempting to challenge Wells Fargo seems to embolden WF to proudly flex its (for now) untouchable muscles. *Wells Fargo is so brazen that WF put WF’s name on 1099′s and falsifies that “acquisition” for homes that were NOT foreclosed on by Wells Fargo! To this date, it appears that no one has even bothered to look at the false 1099-A’s that WF has filed with the IRS.
****a few links:
*SUPER FUTURE EQUITIES v WELLS FARGO
@ http://www.bankruptcylawnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/super-future-v-wells-fargo-et-al-complaint.pdf*Foreclosure Frauds, Wells Fargo-the Fox in Charge @ http://bit.ly/bWpQCj
*LEHMAN BROTHERS; Foreclosure Fraud, Conspiracy, Wells Fargo; Deceptive Judicial Filings @ http://bit.ly/e2fYoE
*Open Letter to President Obama on Foreclosure Crisis (re: Wells Fargo) @ http://bit.ly/cyGXs0
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lawgrace January 19th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
3
ADDITIONALLY, see the story of Wells Fargo’s despicable foreclosure fraud, criminal participation involving a non-enforceable debt due to Wells Fargo –under pretext of being the mortgage servicer– deliberately preparing a NULL home loan modification contract in the name of a SHAM LENDER:
Foreclosure Fraud Assault -A Cry For Help by Alan Gray http://bit.ly/9KVcNw
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eCAHNomics January 20th, 2011 at 6:09 pm
4
Of course Wells Fargo, nor any other MOTU will settle. They know if the laughingly-referred-to-as-U.S.-legal-system comes close to ‘getting’ them, the prez will bail them out.
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SueDe January 20th, 2011 at 8:18 pm
5
The Justice Department needs to start initiating fraud suits before congress starts passing laws that legalize every fraudulent act banks have engaged in. Because when congress does that – and you know they will – the defrauded homeowners will be flat out of recourse. Get those lawsuits filed soon boys, whether civil or criminal, individual or class action, and hope congress’s “get out of jail free” act won’t be retroactive.
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oldtree January 20th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
6
If you aren’t aware, Wells Fargo creates their own rules for securitization. They do not correspond with REMIC or NY trust law, and they can not be shown in the light of day. They don’t even bother to go through half the motions that the other companies claim they comply with, and now we know they don’t comply either.
If you look closely at your documents from Wells Fargo generated from 2000 to 2008, you may find fundamental problems with several things. They do direct to securitization believing that if they say it is ok, it is. By doing so, there is some reason to believe that the parties they sell the paper to are aware and complicit, as they appear to be involved with the creation of a deed of trust that is known to all to be void.
Look closely at your Deed of Trust. Wells Fargo has a habit that is going to bite them very soon. They made up fictitious trustees that were recorded. In many states this will make same deed of trust void.
LOAN MODIFICATIONS: a criminal act if the party has no ownership. Please realize loan mods are acts of crime. If you still feel you must make a deal before the housing market has collapsed and your value will again be 20% less than what it was when you modified, AT LEAST, take an attorney with you. When you realize they won’t deal with you if you have an attorney, does that tell you anything at long last?
disclosure, I work in dirt law and am not an attorney. The shit being fed to us is GMO shit. It is vaporshit, fantasylandshit.
Please do not believe anything the people and banks say? Why would they tell anyone the truth when they are insolvent, being propped up daily by government infusions of money, and more and more people are challenging them by filing quiet title to make them prove their claims. They can not prove their claims. Your best defense is a QT offense, use it. It is a hundreds of years old property standard to prevent what they are trying to do to you. It is a form that you can get at your county. Bring them to court to explain the dots they can’t connect. They have to prove their claims. You don’t.
Don’t be surprised if the banks believe you have the plague after you file to quiet title. They don’t want the plague that you can give them, and spread, disseminate, vaporize and go viral to every middlesex village and town. You can crush them and stop this, one by one.
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Cynthia Kouril January 21st, 2011 at 6:09 am
According to comments made by judes at frums I have attended Wells has the WORST documentation of all the banks.
So, they are just bluffing. However, Fannie and Freddie usually have their hands tied by Treasury which of course is completely in the tank for the worst of the worst in banking, so……
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