If these type suits are upheld, to whom are the financial proceeds disbursed? I would hope it is the foreclosed homeowner, but nowhere does it say this.

Not so fast!!! My daughter Lesley is a Home Mortgage Consultant with Wells Fargo who stands

by what they did. At the time either former president Clinton or GWB wanted homes to sell

because of the bad economy and were pushing home sales.. People are looking for somebody to blame Lesley does a bang up

job and more bang for the buck, but the buck stops with the President of the United States.

I agree with below comment another AG trying to make a name for himself.

These lawsuits will accomplish nothing but to spend additional taxpayer money. If there was someone foreclosed upon without justification due to the robosigning, I may be persuaded to support a lawsuit. I have yet to see one claim that this ever happened.

You may want to check with your daughter, Lesley Kunz who works at Wells Fargo in the Home Mortgage Consultant department to see if her identity has been stolen yet. You post your full name and then her name and occupation? WOW! You banker appologists are morons!

Ohhh Phyllis letting your daughter dictate law ?

Did they have each and every title, did they actually sign the foreclosure forms, as stated by law ? If so, the Wells Fargo should have nothing to worry about, if not your daughter doesn't know what she is talking about. No gray area, either they did it right or they didn't.

I have read enough stories about all the scum suckers foreclosing on the wrong home or person to know they are clueless, just like the CEO interviewed. The problem is the actual titles have passed so many hands, no one knows where they are. So the banks, who screwed it up to begin with, are taking shortcuts, hoping no one will notice, and now they are screwed. It's an easy case, produce a title for every foreclosure. Either they have them of they don't.

No one in their right mind takes on the banks, the kings of the world, without having some pretty damn good evidence. Falling flat on your face might get you in the headlines, but it's certain not 'making a name for yourself'.

I deal with Wells Fargo and had a parent pass away who owed on a mortgage, they can't even get their act together on a foreclosure that should happen. They never have any information, one departments computer system doesn't talk to anthers, they can't get anything straight yet the changed the locks and caused the electric bill to go up200%. When I finally got the right department after 30 phone calls I was informed that they couldn't change the locks cause they hadn't start proceedings yet. I forced them to call the other department while I was on the phone and listened to them argue among them selves about it and finally the reclamation managers got back to me to let me know that they had illegally changed the locks and don't know what to do about the electric bill and he will have to cal me back on Friday. My dad passed away last November and I have kept a log of calls at this point in time I am up to 367 phone calls know every name of every agent in the line of credit dept in Florida and Mortgage dept in Portland and they still can't get any thing done. So don't tell me what a bang up job the Well Fargo is doing. they aren't to big to fail they are to big to succeed, its a nightmare and there isn't one person I have talked to that gives a rats tail about the customer. So stop with the excuses and forcethe banks to do their jobs follow the law or put them out of business and let a regional or credit union take over the business and give the business back to George Bailey and stop supporting Mr. Potter

Phyllis no one is saying your daughter knew what was going on, but the facts speak for themselves,I hope these banks get the crap sued out of them I would not care if they collapsed new ones will arise and hopefully be honest in their operation,We will be watching.I now Bushy had every thing to do with it to bad he can't be brought up on charges with his crony's

Phyllis Kunz... so how many mortgages did your daughter approve (all the while knowing that the people could not afford the house they were buying) to get the commissions. WJC and GWB were not the people selling the houses. If she still works for Wells Fargo, I wouldn't expect her to say anything that didn't parrot the company line, since she wants to continue to be one the employed. Money does that.

Please suit the stolen millions out of their coffers!

Go get themMartha!! As a Massachusetts citizen, I am very proud of AG Martha Coakley for not going with the other states that are caving in to the big banks. I hope she sends them through the ringer and regardless of $ amount, a precedent will be formed to give teeth to any other crooked practices that need to be prosecuted. I just wish other states had the rocks to stand up to these thieves who have ruined the lives of millions of Americans and put so many people into homelessness.

This is what Gov looks like when it works!!!!!

Im sure Lesley does stand by what they did, she is an employee.

And in the mean time, all of you who still have money in these banks???...stop supporting them! Move your accounts out to local credit unions! You'll be glad you did!

Banks should indeed be held to account for any violations of the laws. And how do they compensate homeowners that had homes taken away improperly - will they get part of the 'settlement' money, or will the States simply keep it?

If I was a homeowner that was taken advantage of, I would be tempted to file my own lawsuit, since the State AG may not necessarily have my best interests in mind.

This is going to get REALLY complicated.

JPSOTW I actually feel pity for you. If the banks knew what they were doing they wouldn't be in this situation. A payment on a credit card is delayed a day by mail percentage rate goes up to 37% Realize who you are supporting here. In my case I agree the bank should be able to foreclose it's been a year and they haven't because they cant get there act together. Not even talking about the fact that they gave an 80 year old man a 30 year mortgage for 90% of the value of his home. Think there intention washe was goingto pay it off when he was 110 or were they planning on taking away from his estate and making a fortune on it .

CG-636486-

Thanks for proving my point so quickly.

JPSOTW

That is a double edged sword. What about the mortgage lenders who were 'steering' people into these bigger houses, and showing them all the 'bank-created' finance tools that they could use to pay for these, like ARMs?

Now, I have asked many times in letters to the editor, etc. about a breakdown of the fore-closed homes. The info I am looking for is price of house, median for neighborhood, reason for fore-closure. Since you seem to know so much, maybe you could provide me with this info?

I think that the reason you provide for the fore-closure crisis is nothing more than the kool-aid given by the very big banks. When all else fails, blame the little guy! Works everytime because the little guy does not have the money to sue the pants of you!

Only the actual note can be used in foreclosure not a copy if they don't have the actual note a copy will not make transaction legal. Those people should gets homes back free of charge fraud was used to take them. Owners of banks should all go to jail for fraud do not pass go. And no get out of jail free card. But they will try to change or bend the law SORRY THE LAW IS FOR EVERYONE OF US FOLKS EVEN CROOKED BANKERS LAST I HEARD.

JPSOTW,

Not everyone was a deadbeat. Many were in the process of refinancing and were given the run around to save their homes. There were literally thousands of people that sent in paperwork to save their homes, and that "paperwork" was lost, not just once, or twice, but some had sent the same paperwork every week, because it was "never" received.

Stop thinking everyone who was foreclosed on was a deadbeat. The banks didn't give people chances, they ignored paperwork, and refused to their jobs. Maybe if you read a little bit more, like how banks foreclosed on people who had a year's payment left (ILLEGAL BY THE WAY), on people who paid off their mortgages, and people who were never informed that they were being foreclosed on, only told that their refinancing was being worked out, or even those whose refinancing was worked out, but were still foreclosed on, you would stop making ignorant, uninformed comments.

Bottom line, its people like YOU that are ruining the country, not those who have worked their butts off to do everything within their power to save their homes, and banks foreclosed on, illegally, and completely devoid of ethics when it came to REVIEWING paperwork, which was THEIR JOB!

Marilyn-276797

And in the mean time, all of you who still have money in these banks???...stop supporting them! Move your accounts out to local credit unions! You'll be glad you did!

Just a note because some people don't realize it. While I do prefer credit unions to banks, I do hope people realize they are working under different tax regulations than banks do. Credit Unions originally were created for people having a common interest, e.g. employer, and were for the purpose of being able to provide that group with a resource for loans and other "banking" services they might not otherwise be able to enjoy. Because of that, the IRS cut credit unions a break and made them tax exempt in the 1930's. However, these days credit unions are no longer restricted as to what their pool of customers is. Yet unlike mutual savings & loans which lost their tax exempt status in 1952, credit unions still do not pay Federal Tax, often no state tax, and in some cases no property taxes.

So, by all means people can be anti big bank, but in all fairness, credit unions should these days be playing on a level field and have the same tax exposure banks do.

JP you have a strange view of your point. My Dad passed away, when he died he was up top date on his mortgage, and we called the bank immediately to tell them the estate was only able to pay 3 months of his mortgage afterhe died which was taking up 70% of his Social Security so be careful who you call a deadbeat you piece of trash, the fact is they are to big to handle closing down the business quickly and efficiently because they sat back with the wrong idea that the housing market would never go down so they had nothing to lose. It took 4 months after the last payment ansd 48 phone calls 12 registered letters for them to even respond to the estate at which time they wouldn't allow even a short sale because the house was only worth 60% of what they loaned out. So according to you the only people that should suffer for bad business decisions are the every day person you will protect the god almighty bank to the end they should never have to pay for their bad decisions or there criminal acts and yes it was criminal based on the amount they loaned in relation to his income the value of the house they knew what they were doing I hope that you find your self in a situation where you are counting on one of these institution to (not do the right thing I am not that sophomoric) to do their jobs and be accountable for their decisions because if you are your post will read very differently and you will be very very alone just you and your tea bag

It's about damn time somebody took notice it won't help me but might help others. The banks involved used the federal privacy act to help them violate the land transfer laws of Iowa. Wish that AG would get off his duff. Three years of us telling them they couldn't talk to my mother because she was dead and their refusal to talk to the person who did receive the land by Iowa law. Their refusal to cash checks they were sent because they weren't right to the penny but refusing to tell us exactly what was owed because none of us were the dead person even though we sent 4 copies of the death certificate. So since you crooks have taken everything you can from me what money I owe banks get it from the bank that ended up with the 17 acres and 5 bedroom house because I refuse to talk to you just like you refused to talk to me.

JP one more thing about the person you so easily called a dead beat the reason he took the mortgage is because his wife has altziemer's and it was the only way he could pay for her care so put your brain in gear next time you engage you mouth or stuff your foot into it

Two years TWO I've been in loan modification with Wells Fargo and for two years it's been nothing but we need more paperwork, we need this resubmitted, and absolutely nothing. They told us not to pay until we were approved for modification, after three months non payment we're in foreclosure even though we're not in "active" foreclosure. I'm not a deadbeat, my husband lost his job. And before you assume I'm some stay at home housewife refusing to get a job, I work over 80 hours a week, and still clean houses on the weekends to make up for his lost income while he does odd jobs for people as a handyman.

Now I'm trying to pay off the mortgage and I can't even get them to tell me where to submit the money without connecting me to four different departments and numerou speople.

Absolute idiots. Incompetent idiots. That entire bank is a sham.

I had a mortgage with the Fargo (not by choice-it was sold to them like I was cattle). I paid off my house, closed my zero balance line of credit, and then thought I was going to have to tackle and beat up someone at WF to get them to take the lien off the house

Phyllis Kunz: your daughter and Wells Fargo are wrong. Consider the possibility; both sides can't be right. Many people stood by the Nazi's, too, claiming they were right... I'm just sayin'...

Wells Fargo is the devil but I do feel sorry for some of the people that work there. As I have been dealing with them for a year some want to help but Wells Fargo refuses to let them once you get to know some of them they readily admit that the bank is a mess and they can't get anything done and their hands are tied. For those that want them off the phone just tell them your taping the conversation they hang up immediately think there is a reason they don't want to be recorded hmmmmmmmmmmmm

By far and away the largest percentage of people who were the victims of home foreclosure were good, hard working folks, who unknowingly got caught up in one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated upon the American public. Those who argue otherwise may as well be howling at phantoms. Additionally, this unholy racket of unbridled greed shot the job market through the wall of hells south side, resulting in the unemployment of millions. This needs to be fixed, and fixed now! I applaud Attorney General Coakleys efforts here. If there is a national settlement, it must be at the benefit of those victims. Anything short of this only adds to the criminality of the whole goddamn felonious enterprise.

When I refinanced my home in 2005, Wells Fargo staff handed me the stack of papers to sign and they were for a variable interest rate over 30 years. From day 1 of discussions they knew I was interested in nothing but a fixed rate over 20 years. There were no problems with my credit etc. As soon as I glanced at those papers I realized the error and told them, no, this is not what I want and am not signing. Within a minute or two they had the "right" paperwork with the fixed rate and 20 years that we agreed. Their excuse? The computer automatically creates a variable rate set of papers (and at 30 yrs). Somehow a set with the variable rate was "accidentally" printed. WTH? I should have walked away. If I'd known that basically the whole company was corrupt, I would have gone elsewhere or waited to refinance. Now I wonder how many unsuspecting people have been screwed in the last 6 years because of their practices. And how many other companies try to take advantage in the same ways?

STOP,......First of all, this is not a civil matter, it is a criminal matter, falsifying signatures, filing false and altered documents, foreclosing on properties one does not hold title to, ect., ect., are all criminal acts.

A bank robber cannot negotiate a monetary settlement for his crime, neither should a people robber be able to negotiate away their crime .... Put them all in prison and make them pay restitution to their victims until they die

Suing the banks sounds great up front, but where is the money going to come from? Let me take a wild guess, can you spell taxpayers?The FED is giving the banks $7.7 Trillion to bail out the economy world wide. I think prison time for management would be more appropriate, that way bank profits can't be used to bail their sorry A$$es out. In addition forfeit their personal gains.

Phillalama, quoting you, "You post your name and your daugther's name WOW you bank

appologists are morons.". back at you phillalama and quoting from the

Louisville Courier Journal "A long time ago a man named Jesus (real name) said whoever calls another

a moron is in danger of hell"fire" something like that. Maybe idoit is correct but anything I do not take

you seriously because Phillylama is not your real name. Phyllis Kunz

Each one of these banks they have listed pay about 0.01 to 0.02% interest on any standard savings account! But charge 10 to 20% or more for loans! Sue the pants off of them! CREDIT UNIONS, PEOPLE! They pay dividends!

How are the states damaged that they think they can sue? Just wondering.

Those that complain about the banks saying they did not get loan modification paperwork they sent or that they lost it only have themselves to blame. Whenever you are dealing with paperwork this important you should always send it registered mail, return receipt. That way you have proof they got it and who signed for it. It is impossible at that point for them to deny receipt. This gives you a strong case if you wind up in court on a foreclosure case to say that they are acting improperly. To simply put a stamp on something and send it is not adequate to protect your interest.

sue the bastards;

their agents caused this entire meltdown; phony income, inflated home values, big commissions for lenders, no control over the paper work; hell no one knows who now holds the paper, it has been sold so many times, all you can deal with is the servicing agency, not the real mortgage holder.

after Katrina when the SBA, and FHA were refinancing , it was taking months to get the liens removed, even after the government paid off the mortgage holder, they could not find the damn paper work .

@ Phyllis Kunz:

Your comment/post is so incredibly idiotic I'm not even going to waste my time trying to rebut it as I'm quite sure you don't have the mental capacity to absorb and understand why...

People we need to wake up!! All of these banks are doing the same thing. If you know anything about how Mortgages are bought & sold then you would have a good idea of what it going on.

This is what happened to me. We got a mortgage through countrywide. I had a great job making $24 per hr & unlimited over time. I worked for almost a yr & saved up money to put a down payment on the home. I as a first time buyer & financial account thought I was doing good. We pick out our house & went to the seller. What happened next should have made us walk away. But we already ended our lease with the house we were renting & had no were to go & had a new born..

They gave us a good rate for 4 yr and then we had a balloon pymt at the end of 4 yrs. I told them that I did not want that. But it was still in the contract when we go to the signings table. They told me I could refinance later. My family had no were to go if I did not sign the papers. of course now I know what was going on, but when you are in the moment & it is your family it is different!!

My husband decided After 3 yrs,that he did not want anything to do with paying the house payment & left me. So I was left holding the bag.. I worked 2 jobs.. until I got Strip thorough and almost died, due that I cancelled our health insurance. it finally got so bad I went to the a DR office that would see me with no insurance and gave me meds free of charge.

Well, guess what they foreclosed.. I moved out...& the house sat on the market for 3 yrs.. i could have made some payments, but they did not want anything but what the balloon pymt was for..

Banks bought & sold these mortgages to make money!!! Here it is in a nut shell... The Banks Sell the Mortgage, sometimes knowing the people can not hold up the to the deal.then They sell the mortgages to the stock holders as securities. Our politicians let them do it!! they get a free pass!!!

See the banks don't know were the notes are!! They hope no one calls them on Foreclosing in on a home they know they do not own!!

I'm surprised it took this long. Someone finally grew a pair.

To Phyllis Kuniz:Your daughter is working for the wrong people.What was done here was WRONG.Your daughter would be better off putting her talents somewhere else.

Anyone one on here saying it's this one's fault and that ones fault,IT'S EVERYBODY FAULT.Start with the legislatures who passed legislation saying poor people had the right to own homes, so they made it easy for them.

Then there was the Real Estate Agents,the Mortgage Brokers, the Apraisers, and last but not least THE BANKS.All in bed together dangling a chicken leg covered in poison in front of the buyers.Buyers by the way who were ignorant.They really had no idea of what they were getting into.A lot of them had been told they'd get a fix rate and the last minute they were switched to a variable rate which by the way was much higher.So they took the mortgage anyway, all for the reasoning of achieving their dream to own a home.

The biggest Criminals in this game were #1 the Legislatures and #2 the Banks.The Banks had NO BUSINESS OFFERING THESE GARBAGE MORTGAGES TO PEOPLE.They knew dam well the people couldn't pay it.Then to add insult to injury these Bastards wrapped these garbage mortgages up and sold them with a tripple A rating on them to investors.

So if you're going to throw the blame around BLAME EVERYBODY.I give Martha Cokely credit, but to be honest I think these GANGSTERS ARE GOING TO GET A SLAP ON THE WRIST, and it's going to be business as usual.

These

Phyllis Kunz first please note i did say that a lot of the people that I have dealt with at Wells Fargo are nice and "want" to help, once they get more comfortable talking to you (like I said I having been calling Wells Fargo about this for over a year now) admit how hard it is to work for Wells and that they can't really do anything for you because the bank doesn't let them. I don't know your daughter and I am sure that she probably does her job well, tries to follow the rules and is a responsible person. The company she works for however does not have it's customers, their employees or the countries best interests in mind. Believe me if they decide they don't need her or her unit isn't profitable enough (not profitable but profitable enough) they will throw her out like yesterdays garbage so she should be careful she is working for snakes, and thieves. I tried to get ahead of the issue knowing that my Dad's estate could only afford 3 months payments which were made by the way (so once again JPSOTW shove it), the issue is that they had no interest in taking care of business or doing their job we could have worked it out so they could have gotten the house back at a minimal loss or no loss at all if they had just been accountable and done their job now a year later between taxes, maintenance, utilities and the markets continued downward spiral they will lose no less than $50,000.

Please stop apologizing for the banks not because you are a moon actually I don't know you either and from your post are probably pretty smart and its great that you are proud of your daughters accomplishments but when it comes to National banks like Wells Fargo I would say in at least 85% of the cases there was probably a solution where they could have taken care of business and where they and their their customer would have suffered minimal impact but they are so big, greedy and care so little that they just don't work "to big to succeed" and there lack of business sense exponentially expands the issues to the point where it brings them and the country down. People like Phillalama and JPSOTW belong together there are jerks on both sides of the isle, personally I live in the middle, have a good job pay my bills etc. I do hope you did use a fake name cause their are more jerks on these sites than you know and they will use information in a criminal way. These boards should be used to share ideas, argue view points and there is no reason for name calling exception being when some jerk calls you dead father a deadbeat as JPSOTW did. Wells Fargo and people like JPSOTW are bringing the country down to the ground and people like you and I are being taken down with them. It is time to break up the national Banks as they treat he country and play the economy like its 1928 which leads to 1929.

Just to make my point I just got another call from Wells Fargo trying to collect the debt and once again had to tell the person on the phone to look at their computer screen look up the account and see the status and once again I get some uninformed nasty person challenging me at every turn until I got tired of the call and told them I was taping it which automatically makes them hang up . It is ridiculous and this is the reason they consistently lose public support and also why your daughter gets lumped into the same dirt pile and has to deal with frustrated people who probably get short tempered and nasty with her right off the bat if she is one of the people in a call center that have to talk to customers.

Out of all of the banks I have dealt with in my life Wells Fargo is by far the worse and in my opinion your daughter would be doing her self a favor by looking for another job while she has one because eventually she will be yesterdays trash to Wells Fargo management and from your post I will assume she works to hard to be treated the way Wells Fargo treats everyone except their top management.

so calling someone a "nipple sucker" violates the COH and "tea bagging idiot" is considered a term of endearment I assume?
Thanks I'll keep that in mind.

CG-I know exactly what you are talking about .Two and one half years-outright lies, foreclosed on not once, but twice????? No one knows what anyone is doing and they finally wore me down. Here my one and only home is now being remodeled. How nice. By the way, when I finally got to the legal representatives of Wells Fargo, they admitted they totally messed up, but the only recourse I had was to sue them. Didn't have the money to make the mortgage payments (unemployed for the first time in 50 years) so I sure didn't have the money for a lawyer. I hate to admit it, but I just couldn't fight them anymore, It took too much out of me. Now my credit is shot and I am doomed to a life of rental properties. Gotta love Wells Fargo! Not to mention I am still getting correspondence from them regarding insurance issues! Sheeeesh!

JS in SD

People have done what you recommend - sent registered paperwork with return receipts, and yet when they call are told the paperwork was missing, or never received. So what if you have the postal receipt? Every time you call you get different people in different departments, and meanwhile the foreclosure proceeds. The case will never get to court and if it did you have no proof of what documents were in the registered letter - only proof that you sent something to the bank. Before your counter-suit is ever concluded you could well be evicted and out on the street.

It's the arguments like CG makes in #1.23 that make one ask - when is your illness the bank's responsibility. You took a mortgage for financial benefits and because you could. Then you didn't pay, because you couldn't and gave the rights to the bank to take action for not abiding by the agreement you signed - whatever your excuse to sign the agreement and/or not honoring it, it just isn't your money. Talk about being responsible - no one is without problems

How many banks would be around if there were no farms or factories? We allow the banks and Wall Street to exist. It is us who keeps the financial syste going, not the other way around. I say sue and prosecute away.

Stop holding us hostage financial sector. The financial sector needs to stop telling the American public we can do whatever we want or else financial disaster for you little Americans. When does this become extorsion?

Peter - Reenact Glass-Steagall and we won't have to get angry and trash financial institutions. Tax the Looting Robber Barons, and we won't have stagnant economic growth (because they'll be forced to use their ill-gotten gains, or have the @!$%# taxed out of them).

Maybe you would like to keep drinking the GOP kool-aid for another 50 years, but I prefer to wake up to the raping of our economy to the benefit of the 1%.

Peter17, You are one of the sheeple.

Do you think it is proper for the worlds economy to depend on the banksters? The all powerful, richer than sovereign nations, bloated financial sector is the sole cause of the worlds economic crisis. They don't make, they take. It is big bank extraction and big corporate exploitation run a muck on a global scale that has brought us to this point in history.

I do agree I don't want this to go on forever, the sooner we hit the reset button on these thiefs, the better.

Lawsuits keep otherwise dis-regulated industries in check. We need to watch our financial sector, now more than ever.

Martha Coakley does not need to make a name for herself by doing this -- she is a great AG. I appreciate the fact that she has finally said "enough" and is trying to do something!

"Tell me how long you want to maintain anger at Wall Street and keep suing financial firms, and I'll tell you how long, at the very least, we will have a lousy economy with high unemployment. We can keep trashing financial institutions for the next 10 years - ten more year of stagnant economic growth. How about we do it for the next 20 years?? Maybe some out there would like to see our poor economy last for the next 50 years."

I will tell you how long. However long it takes for them to stop screwing the people that pay them their salary! Bite the hand that feeds you? Well guess what...that same hand has had enough and will slap the sht out of those same corrupt business's that try and screw the people. It's about time.

This needs to be just the start. Take Down the Bankster Thieves!

And get their filthy money out of my government!

*thieves

Peter are you looking to be called an ass? Just as an example over 5,000 servicemen and women have had their homes foreclosed while they are serving in Bush's unfunded wars and you call this the price of doing business? Go ahead tell me it is. These banks have broken the law, they do not have the proper paperwork in so many cases and that Sir is the price of business for them not the people being foreclosed on. I can go on and on about the illegal practices but to what point? You see only what you want to or are told to so why waste good time?

Tell me how long you want to maintain anger at Wall Street and keep suing financial firms, and I'll tell you how long, at the very least, we will have a lousy economy with high unemployment.

HEy Pete! Guess what! We already have a lousy economy with high unemployment. SUE THE BASTARDS OUT OF THEIR SHORTS!!!

Somebody needs to figure out how to keep these thieves from passing on the cost of legal action to their poor depositors.

And yet the root cause of all of these problems to whit Goldman Sachs continues to get a free pass!

Peter, your intentions are good, but your blaming the victim here. There is a reason of the deep hatred and mistrust. We wouldn't even be in this mess had the banks/wall street had not lent money to people who didn't qualify for it, then label crap as grade A paper, and then bet that those loans would fail, which of course they did.

The law is clear, for anyone to foreclose on a home, they have to hold the actual deed. It's to keep non-deed bearers from foreclosing on home they don't own, which of course is exactly what is happening. I suspect you would be singing a different tune if the Sheriff gave you the boot even though your house is paid for because Well Fargo claimed you owed them money.

If the banks were clean, this could be put to rest ASAP. Show us the deeds. But they skirted the law, and now they are going to drag this out in hopes they can locate the deeds. And your claim is that this is somehow not their fault, that it is ours, is beyond ridiculous. Even more so considering the banks have basically admitted to this practice.

Grow the F up and place the blame where it belongs.

Why is it all the banks' fault, and not the dumbells who bought bigger houses than they needed, for more money than they could afford, and signed mortgages they either didn't read or didn't bother to understand?

Spider - please read my comment above.

We don't need an AG for this. We can take care of this ourselves. First get accounts set up at a local bank or CU. Then get on all the social network sites to pick one ( just one ) national bank for everyone to make a run on and transfer all accounts on Dec. 31st. It worked for the Arab Spring. We could call it the Banking New Year. Forget occupying city parks or anything else. We have to get their attention by hitting them where it hurts. This would work like the 60's boycotts ( only better because we have better networks). Or maybe you would rather keep on writing in your blogs.

People are still mad at banks and financial institutions because they are the main reason the economy went south in 2008 and yet they got bailed out by us; the taxpayers. So no I am not forgiving or forgetting because they continue to practice the same risky financial behavior that got us in this mess and no one is holding them accountable for the fraud and deception they perpetrated. If I truly felt that those in the financial sector had learned their lesson and were reforming, I would agree with you. But unless we continue to shine a light on their continuing bad practices we are doomed to repeat history -only this time it will be worse. Contrary to you I do not believe our financial well being lies with supporting the big financial institutions named in this article - it does lie with supporting the medium and smaller institutions that did their job correctly and continue to do so. I will never support the continuing bad practices of the big banks; they are truly the biggest terrorists in the world. Bad practices like keeping the baillout money - not lending it out - and using it to gamble on Wall Street stocks and commodities. As a taxpayer I object since it was my money in the first place and the banks originally agreed to use it for loans not legalized gambling.

L Cornett

Somebody needs to figure out how to keep these thieves from passing on the cost of legal action to their poor depositors.

Easy, close your accounts at those banks and open new ones at local credit unions.

How long do I want to stay angry? Until my daughter gets back the land and house they stole from her with damages for the damage caused to the house by being empty during an Iowa winter. That or until I die.

Lew - Martha Coakley does not need to make a name for herself by doing this -- she is a great AG

Are you high? She is one of the worst ever. What a lame excuse she never goes after anything, but that is another story.

I agree with her. The banks don't even know who owns the loans any more. The packaged them and sold them off in pieces. They have no idea who actually should be foreclosing. It's a real mess.

As far as who will get the money from the class action....see if you can find the tobacco money.

Peter would have us legalize bunko and fraud. That is what was perpetrated on many Americans by Wall Street and financial institutions. Banks were making money hand over fist bundling Mortgage backed securities and selling them to unsuspecting clients They took advantage of borrowers who wrongly presumed that banks would never loan to them an amount they could not pay off. They knew fannie mae and freddie mac would back the loans thereby defrauding the American tax payer. Peter, you can defend these crooks all you want but the fact that they wear 3 piece suits doesn't make them any less crooks.

.....and the fact that people invested in subpar mortgages and bought homes they coudn't afford doesn't make them any less stupid or any less to blame, alex.

I am a conservative and I say sue the hell out of them all! It is obvious the banks/loan institutions can't even manage their paperwork, so you know damn well they have foreclosed on untold numbers of people for no reason. Stop all current foreclosures until the paper trail is cleared up.

Any Countrywide or BAC homeowner who suffered under these deceptive loan and fraud practices should be

compensated for their losses.

The government pressured bac to take over country wide.

Add Indymac and whoever ended up with their mortgages those theives stole more than the James-Dalton gang.

It irks me this propaganda about the “home owner who took out a mortgage that was beyond their ability to pay” – does anyone know these people? I’ll tell you what I do know:

That in California banks were pushing ARMs as a way to sell mortgages because the home prices where too high – it went like this: “Get an ARM – buy the house – in 5 years when the ARM adjusts – sell the house and use the equity to buy another Home with a fixed mortgage.” Imagine how many people bought that strategy because the bank – a financial institution – was telling them this was a sound financial approach.

How about our story: We got a construction loan that was BELOW what we could afford. Mid point – after plowing $200,000 into the house project – the bank – INDYMAC – pulled the funds…because their internal appraiser decided our home was worth less (when the local appraiser said it was worth more than originally projected). All this while home prices in our area have not slipped even to this day!! Sooo… they left us in an 8.75% construction loan – even though they promised to roll it into a fixed mortgage when we were completed…there’s the catch…home wasn’t completed…so no fixed mortgage…. They refused to modify our loan- they refused to help us finish our house.

Then we qualified for the HAMP- for 6 MONTHs IndyMac claimed we did not qualify…. We had to file bankruptcy to protect our unfinished home from foreclosure…two days later…our congressional representatives put me in touch with someone higher up in IndyMac… I asked him to walk me through HIS figures and he suddenly realized they had made a mistake – FOR SIX MONTHS. Then he said… “Oh my co worker just came into my office and told me that the paper work was sent out yesterday.” SUCH LIARS.

There is way more to this story but the bottom line is this bank fiasco was not created by “home owners taking out mortgages beyond their ability to pay” - it was created by the corruption that existed inside these big banks.

We finished our house ourselves – and today we are current on our mortgage. But, we are still with the corrupt bank that did this to us and there has been NO accountability and no redress.

It is one thing to say that Americans need to take responsibility for their choices – it’s a whole other ball game when an institution like a Bank – who you think you can trust – defrauds and then the same principle doesn’t apply to them. Where are they taking responsibility? They can do anything they want - and they know they won’t be touched. This needs to stop. I applaud this action by the MA Attorney General. It’s about time!

Robin Steele,

Excellent point. There should be consideration to the financial ruin of ordinary folks brought about by these foreclosures. Consider the impact this has had on our home values and the resulting devaluation of countless communities. Left unchecked, we will never as a nation recover from this; the time has come. A fair evaluation of the Banks dealings by the Courts will answer the question of their possible guilt and should then be used to assign fair financial responsibility for their actions. Where the homeowner will come out in this situation is anybody's guess but it will show whether the Government actually has any regard for the people or will just use this as another way to profit by the folks misfortune. Seems like they always reap the benefit of any fines and restitution directed by the Courts and those actually hurt always get zilch.

You know, I've been wondering the same. I've been lucky to be working, and have always been frugal. The plan was to use the equity in my home to assist funding my retirement. The banks AND borrowers who f(*& the housing market owe me about $50K in lost equity. So, will that give me a principal reduction on my mortgage? Fat chance. Oh well, who ever said life is fair.

ol yellow dog, do you really think you're funny? Fool

The California AG withdrew from the settlement negotiations and is now pursuing the likelihood of filing criminal and/ or civil actions against the banks.

Mike reread the article, Ca. A.G. dropped it.

Martha Coakley need look no further than her own political party if she wants justice for the people of Ma.

all this may be good but don't let us forget that when you do not pay your mortgage you are in default. waht about the crazy citizens that pay their mortgage based on a regular basis with no reduction in the terms we signed at the time of purchase. i was always told buyer beware. this is one of the most important purchases in your life and if you had any questionas at that time a lawyer could have been hired for a nominal fee. now we see the same lawyers defending those people who eagerly signed the for the loanns and now can't or will not pay becasue the market took a downturn. it was great while it rose and now we see the homeowners bail ouy because they made an unwise investment. stupidity is no excuse. where is my reward for being conscientous in paying my mortgage. if were were more like europe and let the market take its toll maybe the market would seek its level and those unable to afford homes would rent as they did in the past. whose idea was it anyway that everyone should be bable to own a home.

Forced de fault because the banks won't deal with you is not the same as not trying to pay. When you send a lienholder 2 checks and they hold them and don't cash them for months on end while charging you interest on that money that is not the homeowners fault. You act as if we were all deadbeats we tried they wouldn't deal with us according to the laws of the state they made the loan in. It was fraud on their parts.

Myrtle,

You're SORRY that people who have no problems with their mortgages and/or banks have not been foreclosed on? Are you serious?

The theives are the ones who signed a contract to honor their mortgage obligations and then failed to follow through.

Not everyone eagerly signed for a loan. Many of these loans should have NEVER been made! The banks should have never approved them!

My 71 year old mother is as we speak losing her home. A home she has lived in for 20 years. Why? Because several years ago some slimey @!$%# from Countrywide talked her into a mortgage refinance. She needed to fix the floors in her house. They had dry rot. She met several times with the bank rep who talked her into an interest only loan. She new the payments would go up. She repeatedly asked how much the payments were going to increase. The bank rep told her she would be fine. That they would never approve her for a loan she couldn't afford. her house is now underwater to the tune of approx $75,000 due to reduction of home values and the fact that all the payments she made for the last 6 years had gone to interest only thus RAISING her principal balance. My mother has a set income of $1900 a month. The banker talked her into a loan that when the payments went up they were $1300 a month! Bull@!$%# that it is only the consumers fault! yeah she learned her lesson alright. She is now having to live in a spare room at my sisters house and BofA now owns a piece of crap house with a failing septic system, poor insulation and a bad well that THEY want her to pay $225,000 for! the banks knew EXACTLY what they were doing. At the time they talked my mom into her loan houses in her neighborhood were selling for $400,000+. They KNEW she wouldn't be able to afford the payments and figured they could foreclose on her and then turn around and sell for close to half a million. Not now. Not ever.

LadyPoh,

Your mother was old enough to know that interest only loans are a bad idea. I don't quite understand why her principal would raise. If I talked you into eating an eclaire, is it my fault that you gained weight? I think not. It appears that the home is falling apart anyway so probably a good thing that she's getting out of it.

You are correct to a degree. But these financial institutions outright lied to people - that is fraud. Further, they sold mortgage backed securities on Wall Street with triple AAA Ratings in cohoots with the big rating companies that were worthless. That is also fraud and they need to be prosecuted for that. Then they bet against the mortgage backed securities they still owned with credit default swaps knowing those securities were worthless and would probably go south - that is also fraud. Sorry, but when the deck is stacked you cannot expect the average person to full protect themselves against this type of fraud. Many people who have been foreclosed on could pay for their house but the financial shennigans of the big banks caused savings and jobs to disappear. They got bailed out; the average tax payer did not. And I am saying this with a job and no debt. But I still have sympathy for people who lost their jobs (I did but found another fortunately) and their homes through no fault of their own. They followed the rules; the bankers did not.

Hahaha..if the eclaire you talked me into eating was poisoned and you neglected to mention that fact, resulting in my death...you betcha, it would be your fault and I would hope you would be prosecuted.

Not all of the mortgages were made on a fraudulant basis, but many were. And, who and how do you accomplish a foreclosure if no one can figure out who actually owns the house, or if the title wasn't processed in accordance with state law?

I suspect had the original lender been forced to hold more of the mortgages that they'd made for longer, the meltdown would have never occurred. But, there are at least a dozen other "if's" that could have prevented it as well...from the borrower all the way through to the final investor and all of those that should have been looking after their interests...from the Fed to the SEC.

Quite a spin stone6. Nobody was poisoned by my eclairs OR the banks.

If you want to continue the "ifs," this woman would be fine IF the money three that she planted in the backyard would just bloom.

Laura-313822 - A complex financial transaction like a mortgage is not like eating an eclaire. Consumers rely on the bank - to explain their terms to the consumer. The way to "know better" is to become an expert in banking. It's a two part transacton. Yes the home buyer is responsible for paying the terms of the mortgage...but where is the responsiblity of the bank?

We seem to make the home owner the only responsible party in a two party transaction.

Gardina,

The bank is the one that put up the money for the sale. They are the ones taking the greatest risk. I don't believe that any bank, title company or attorney preparing the closing paperwork would try to hide the terms and conditions from the buyer. I've had several mortgages and have never been rushed to sign anything that I haven't been given the opportunity to read.

Funny, you have no thought process. You are like all the other sucked in by B.S. sheep. Just look at the true story of enron and the big banks. Oh that's right the banks were forced to commit crime there too. Stop drinking that mind-warping TEA(PARTY) crap and get thy head out of rear! Perhaps one day you will see the light!

Which bank lend money to someone they don't want to?

Please tell me you two aren't that ignorant. The CRA was pushed down every banks throat forcing them to set aside a certain amount of capital to lend to sub standard borrowers. If they did not lend that money they were fined, ordered to cease and desist from lending or were not allowed to continue opening branches, etc...

That's true brewzky; however, take BB&T for example. They did not back predatory loans to meet CRA standards and were neither penalized nor told they could not open new branches. They still met the standards by allowing borrowers to finance through freddie or fannie instead. It is greed that led to sub-prime lending but those that offered the loans are long gone. They have sold their interests to Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) and Bank of America. We'll never truly be able to punish the ones that caused this crisis and I'm not sure what to make of the foreclosure mess that both Wells and Bank of America are now facing. They are probably botching the process badly because it is beyond them on how to fix the mess that was once Golden West Financial and Country Wide.

You are right. And there are over 2 million loans sitting with BOA, from Countrywide and LaSalle bank that they have no idea what to do with them or how to manage them. It's not the mortgage companies that need to be indicted; it's the groups that packaged them in the CMBS securitized investments that knew they were basically hiding millions of bad loans mixed in with decent loans. And it's the hedge funds that bet against the CMBS and made billions; as they knew that the JP Morgans and Goldmans were packaging the sub par loans with good loans. Take a look at Magnetar Capital. This group was tied into both banks that packaged loans, helped sell them, but bet against them and made billions. That's where the indictments need to be issued. Problem there is Barney Frank, Pelosi and friends had money with these hedge funds, made millions and won't let them be touched.

Luckily I do have a solution for all of the banks with problem loans and stand to make millions by applying my fix to the problem. Obviously, I can't go into detail as I don't need the vultures jumping into the fray using my idea to fix the problem. I will take on as much as possible and farm the overflow out to others. It will fix and make the process for banks so efficient that this won't last too much longer.

Other than being forced to lower credit standards to make loans to those with sub-standard finances; what have they done that's illegal? No one put a gun to an ignorant persons head and made them buy a house they couldn't afford. If you don't pay you lose it. Not a hard concept to understand.

brewxky....You say they were forced to make loans to those with sub-standard finances.

What law is that????? Something you made up?

I do not recall any such law being repealed, but the banks are not make those junk loans anymore.

How can the banks ignore the law forcing them to make loans??

There is no law, nor were they forced. If you believe there is one, which law?

Brewzky23, Take the blinders off.What happened is these home buyers were sucked into these loans knowing these people could not make their payment down the road cause they did not make enough money. 1 year later these people lose there homes that they put all of their money . Now they have nothing and are on the street .The banks and mortgage brokers did not investigate deep enough into these home owners to see if they can make the payments. The financiers new that a lot of these bad loans would go sour and were looking take these home in the future to make quick money. Corruption and greed at its finest.

The laws are called CRA (Community Reinvestment Act) and HMDA (Home Mortgage Disclosure Act). Both of these laws are what the consumer activists groups use to as leverage to ensure that the banks are making affordable housing available to low/moderate income borrowers. Meaning just about anyone with a pulse. The GSEs, FHMLC and FNMA, started lowering their standards for insuring these crappy loans going back to 1995 under the Clinton administration. The consumer activists, such as ACORN, regularly sued the bank for failing to provide, according to their own standards, sufficient credit to these higher risk borrowers. These two laws are the pride and joy of the demos such as Barny Frank. Look it up!! A bank that was thought to not provide sufficient credit to these high risk borrowers were not allowed by regulators to build branches and/or acquire other banks.

@hopeful4100 Try educating yourself and read a little about the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and its subsequent expansions, especially during the Clinton presidency before you make a statement that makes you look ignorant of the facts. The new provisions to the CRA created the foundation of the banking crisis by forcing banks to loan money to those who would have qualified previously, also serving to reduce available housing inventory, which then caused the typical housing price to skew in comparison with wages over the last two decades. It is a principal reason why home prices had to fall during the real estate crash.

@hopeful4100 Try educating yourself and read a little about the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 and its subsequent expansions, especially during the Clinton presidency before you make a statement that makes you look ignorant of the facts. The new provisions to the CRA created the foundation of the banking crisis by forcing banks to loan money to those who would NOT have qualified previously, also serving to reduce available housing inventory, which then caused the typical housing price to skew in comparison with wages over the last two decades. It is a principal reason why home prices had to fall during the real estate crash. Sorry had to save my editing too quickly to get in under the time limit.

goodforusa

Exactly what percentage of a banks loans had to be made in these so-called sub-standard loans,a s per the Community Re-investment Act?

The following quotes are taken out of the NYT in 1999:

“Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.”

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer.''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

PAT1988241: Every bank, thrift and regulated mortgage company is under CRA. The percentage requirements vary depending on a number of factors such as footprint demographics (median income) and the number of mortgage loans originated each year. The more active the lender is in mortgage origination, the higher the CRA threshold becomes.

the CRA was crammed down every banks throat years ago. They were forced by the FDIC and the OCC to "set aside" a certain amount of their lending limit to be loaned to sub-standard borrowers. And ignorance is no defense. D118: Your entire post above is ridiculous. do you really think the banks want to be in the business of property management. the last thing they want on their books is accrued but unpaid interest, principal and legal fees and now property management fees. they want those who borrowed money to pay it back.

brewzky23 do you ever read anybody's answers or do you just put your mind in neutral and push repeat. Much of went on was out and out fraud. We put $32,000 down on our property and made every payment for 4 years until they refused to deal with us after my mother's death. They held 2 checks for payment without cashing them then said we were behind in payments. Open you eyes and quit drinking from the trough of the financial institutions like a donkey.

loner: there's more to your story than what you're saying. Please be truthful and provide all of the facts like a good little boy, rather than those that try and make your b.s. believable. In your case; why would a bank purposefully do this to you. Are mistakes made here and there, absolutely. There are MILLIONS of mortgages on the books. It seems probable that a small % may have issues that were caused by human error. Do you actually think the banks want to own foreclosed property? I'm sure you were sponging off of your mother and the estate or probate threw a wrench in things.

Please read the definition of fraud. It means the banks INTENTIONALLY caused people to default so they could reposess property. That makes alot of sense.

Run that as a TV and radio ad until next November and you will probably win. In the meantime, avoid any other statement and avoid all interviews.

The same holds true, for the banks. If you "create" a "derivative", you are responsible for that "tool".

@ John Scott

I agree with responsibility but this doesn'tmean they (Bank or their agents) can commit Fraud! That is what they did commit Fraud the homeowner not making his payments is still beholden to the bank and will loose his house but I've seen were someone is only slightly behind, got a new job and only needed a couple months to get things back in good standing and the bank just went for the home and all be damned to stop them.

Rodentrack: Yep, it amazes me that people don't understand that. Nobody is saying these people should be able to keep their homes (i think that's what some of these fools think) - but the mortgage servicer(s) has to be in compliance to legitimately move through foreclosure proceedings. If someone purchased a house they they can not afford then ultimately they will be foreclosed upon. It may take time however if the bank operated fradulently - which is their own damn fault!!

The banks did kill your jobs and caused you to use up your savings. They got greedy. They made bad loans knowing that they were bad, but also knowing that they would just sell them to someone else. They forged and changed interest rates and terms. They made made derivative deals without having enough reserves to cover them if they went bad. The banks are responsible for properly evaluating their clients ability to pay their mortgages.

Banks are not the ones who killed your job or cause you to use up all your savings.

Uh...actually they are. What's the difference between a mortgage holder who can pay due to extenuating circumstances of whatever sort and a bank who can't cover their liabilities? Oh that's right, the banks will use the rest of us to cover their asses. When it comes to moral equivalencies, the banks lose by a long shot.

oops..."a mortgage holder who can't pay"

Seems to me there are a lot of tea party politicians that don't want to live up to the contracts that were signed with government employees and Union members.

So why is it okay for one group to renege on a contract and not another? hmmm?

Use a credit union IT IS BETTER!....

Or a small local bank that is vested in your community!!!!!!!!!!!! i've always had the best services from my small local bank. They go out of their way to take care of my needs and even when they don't gain financially but keep me as a customer that is happy with the service they provide.

God, I hope so...

This is why corporations are evil, no personal responsibility.

Noobster, be careful of throwing around the corporation tag. Most small businesses are Corporations!! I get frustrated when people throw this term around because they are going to kill everyone (throwing the baby out with the bath water)

If you want to open a lemon aid stand in your front yard you will most likely become a Corporation whether its an LLC or S corp it is the safest way to start a business and protect you and your family from anyone that will try to do you Harm justified or not!

80% of the defaulted mortgages were originated by banks and lending institutions that were independent of federal regulations.

First time I 've read that. Have you got a source document cite?

CTS got this one exactly correct. Anyone who reads the financial news knows that.

You're absolutely correct, but the climate for that possibility was created by the CRA and prior deregulation of other practices within all of the lending industry. Clinton expanded the CRA and I believe Reagan was responsible for much of the banking deregulation which allowed these idiots to run amok.

MtnMan - I didn't ask for an endorsement. I asked for a cite.

Per a Bloomberg report in 2009:

http://www.businessweek.com/investing/insights/blog/archives/2008/09/community_reinvestment_act_had_nothing_to_do_with_subprime_crisis.html

" ... 50% of subprime loans were made by mortgage service companies not subject comprehensive federal supervision and another 30% were made by affiliates of banks or thrifts which are not subject to routine supervision or examinations ... "

However, I think what stuns me is the number of people who continue to insist that the government "forced" the banks to make all these bad loans from 2000-2007 ... while discussing the inability of the government to "force" banks to obey the basic laws for foreclosure that have been in existence for decades.

What the "CRA-ists" completely ignore is that the "C" in CRA stands for community - and that the law was specifically targeted at LOW INCOME NEIGHBORHOODS. This essentially means that no 400k+ loan ever made, (and there were literally millions) was ever subject to CRA rules.

Clinton signed a bill in 1999 that repealed Glass Seagal Act. This opened the door for anyone to become a financial institution and loan money and acquire mortgages.

Firemane - If that's what CTS meant, he said it badly. The last I read, somewhere around 15% of the defaulted loans originated under CRA regulations. That does not equal 80% of defaulted loans originating at unregulated lending institutions. If he had put "CRA" between "federal" and "regulations" I would not have questioned it.

Now as to the cause of crash... There's a lot more to it than unregulated credit default swaps. It took a perfect storm of regulation, deregulation, adjustment of capital gains taxes, and computer models of risk that no one really understood to make it come together.

Henrillis, the problem with your explaination isn't that the ordinary man can't understand it. It's pseudoscientific non-speak. I'll give you that the explaination of the banks behavior is more complicated than simply being a property grab but not that nonsense about everyone disconnecting from the financial system.

The Federal government has failed to properly regulate, failed to enforce existing regulations, and failed to hold violators responsible. Much of the last issue is the fault of Congress for giving the banking industry (and individuals in it) a free pass when they so obviously screwed up and broke the law. Glad to see the State Attorneys General stepping up the the plate and taking a shot at it. It's about time.