Friday, September 24, 2010
Document Fraud emanating from the GMAC affidavit improprieties extend much further than most may realize. Although GMAC continues to maintain that having its “robo- signers” officers like Jeffrey Stephan provide affidavits on matters they know nothing about is a mere technical problem that they can remedy. In fact, an affidavit is a statement of someone with personal knowledge of a matter. Stephan signed as many as 10,000 documents a month and clearly could not have personal knowledge of the underlying situations. Deliberately preparing and submitting inaccurate documents in a legal proceeding is a fraud on the court, something most judges really really do not like.
Predictably, lawyers who are contesting foreclosures are jumping on the affidavit issue and using it to open up broader issues with foreclosures where GMAC was the servicer of the loan. For instance, this letter to a judge in South Carolina, a judicial foreclosure state, discusses not only the role of an apparent fellow robot signor of Stephan, one Jack Kerr, but more critically, another document provided in this case stamped (not signed) by one Judy Faber, also of GMAC. The Faber document transferred title to the party foreclosing in the case, so if the document is invalid, the plaintiff, in this case a Deutsche Bank trust, will lack standing to foreclose (legalese for “no tickie, no laundry”).
Here is the critical section of the letter (on page 2):
Upon information and believe, Judy Faber has instructed document
custodians in thousands of foreclosure cases to apply her stamped
endorsement bearing her name after foreclosure commenced to an
allonge
and after a consumer had challenged the chain of title in the case. Upon
information and belief, Ms. Faber and her document custodian team at
facilities described in the Washington Post article attached to this
letter have fabricated and changed title in thousands of foreclosure
cases.
This takes a wee bit of unpacking. The pooling and servicing agreement,
which governs who does what when in a mortgage securitization, requires
the note to be endorsed (just like a check, signed by one party over to
the next), showing the full chain of title, and the minimum conveyance
chain is
A (originator) =>
B (sponsor) =>
C (depositor) =>
D (trust).
The note, which is the borrower’s IOU, is the critical document in 45 states. The mortgage, which is the lien, is a mere accessory to the note and can be enforced only by the proper note holder (the legalese is “real party of interest”).
The problem is that this apparently is never done (I’ve been told one person trying to track down a particular note found it, at Countrywide. The guy who wandered down the corridor to produce it from his files claimed that Countrywide kept all the notes on its deals, and would send them out on request when someone needed them in a foreclosure. If this is true, it indicates there are pervasive and not readily remedied problems. The required endorsements were never done [oh, and the bankruptcy trustee should approving any assets leaving Countrywide, a little nicety that evidently is not being observed either]).
Why is this serious? The cure for the mortgage documents puts the loan out of eligibility for the trust. In order to cure, on a current basis, they have to argue that the loan goes retroactively back into the trust. This is the cure that the banks have been unwilling to do, because it is a big problem for the Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduit.
So instead they forge and fabricate documents.
The letter in particular mentions an allonge. An allonge is a separate sheet of paper which is attached to a note to allow for more signatures, in this case, endorsements, to be added. Allonges have had a way of magically appearing in collateral files while trails are in progress (I’ve seen it happen in cases I was tracking; it’s gotten so common that some attorneys warn judges to be on the alert for “ta dah” moments).
The wee problem with an allonge miraculously being discovered is that
the allonges that show up are inherently in violation of UCC (Uniform
Commercial Code) provisions (UCC has been adopted by all states, a few
states have minor quirks, but the broad provisions are very similar).
An allonge is NOT to be used unless all the space on the original note,
including the margins and the back side of pages, has been used up. This
is never the case. Second, an allonge has to be so firmly attached to
the original document as to be inseparable. Thus an allonge suddenly
being discovered is an impossibility (well impossible if it were legit),
yet it seems to happen all the time.
So as much as GMAC and its fellow servicers no doubt hope there little document mess will fade from public view, attorneys are using it as a new weapon to fight questionable foreclosures or force servicers to negotiate principal modifications, which investors like Wilbur Ross (the antithesis of a charity, he’s a very successful distressed investor) have found to be a win/win.
See Also:
http://stopforeclosurestop.com is here to educate consumers and to help victims recover their losses and keep their homes. If you are a victim of bank fraud or predatory lending, it is possible to sue your lender for free clear title and money damages. We show you how to stop foreclosure and sue your lender.