Sheriff Dart: 5% of Chicago’s Foreclosures DON’T Have Problems
The WaPo has a story on the growing realization that the banksters have been engaging in massive fraud to keep churning out foreclosures. It includes a detail about Chicago Sheriff Thomas Dart’s refusal to enforce foreclosures I did not know: that when he had a sample of foreclosures reviewed, he found that only 5% of them had all their paperwork in order.
After reading about problems such as banks “robo-signing” foreclosure documents without verifying their accuracy, Dart asked that attorneys for mortgage companies sign something personally confirming that evictions are justified. None did. So Dart has refused to honor their requests.
[snip]
In Illinois, Dart said in an interview that, after hearing about improperly prepared paperwork at major lenders, he and his deputies pulled an admittedly unscientific sample of 400 foreclosure cases processed by the courts. He said they found that only 20 of them had the proper paperwork and that the others were missing “very significant” documents.
While not carrying out evictions could land Dart in trouble if a judge decides to bring contempt-of-court charges, he said he thinks his actions have been “just and legal.”
“When I have the lending institutions themselves admitting to problems, what are we supposed to do?” Dart said. “All I’m asking them to do is certify that what they are doing is legal. The fact that they are not racing to do this makes the case for us.”
One of the biggest problems communicating the problems the deadbeat banksters have introduced through their own shoddy or fraudulent work lies in explaining the scope of the problem. And while the numbers Chicago found may be worse than other places–with a very high population of people of color, after all, it would have been a target for predatory lending–I’m happy using the 5% number a law enforcement officer has provided in the interim.
Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners Taibbi
Puts Rahm in an interesting dilemma.
If he comes out for what Dart is doing, then he pisses off his bankster buddies. Gotta wonder what he’s going to sell them to get over their anger – it’s not like the parking meters can be sold again (at least for a while).
If he comes out against what Dart is doing, he sides with the banksters against the voters and especially the minority communities targeted by predatory lenders. Moreover, he also comes down on the side of lying, cheating and thieving – just like the liar, cheat, thief and grifter his sorta-nemesis Blago is accused of being. Now, it’s not like we didn’t know he was seriously down with lying, cheating, thieving and grifting, but he’s usually succeeded in keeping that under wraps until the campaign is over. It’s a matter of whether the Chicago electorate is willing to buy in to putting up with more of that.
If he just shuts up and says nothing about what Dart is doing, he’s not supporting the voters against the banks.
Soooooo, whatcha gonna do, Rahm?
My first thought was
“When is Sheriff Dart up for re-election? I’ll donate!”
Nevermind I live in Seattle…
FunnyDiva
Looks to me as though the Sheriff is handling things as well as could be expected.
But I wouldn’t do much with that 5% number. It sure isn’t a valid statistical sample and they probably pulled all 400 out of the same convienent pile as well. So they all have been from the same processor, who just dropped off his daily load. Caution is advised.
scribe@2: Rahm will say that it’s a national problem that requires a national solution and in the meantime we need to proceed with caution. Any detailed questions will be refered to Treasury and the problem of forclosure should be left to the courts. He won’t take any action against Dart until he’s elected.
Boxturtle (The bankers will likely cut some slack to get him elected, assuming they don’t like the GOPer better)
The idea that one processor could get away with a 95% fraud rate suggests business can’t be trusted to regulate themselves and nobody enforces the laws if Dark People are losing their homes.
( I am certain this did not happen in Barrington, Crystal Lake, Winnetka )
Right. Of course. But if we accept it as real, then it puts the onus on coming up with real numbers on the people sitting on the data and keeping it unavailable. See how that works?
I want to contact Sheriff Dart and thank him for doing this. In fact, I would love to see thousands of people contacting his office applauding him for doing the right thing, while almost no one else seems to be doing so. I want it to make the news, nationwide, that people are thanking this sheriff and I want other sheriffs to be so envious that they will want to be heros and will do the same thing.
I guess this is a rhetorical question, but can somebody explain to me why this whole foreclosure debacle isn’t 24/7 BREAKING NEWS and why there aren’t hoardes of press corps camped outside the “Rocket Docket” in Jacksonville and outside the bank buildings on Wall Street and elsewhere? Why did the cable and network news stop their regularly scheduled programs to broadcast bubble boy for hours, yet they are barely covering this story? Why were there reporters from all over the world outside the house of some idiot who was going to burn Korans but the story of the great foreclosure heist is largely under the radar? Why is this not breaking news and why aren’t people being foreclosed on being interviewed every day? Why aren’t foreclosure lawyers and sheriffs and bankers interviewed every day? Why do we not even know the names of all the masters of the universe who made all these mortgage securitization deals? Why?
The mainstream media has been bought and paid for by the banksters. That is one glaring reason why this scandal doesn’t receive more widespread coverage. the MSM is not going to cover any story that would make their corporate masters look even worse, sad to say.
It would help to write a letter to the editor of your LOCAL PAPER with info about how this is affecting your own community, and providing the reader with a good contact number (County AG?) to follow up.
Bob in AZ
The Superior Court of Orange County, CA has issues a letter to counsel concerning Unlawful Detainers (Evictions).
California, is a trust deed state, and foreclosures are non-judicial. Evictions commonly follow foreclosures.
The Court is insisting that the actual parties who own the homes come to court fro the unlawful detainer actions, and that attorneys cannot certify the evictions are correct in place of the owners of the home, subject to sanctions of moral turpitude and possible disbarment.
Linky?
Was posted in the court. I’ll try to get a copy and scan it.
For more news and commentary, check out The Bond Project at http://www.thebondproject.blogspot.com.
Assuming that your questions aren’t rhetorical, the answer to all of them is the same folks who would take a soaking on the forclosure problem are also running the mainstream news outlets. Their objective is to quietly bury the entire thing, while getting a legislative fix that will enable them to forclose no matter how involved MERS is.
Boxturtle (See, there’s this Mighty Shitpile and a big fight amongst the MOTU’s as to how much each must eat)
That was to Joanneleon@4. Neither reply nor edit seems to be working currently.
Boxturtle (If I’d taken this long to recover a key system function after an update, my manager would yell at me)
This is Chicago Obama’s home town how much longer can Obama keep the Feds from investigating?
I wonder whats Rahm’s position on this issue is if its pro bank as usual then he might have a problem running for mayor.
No problem. His MO seems to be to muscle the top candidates out of the race, so he only has to face off against the little known screwballs.
Bob in AZ
Dart I think wants to run for higher office this issue could deliver for him Illinois AG Lisa Madigan was running commercials about her office finding out bad loans were given in mainly minority neighborhoods.
Smart White Dems I think have realized that they can get minority votes if they stick up for us like we were people.
Dumb Ass Dems like Rahm/Obama think that they can ignore us until election day.
Imagine what Dart could have done for minority voter turnout if he had said this before the election?
He did say it prior to the election, I posted a quote from an NPR radio interview some weeks ago in a reply to one of EW’s posts when it happened.
This is more ‘old’ news that hasn’t recieved the attention it deserves, just like a lot of what goes on while we’re so busy “looking forward”.
Dart has been raising questions and holding the line for months, this from Oct 19th;
“Dart previously halted foreclosures in the county, which includes the city of Chicago, in 2008, alleging that tenants were not being properly notified that the home they were living in was in foreclosure.”
Link;
http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/19/real_estate/Cook_County_Foreclosure/
Ok the MSM and the Dems killed a story which could have turned Illinois and costed us Obama’s senate seat just to make banks happy that alone deserves front page attention!
I’m pretty sure he had…he’d certainly stopped enforcing foreclosure evictions before the election, iirc from my reading of FDL’s amazing coverage.
More a matter of the WaPoo/MSM burying it until after the election, imo.
All of this is quite serious. Is FDL looking at doing some kind of FDL Action to address the foreclosure crisis and scream about this possible retroactive immunity bailout possibility?
If not, I am concerned that it will degrade support for FDL for not addressing it with a strong voice.
Thank you to you, bmaz, massacio, dean baker, cynthia and all the diary writers and commentors (parsnip) who have tried to bring this front and center.
We spend a lot of time and thought trying to figure out the best way to get the truth out and move policy.
Any suggestions are welcome.
I liked when the FDL Covers Foreclosure Fraud button when up on the front page along with the other Special Coverage buttons.
I wish we had something else which would be a little “louder”.
A campaign as big as the Just Say Now. A letter writing campaign. A StrangeBedfellows moment. This is yet another round in trying to uphold the rule of law. Only this, this is going to take down the nation. This is a pivotal moment.
I guess I am asking for help as to “what can I do” to restore the rule of law in the foreclosure crisis. What is the list of corrective changes that I want to stand behind and write my congressional rep about or publish an op ed as action?
Should we sponsor a nationwide day of going to see the movie, Inside Job and let the ticket sales speak for the number of folks getting informed? Have people outside the theatres handing out info pieces on the foreclosure crisis?
I am just thinking out loud here.
@kylnn and @Cynthia Kouril
I agree. I would be very supportive of a campaign too and would be willing to contribute some money toward it.
I’m with you. This is certainly a more important situation than the legalization of pot!
Especially since hardly anyone knows about it and Oilbomber seems to be contemplating legalizing FRAUD for his bankster buddies.
I’ve been thinking about WHY it has come to this in this country. And the only thing I can come up with is “it’s a mistake” that no one can admit to and so they kept covering up and trying to work around the edges after the repeal of Glass/Steagal.
I don’t think nay of the pols thought the banksters would behave so badly, but no that their in bed with them, the sociopaths/pols can’t admit what they’ve done to this great country and so they compound their mistakes and don’t think farther than their next handout.
And now the problem is so big and so tangled that they’ve handed even the government over to the gangsters on Wall street and THAT’S who’s governing US.
Infamous Quote from Mayer Amschel Rothschild:
“Give me control of a nation’s money
and I care not who makes the laws.”
The front pagers devote months on this and jobs like we did on healthcare and coordinate an entire Lefty blog wide campaign?
I am hoping one of the lawyers can answer this question;
why don’t the home owners foreclose on themselves with the same shoddy paper work and then let the bank come up with real paper to dispute
that would at least make the point that they need real paper to make a debt claim
Because the homeonwers don’t weant to commit crimnal perjury?
That’s the thing, there have to be consequences for the perjury: At the bank level. At the document mill level. At the lawyer level. and until the state AG’s strat getting convictions, this bullshit will continue.
Sounds like the name of a campaign against the whole criminal mess…
No More Bullshit Justice.
That slogan would work for quite a bit of what the DOJ Main is doing (or not doing) these days.
Bob in AZ
I’ve been thinking about another aspect of this crises, that I did a lot of research about a few years back. One aspect has to do with homeowners insurance. This is another facet of the problem in regard to dilapidated housing and decreasing values of homes. Most subprime mortgage now require that you cosign with the mortgage company in order to receive your insurance payout. So if you have damage of more than 2500.00$, the insurance company issues you a check that you cannot cash. You have to send it to the mortgage company, hire a contractor, (pay contractor with your own funds), then the contractor estimates the cost, sends report to the mortgage company and the amount is paid out in thirds until the damage is repaired. This all sounds well and good, however, most folks don’t ever get the money from the mortgage company at all.
There is so much more to this…During Katrina, the reports about this would heart wrenching. In my case, we paid to fix our problems out of pocket and let the check go. Too many hoops. But basically this move renders home owners insurance impossible to use, or to actually make the fixes for many people. I suspect that this is yet, another way people get behind. After Katrina, the next hurricane broke windows and such. People could not get these fixes done because they had to send the checks to Homecomings (gmac).
There is so much more going on here…than we have uncovered.
I do worry that in the end, it was all a complete take over of our economic system.
This doesn’t happen just on sub-prime mtgs. I think it’s a decision by the insurance company. After Katrina, I got 3 checks. One small one just to me and then two larger ones made out to me and the mortgage holder. I didn’t have any trouble…other than it took 3 months to get the checks. But then my mortgage holder was local so I didn’t have to deal long distance to get the checks co-signed
My insurance company said it had nothing to do with them. We asked and spoke to folks as far up as they would allow. They said this was a clause added by the mortgage company at the time we bought our house. In fact the insurance company worked for ways to get around this…by encouraging two visits, two checks, that would keep the total from going over the 2500.00 mark on the checks. Also our insurance adjuster told us that they hadn’t see any situation like this locally, we were the first. They said it does happen but that it’s very rare. They also noted that it IS a growing trend.
Well that’s very strange. My mortgage was a private one (my next door neighbor)… No such clause in my mortgage. But after Katrina, perhaps the ins companies just did all payments that way either to simplify the process from their point of view..or to protect themselves in some way.
I wonder where the process began. My mortgage was signed in 2001. My insurance company showed us the exact clause in our mortgage. Not sure if insurance company was hiding something…but I clearly saw the clause in the mortgage. Interesting. I think too, it’s interesting that you received your payments. If you had a loan through gmac or homecomings, wells fargo, one of these, there are tons of complaints after Katrina of people who were never given their insurance money and were unable to make their homes habitable and had to leave. In some cases they didn’t make the mortgage payment so that they could put a window in their home to keep out the rain or what have you, and got behind.
Mine was signed in the early 90’s. I remember a lot of talk about the way the checks were being sent out (dual payee’s). But everyone I know got the checks themselves and then had to get their mtg holder to sign…had a niece with mtg holder in CA. They did have a stipulation that I get the roof replaced and then would get reimbursed… yet another check, but that one was made out to me. My dad was a contractor (ret) so he was able to do a lot of things for me.
I consider myself very lucky after that fiasco…even luckier in that I sold in 2006 haven’t yet been sucker enough to buy again.
So much for Bush’ s”ownership society”, eh? We just didn’t know who was going to be doing the owning.
A big part of this was his “no-bankruptcy” law. That little SOB wanted to make sure his “friends” got everything we have.
I watched a little bit of Apollo13 last night. Made me very nostalgic for the days when the average person in this country could live their lives without fear of what’s around the next bend. Not forgetting the gas lines and inflation that came just a few years later. But despite the zigs and zags of the 60’s and 70’s we were all basically good people and thought the world was full of possibilities. That future of possibilities is what has been taken from us.
Yes and the lack of addressing climate change is gonna bite us all in the butt even if everything else wasn’t happening.
I think the elites know it’s too late and are getting everything they can so they and their lines will be “safe”. they were the first to build bomb shelters in the Cold War too.
Yep, they are cashing out. Getting ready to move on. Anybody who thinks they are going to start investing in this this country again is not paying attention. Or in climate change.. no quick return on the almighty dollar.
Come to think of it, probably 4-5 yrs before Katrina I had storm damage from another wind event and check came only to me. It was well over that magical 2500 as well. So either some policy change on ins company part, or just general hysterics over the payouts after Katrina…
Pretty interesting backdrop on the CEO of Allstate ,Edward M. Liddy.
In 2005 ,the year that both Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast,Liddy was CEO of Allstate. A few years later, he was later tapped by Hank Paulson to head up AIG.
He left AIG in 2009.
The Wiki entry for him has some interesting info worth looking at.
Didn’t realize that, but I didn’t have Allstate so probably didn’t pay attention. I did see your question re ins a few days ago, but only had my personal experience to relate, which is probably not particularly average.
And for further consideration:
Allstate, State Farm Dismissed from Case Charging Katrina OverbillingFeb 20, 2009 … Allstate, State Farm Dismissed from Case Charging Katrina Overbilling … damage in Louisiana related to the 2005 storm Hurricane Katrina. …
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2009/02/20/98056.htm – Cached►
State Farm, Allstate dismissed from Louisiana Katrina case. BY JOHN O’BRIEN. NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) – Two insurance giants will be dismissed from a …
http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/default.asp?s=4482&ss=656 – Cached
Liddy: We’ll Try To Cooperate With Probe — But No Promises …Mar 18, 2009 … Hurricane Katrina THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2009 4:00:00 PM State Farm, Allstate dismissed from Louisiana Katrina case. BY JOHN O’BRIEN …
tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/…/liddy_well_try_to_cooperate_with _probe_–_
I asked this question about the ramifiactions regarding homeowner’s insurance on numerous occasions on several threads,both here and at FDL.
As recently as a couple of days ago I raised this issue,but no comments.
wow…sorry I missed it.
Me too…I have long been an avid reader of your travails regarding mortgage miscreants.
Sounds like money laundering and theft.
I’ve agreed with your conclusion for some time. The homeowner’s insurance example that you give is repeated over and over in Hudson’s The Monster, among other accounts, where a key point is that far-reaching changes in civil procedure and long-established commercial practice were slipped through in the same way that this co-signing scam seems to have been done. And of course Hudson was writing before the full dimension of the foreclosure scam exploded into view, though his book is full of falsified and deliberately sloppy procedure.
Perhaps you could bring some of your earlier inquiries forward in a series of diaries? (Please, please!)
This seems like a fairly sensationalistic story. We have no idea what these “very significant” missing documents were; they may be unrelated to the validity of the foreclosure, and may only be concerned with the actual court process – i.e, not having some form signed by the court clerk or something. I suppose if you want to believe that bankers are just criminals in suits, this type of story is grist for the mill; but from a more balanced perspective, it doesn’t really say much.
Always impressive when someone tries to argue a reported story is not sufficiently detailed by just pulling stuff out of their rear themselves.
What do you have against private property rights? Because that’s what is at issue here, which you seem to think is nothing more than a technicality. Hundreds of years of legal precedent is a technicality to you?
I also want to get some policy forensics going. For each piece of deregulation in the banking, investment and real estate/ mortgage lending industry, I want to trace back to when the deregulation happened, who was the pin-point person who initiated the dereg and the $$$ people or foreign government behind that individual(s). I am trying to do something on this, but it is not my area of expertise. Thus, it is going slow.
I know some of this has been done in part in various books, but I want to get the history together in one place as a timeline with names. This is a kind of “follow the money” investigation done via dereg policy pushes.
If there is a source presently showing all of this, someone guide me to it.
The documentary film ‘Inside Job’ was just released (I haven’t seen it.) From reports/reviews of some who have seen it, it sounds like the film would be a good resource for you (if it doesn’t itself accomplish most of what you want to do). Check out the reviews at Amazon; some of them include possibly valuable details for your search.
Yep, I had read that it would be a good source. It just opened this past Friday in Columbus, Ohio and the showings I was free to go to were all sold out — a good sign. The Tillman Story was sold out too…More of a good sign.
Looking forward to seeing it. I’d like to suggest Michael W. Hudson’s book The Monster: How a Gang of Predatory Lenders and Wall Street Bankers Fleeced America–and Spawned a Global Crisis as the most complete and readable account I’ve seen of how the predatory lending machinery was developed in the subprime market back in the 1990s, steering through the post-S&L crisis wreckage.
Next thing on this subject I read will probably be Capital Offense by Michael Hirsh, looking at Washington’s role; presumably a lot of strategic eye-closing and ear-stopping are involved, especially since contrarians like Stiglitz and Born feature prominently.
On Sheriff Dart and Rahm Emanuel, whoever is the next mayor of Chicago will have to deal with the Cook County Sheriff situation rather than exert control over it, as that is an independently elected office —probably more truly independent than it’s been in at least a couple of generations, I suspect.
What would the bankers take? What’s about 300mi long, 118mi wide, freezes over in a good winter, and lies entirely within the United States?
I’m amazed that judges can make such sloppy rulings and keep their seats.
read
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303341904575576200794162356.html?mod=article-outset-box
The lies are incredible…for those dealing with these mortgages. I need to post a picture of my statement…but I am not sure how to do this so that my private info doesn’t show. My statements are impossible to read by at several lawyers and one Judge. Furthermore, they have added to my balance without showing and valid reason. Finally, they have not accurately applied my payments. In 2005, suddenly my account number was changed. With it, my balance and payment. They raised my payment. So I paid the raised amount for the next several years for fear they would report me in arrears. Then, my payment was suddenly lowered…(escrow what have you) I continued paying the increased amount. They still count me behind…it’s so much more than just “paperwork”. They are lying, literally on the bottom line of many of these loans. In each case they should have to prove the payment history, show how much is owed.
Right now they will not respond to my requests for a payment history…and I sure as hell will not let them foreclose on me, without proving what I owe.
So, you want to buck up and support the asshole banksters, financiers, and securitization criminals who imploded the entire world economy and you are too fucking cheap to even put up a link with a readable article, but instead want to have people pay to support the right wing Wall Street Journal? Get the fuck out! Hutzpah!
I really am amazed at the lack of credible proof you have for your claims. You just scream opinion..opinion is hollow. How in the world can you rationalize that the banks amd mortgage companies are criminal? It is NOT in their interest to foreclose. They want their money “owed” them, they do not want empty houses. This entire failure was caused by the “community reinvestment act”, another left wing social program which blew up in your faces. Socialism and redistribution of wealth doesn’t work. Get over it. Study Milton Friedman, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell.
Well, RICO cases against lenders has nothing to do with a social program which blew up. It has to do with corruption.
Accept the fact that the rule of law is being violated.
Holy crap,
Fact Challenged, much?
Willful Ignorance, much?
Oh, wait, it’s kumari the Troll.
Oh well, at least it makes a tiny bit more effort than the tin(y)-man…
See, everytime you respond to these “people” , they make a buck or two. so, stop paying him
Dayam, too bad we DFHs don’t have the $$ for Troll Sponsorship
I’d be such a good DFH troll…
Good point.
Kassandra @ 40
I think the big issue for our ‘leaders’ is the foreign investment in the US mortgages, and also the fact that the dollar is propped up by China and the other exporting nations, OPEC, etc. There is real danger in collapse of the dollar, IMO. I doubt they feel any embarrassment about their ‘mistakes.’
@ 42
The Powell Memo represents the beginning of the neoliberal plang to siphon all wealth and power to the corporate persons. Note that these corporations’ top management are also stiffing the shareholders. Not only are peoples’ wages suppressed (and immigrants enslaved), but the decision was made to go after our 401k’s (after changing from defined benefit retirement plans), and social security, as well as our homes.
Anyone drawing up a timeline should start with the Powell Memo.
klynn @ 25
Phil Gramm and his cohort figure largely in paving the way for massive securitization of mortgages and relaxation of regulation. (thanks for the mention).
I’d be eager to participate in research for an FDL foreclosure project.
I think people need to understand that in many ways it’s like being taken over by a foreign country…instead of by occupation, by economy.
Why the U.S. Has Launched a New Financial World War — and How the Rest of the World Will Fight Back
I guess in order to do this, they have to take down America and it’s government.
But, of course, we still have the wars to help siphon off everything as quickly as possible
Putting the “douche” into fiduciary.
dday’s foreclosure posts (and he generally writes two per day) rarely make it to the front page, and rarely get more than 2 comments. I try to comment on most of them in order to entice others’ interest. It is such a waste that his efforts on foreclosure are not seen by most. I get the impression that few FDL readers click on the ‘News’ link, not realizing what a treasure dday is, and that most of his daily output never makes it to the home page. This is a big failing of those who run the site. More should be done to bring notice to David’s newsdesk page.
That said, David’s foreclosure posts only skim the surface, relying on msm or other bloggers’ efforts, without digging in like emptywheel and bmaz do. But that is not his job. Relying solely on David, emptywheel, and the occasional post by Cynthia, without any organized effort is not enough.
Yves Smith leads in this area, because she has sources none of us have. And Nomi Prins and Pam Martens. I wish these women would combine efforts on foreclosure fraud.
Good point.
I have yet to see if the m-banksters have been given their retroactive immunity through legislation today?
This cannot happen. I would sign a petition against such action.
I think a lot of those posts get a lot more play than you are giving credit for.
bmaz @ 74
I hope you’re right. I was basing my assessment on the paucity of comments.
There is a simple solution: The sheriff should throw the judges in jail. I have recently read Howard Zinn’s book in which he describes people threatening to hang judges and the judges finding new legal means (backbone) to actually deliver justice.