No. 4 Financial Fraud Law Issue Of The Year: Mortgage Foreclosures

The so-called subprime mortgage fiasco has led to litigation, threats of litigation, proposed settlements of actual and threatened litigation, and more litigation. It’s one thing, however, when we consider the battle over subprime mortgages as affecting huge financial institutions, federal and state regulators – and prosecutors – and senior corporate executives. It’s another thing when we consider the actual people who suffer, still, from the bubble: homeowners facing mortgage foreclosures.

And, to make matters worse, some of these homeowners face new financial frauds:  mortgage restructuring plans that are nothing more than schemes and advisers and consultants who are nothing more than thieves.
 
The number of foreclosures that have taken place over the past few years and that still remain in the courts is staggering. Bar associations try to help, federal and state regulators seek to pressure mortgage servicers, and courts are being asked to rule on the validity of everything from MERS to “robo-signing” to other practices that, up until now, had never been questioned.
 
Look at some of the headlines from our recent posts on this subject:
 
Shoddy’ Foreclosure Practices Slammed By OCC Chief
Mortgage Servicers Must Suspend Foreclosures In NY, State Says
Fraudulent Forensic Loan Audit Mortgage Modification Scam Alleged
'Esteemed Lending Services' - A Home Foreclosure Fraud?
Five National Banks Sued Over ‘Illegal Foreclosures And Loan Servicing’
Will Homeowners Facing Foreclosures See Higher Costs After Law Firm’s Closing?
Who Has Prevented 2 Million Foreclosures?
Feds’ Mortgage Foreclosure Review Underway
Banks Slow To Correct Foreclosure Deficiencies
Foreclosure Firm Steven J. Baum P.C. To Close
Mortgage Foreclosure Law Firm To Pay $2 Million Fine, Overhaul Its Practices
8 Guilty Of Bid Rigging At Foreclosure Auctions
‘Significant Weaknesses’ Found In Large Bank Foreclosure Practices
Death Knell For ‘Robo-Signing’? Morgan Stanley Now Agrees To End Practice
‘Lawlessness In Mortgage Foreclosure Process’ Should Stop Foreclosures, Group Says
‘Straw Buyers’ Key To Multi-Million Mortgage Fraud, Feds Say
Another Bank Pays Massachusetts For Subprime Mortgage Meltdown
Servicemembers Who Lost Their Homes To Begin Receiving Money From Bank of America
OCC Takes Action Against Eight Servicers For Unsafe And Unsound Foreclosure Practices
Foreclosure Fraud And A ‘Heartless” Financial Fraudster
The End Of ‘Hope Now’ – The Allegedly Fraudulent Mortgage Relief Scam, That Is
Delaware Asserts That MERS Violates State Law
Ohio Accuses GMAC Mortgage Of Fraudulent Foreclosure Practices
ACLU Challenges Florida’s ‘Mass Foreclosure Docket’
Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis: How We Got Here
Banks, MERS At Heart of Investigation of ‘Mortgage Mess’
 
For all of these reasons, mortgage foreclosures are the No. 4 Financial Fraud Law issue of the year.

 
Indeed, for all of these reasons, mortgage foreclosures may very well be a Financial Fraud Law issue of the next year, too.