Home Mortgages Underwater : Fraud YOU Need to Know About!
May 31, 2012 in Finance, Headline, Occupy, Politics
Two Big Mortgage Frauds: MERS and Tranche Insurance Payoffs
MERS stands for “Mortgage Electronic Registry Systems,” and was started in 1997 by the big banks to help expedite the quick buying and selling of loans. They are found in 65 million mortgages across the US, about 60% of all American loans. You may find them in your mortgage chain of title posing as either the nominee mortgagee or in an assignment of your deed of trust, which is recorded at the Register of Deeds office where your property is located.
They are strictly a registry system with NO authority to buy and sell a note; and,
it appears they VOID your note if they appear ANYWHERE in your mortgage transaction. The mortgage/deed of trust cannot be separated from the note (US Supreme Court, 1872, Insurance v. Eldredge.) They are incorporated in Delaware and have offices in Reston, VA and in Flint, Michigan.
They are currently being investigated and sued in various parts of the country, including New York, Florida, and in North Carolina by Jeff Thigpen, Register of Deeds in Guilford County. Their appearance in your chain of title causes your loan to be based on fraud.
If you have not already been foreclosed on, it could be a legal basis for rescinding the loan. The organization, ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) is attempting to introduce legislation that would legalize the fraud already committed nationwide by MERS. Their membership list is not public, but their shareholders include Bank Of America, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac.
The US government is aware of their misdeeds, but homeowners have to sue them individually or as part of a class action suit to nullify your note. In NC, you may be able to get your property and title back, everything you paid on the note and loan costs, $250,000 in punitive damages, and additional treble damages under the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (NCGS Chapter 75).
During the height of the housing bubble, loans were being bundled (pooled) in groups called tranches and insured. It appears if one borrower defaulted in any one group of loans that the insurance company then PAID OFF ALL THE LOANS IN THAT GROUP. The same loan could have been bundled in several groups and paid off on multiple occasions, but the bank never bothered to tell you! Uninformed homeowners could be fighting foreclosure on a home loan that was long ago paid!
To prove that money never exchanged hands when MERS came into your loan transaction, or to find out if your loan was already paid off by an insurance company, you would have to subpoena the ORIGINAL LOAN FILE in a legal proceeding. Loan files are usually kept in a locked vault if they have not been lost altogether. (IF lost, you may prevail on voiding the foreclosure because the original note is required in NC.)
ANOTHER HELPFUL TIP: Remember, if the interest in the note was never legally transferred to anyone, the “pretender lender” can’t lawfully take your property because there is NO proof of the existence of a VALID debt, as required by NCGS 45-21.16. (See Adams, NC Court of Appeals, 2010.) You can contact Jean Taylor-Todd at annieoakleyservices@gmail.com for more information.