Wells Fargo Robosigning

Posted by kevin on March 16, 2014 under Foreclosure Blog | Comments are off for this article

Back in February, 2012, the six largest servicers entered into a $25 billion settlement with the US DOJ and the AG’s from 49 states. Thank god. No more robo-signing. No more servicer fraud. A great day for the consumer.

Not really. I started to see evidence of robo-signing after that “historic” settlement. In fact, almost all endorsements now are on allonges, and all the allonge forms are identical irrespective of the lender. What a coincidence. I am sure that Judges who saw hundreds of these “new” allonges made the same observation. One could only hope that those observations were made on the record.

Moreover, the $65-70 million earmarked to reduce principal on NJ mortgages never really materialized. I had heard from HUD counselors that the banks were walking away from underwater second mortgages (which they would have done anyway) and getting credit toward their share of the $65-70 million.

So, my take was that the $25 billion settlement may not have been a total canard, but certainly was a lot less than met the eye

Last week, in a case pending in the federal district court for the Southern District of New York, the borrower’s counsel made reference to a 150 page Foreclosure Attorney Procedures Manual which, according to the NY Post, details a procedure for processing [mortgage] notes without endorsements and obtaining endorsements and allonges. That would be fraud on a massive level. However, a Wells Fargo spokesman denied that the manual could be used to order improper documents, and admonished the public not to believe their own lying eyes, but to take WF’s word for it. Well, at least I can now sleep peacefully.

I have a few WF cases. I also have access to the manual. The next few nights of reading may prove very interesting. If so, the next few months in discovery will be worth the price of admission. I plan to take depositions including attorney depositions in the proper cases. Stay tuned. I look forward to reporting back to you