<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div><img src="cid:B239214D-2177-4D2A-9EA2-675E14E5A030" alt="image.jpeg" id="B239214D-2177-4D2A-9EA2-675E14E5A030" width="688" height="381" apple-original-width="688" apple-original-height="381"><br><br><div>Seeya later, Moscow.</div><div><br></div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Post Falls, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"If not us, who?</div><div>If not now, when?"</div><div><br></div><div>- Unknown</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div><br>On Feb 4, 2012, at 8:39 AM, Art Deco <<a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>
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<h5 class="details" style="float:right">February 4, 2012</h5>
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<h1>Banks sued over electronic mortgage registry</h1>
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Michael Gormley<br>
Associated Press
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<h5>The complaint</h5>
<p>MERS was set up by banks to rapidly package and sell
mortgages as securities without recording each transaction in county
records offices. Complaints allege among other things that homeowners
have trouble responding to foreclosure actions and mortgage inaccuracies
because MERS makes it difficult to find out who owns the mortgages. </p>
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<p>ALBANY, N.Y. – New York’s attorney general on Friday accused some of
the nation’s largest banks of deceit and fraud in using an electronic
mortgage registry that he said puts homeowners at a disadvantage in
foreclosures while saving banks over $2 billion. </p>
<p>Democrat Eric Schneiderman sued Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase
and Wells Fargo over their use of the Mortgage Electronic Registration
Systems Inc., or MERS, claiming the banks submitted court documents
containing false and misleading information that appeared to provide the
authority for foreclosures when there was none. </p>
<p>The lawsuit also names the registry operator, MERSCORP Inc. of Virginia. </p>
<p>Schneiderman claims the MERS system has eliminated homeowners’
ability to track property transfers through traditional public records.
He said the electronic system now stores that data and is plagued by
inaccuracies and what the lawsuit calls “faulty and sloppy document
preparation and execution practices.” </p>
<p>“The banks created the MERS system as an end-run around the property
recording system, to facilitate the rapid securitization and sale of
mortgages,” Schneiderman said Friday. “Once the mortgages went sour,
these same banks brought foreclosure proceedings en masse based on
deceptive and fraudulent court submissions, seeking to take homes away
from people with little regard for basic legal requirements or the rule
of law.” </p>
<p>MERS spokeswoman Janis L. Smith promised to fight the lawsuit. She
said the company complies with all laws and county and state
recording regulations. </p>
<p>“Federal and state courts around the country have repeatedly upheld
the MERS business model, and the validity of MERS as legal mortgagee and
nominee for lenders,” she said. </p>
<p>J.P. Morgan Chase and Bank of America declined comment. There was no immediate comment from Wells Fargo. </p>
<p>The lawsuit also claims that over several years, “banks rapidly
securitized and sold off millions of loans, often misrepresenting the
quality and nature of the mortgages being transferred.”<br clear="all"></p></div></div></div></div><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank"><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a></a><br>
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