I cannot get traction with this, but I am convinced that
Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS)
is the Kingpin for this nightmare real estate terror so many Americans are suffering.
I first learned about Mortgage Electronic Registration System in the summer of 2008 when, out of curiousity, out read the newspaper classified section that lists foreclosures. I found MERS listed as the Trustee on most of the foreclosures. So I asked? Who is MERS? And that was the beginning of a very unsettling research project.
The Fraudster-in-Chief
Without the electronic highway created by those listed below, we would have never had millions of McMansions, etc built and sold, resold, flipped, sold, and foreclosed.
The Congressional history that made this heist possible is toward the end of the diary.
The originators of MERS are all of the mortgage fraud perps, although CountyWide has been replaced with Bank of America.
Something has to be done quickly before the Statute of Limitation runs out**
So, here is the empirical evidence again:
This is my speculation, based on information I gleaned from working for a large law firm for a few years.
Many of the properties that were robo-mortgaged via the MERS system, have lost their ability to produce a clear title. Therefore resale is very risky for any potential buyer. From the court's point of view, if the so-called mortgagor can't produce clear title, then they have NO position with the property.
MERS anticipated this problem in 1999 when they launched their electronic highway.
In MERS own words WRITTEN IN 1999:
MERS was created to avoid the cost and delays caused by assignments of mortgages and deeds of trust. To avoid the need to prepare and record an assignment with the County Recorder’s office, MERS holds title as nominee for the true mortgagee/beneficiary of the mortgage/deed of trust and as transfers occur, they are recorded on the MERS computer in a book entry systems similar to the transfer of stocks.
The MERS procedure for tracking the ownership of mortgages has a direct effect on the foreclosure process.
UM, you HAVE to record title every time a property changes hands and/or changes mortgagor. MERS hoped to change that rule and save all the Registry of Deeds fees, and it appears the courts recently find the MERS fantasy business model lacking.
DO NOT ALLOW CONGRESS TO CHANGE REAL ESTATE LAW TO SUIT MERS.
Here's the list of the original shareholders of MERS as of October, 2009.
MERS updates their website. Wonder why? CountryWide is not on the latest list for some reason. Sadly, Freddie Mac and Fannae Mae were in on this one. That has some big ramifications for how this is all resolved. But don't forget who was in charge during the so-called Real Estate Bubble. I call it the Real Estate Scam Trouble:
American Land Title Association
CCO Mortgage Corporation
Chase Home Mortgage Corporation of the Southeast
CitiMortgage, Inc.
Commercial Mortgage Securities Association
Corinthian Mortgage Corporation
Countrywide Home Loans, Inc.
EverHome Mortgage Company
Fannie Mae
First American Title Insurance Corporation
Freddie Mac
GMAC Residential Funding Corporation
Guaranty Bank
HSBC Finance Corporation
Merrill Lynch Credit Corporation
MGIC Investor Services Corporation
Mortgage Bankers Association* (provided training)
Nationwide Advantage Mortgage Company
PMI Mortgage Insurance Company
Stewart Title Guaranty Company
SunTrust Morgage, Inc.
United Guaranty Corporation
Washington Mutual Bank
Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
WMC Mortgage Corporation
*The Mortgage Bankers Association provided training. Here's MBA's training presentation called:
THE MERS EXPERIENCE: A Member’s Perspective from Angst to Zen
I found this document a few years ago. You can find it here online:
here: http://www.msfraud.org/...
Did you ever wonder how everyone and their brother could, all of a sudden, become a Mortgage Broker?
MERS fantasy business plan made this possible. Any/all agents of banks and mortgage companies could be dubbed MERS agents of record for the mortgages they produced in mass quantities. Now its obvious that a huge force of people was needed to produce the volumes of mortgage backed securities Wall Street needed to bundle and trade. That force was created by MERS.
And the meme "No one saw the collapse coming" I would counter with this question?
Why did MERS simultaneously produce the foreclosure plan for each state in great detail when they launched the MERS system in 1999?
Here are the state by state MERS foreclosure instructions that you can find on this site:
http://web.archive.org/...
First, this archived document has been taken down from the MERS website.
It was written in 1999 and outlines the foreclosure procedures for each state. I think this is the smoking gun, quite frankly. There used to be an interactive map that the MERS "officers" could click on for the rules in their state. For some reason, MERS decided to take this down.
Here's a snapshot of the original 1999 MERS home foreclosure tool:
You can check the MERS rules for foreclosing in your State if you want to. Open the archive link, where you will see a "select state" key. Choose and click on a state and the MERS rules originally written for foreclosure will display in a separate window (it takes a while TO LOAD, so be patient.
http://web.archive.org/...
If you are facing a foreclosure I recommend printing out the 1999 MERS foreclosure rules for your state and give it to you attorney! If you can't afford an attorney, perhaps the Judge will let you submit it.
Here are an example.
MERS Recommended Foreclosure Procedures for
CALIFORNIA
Version 1.1, 11 November 1999
A deed of trust in which the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS) is named as beneficiary requires special non-judicial foreclosure procedures. MERS was created to avoid the cost and delays caused by assignments of mortgages and deeds of trust. To avoid the need to prepare and record an assignment with the County Recorder’s office, MERS holds title as nominee for the true mortgagee/beneficiary of the mortgage/deed of trust and as transfers occur, they are recorded on the MERS computer in a book entry systems similar to the transfer of stocks.
The MERS procedure for tracking the ownership of mortgages has a direct effect on the foreclosure process. On MERS loans, MERS is shown as the record beneficiary and therefore a MERS foreclosure is brought in the name of MERS. However, at the time of sale the true beneficiary is determined by MERS and the Trustee’s Deed Upon Sale is recorded in the name of that true beneficiary. There are no assignments, additional taxes or costs when foreclosing under the MERS’ foreclosure procedures.
To achieve this result, the following non-judicial foreclosure guidelines are recommended:
On MERS loans, MERS will show as the beneficiary of record. Foreclosures should be commenced in the name of MERS. To effectuate this process, MERS has allowed each servicer to choose a select number of its own employees to act as officers for MERS. Through this process, appropriate documents may be executed at the servicer’s site on behalf of MERS by the same servicing employee that signs foreclosure documents for non-MERS loans.
Until the time of sale, the foreclosure is handled in same manner as non-MERS foreclosures. At the time of sale, if the property reverts, the Trustee’s Deed Upon Sale will follow a different procedure. Since MERS acts as nominee for the true beneficiary, it is important that the Trustee's Deed Upon Sale be made in the name of the true beneficiary and not MERS. Your title company or MERS officer can easily determine the true beneficiary. Title companies have indicated that they will insure subsequent title when these procedures are followed.
Normally, where the name of the grantee under the Trustee’s Deed Upon Sale is different than the name of the foreclosing entity, the Trustee’s Deed Upon Sale states that the "Grantee was not the foreclosing beneficiary." This designation triggers the imposition of transfer taxes on the sale. It is important to note that in a MERS foreclosure sale, even where the property reverts, the name of the grantee will be different than the name of the entity foreclosing. Nonetheless, the Trustee’s Deed Upon Sale should state that "The Grantee was the foreclosing beneficiary." This is because MERS merely holds title as nominee for the true beneficiary; it is the true beneficiary that has actually foreclosed and acquired title.
Finally, should a bankruptcy be filed, servicers should use the same procedures they use for other investor loans. Motions for Relief from Stay should be brought by the real party in interest, namely "Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as record holder and nominee for the true beneficiary _______." On Proofs of Claim, both the servicer and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. should be jointly named. The address to be used is the servicer’s address so that all trustee payments go directly to the servicer.
Here's the 2009 list for the MERS Board of Directors. These are powerful, wealthy men. This will be a battle, but a battle that must take place. I doubt any of these men need another dollar of income for the rest of their lives:
Here's the 2009 list of the Board of Directors:
MERS Board of Directors (most are CEOs or Principles):
Ed Albrigo Freddie Mac
R.K. Arnold MERSCORP, Inc.
Barry Bier GMAC Residential Holding Corp.
John Courson Mortgage Bankers Association
Henry Cunningham Cunningham & Company
S.A. Ibrahim Radian Group
John Johnson MortgageAmerica, Inc.
Leo Knight National City Mortgage
Pat Lamb P 1st National Bank of Arizona
Ron McCord First Mortgage Company, LLC
Michael Petrie Mortgage & Investment Corp.
Kurt Pfotenhauer American Land Title Association
Bruce Posey Streeter Brothers Mortgage Corp.
John Robbins Vertice Lending
Deborah Schiavo Highland Advisory Partners
Marianne Sullivan Fannie Mae Washington, D.C.
H.G. Waddell United Guaranty Residential Insurance Co.
Michael Young Cenlar Ewing, NJ
it is notable, imho, that the names of some of the banks, etc. on the two MERS lists of organizations are no longer in business. That may not bode well for those still on the lists.
**ARE THE PERPS and Congress trying to let the clock of the Statute of Limitation run out leaving us all SOL?
And will a statute of limitation apply and the culprits get away scott free?
HR 1872, "Effective Corruption Prosecutions Act of 2007"
by War on Error
Tue Jan 13, 2009 at 10:40:04 AM PST
The 5 year statute of limitation for the rampant mortgage fraud clock is ticking. It needs to be increased if we are to serve the law and justice for future generations. As most of the mortgage fraud occurred beginning in 2003 it appears many white collar criminals are beginning to breathe a big sigh of relief, unless
There is an effort to extend the Statute of Limitation
This appears to be an effort to do so:
Please contact your legislators and support:
"Congress Considers a New Public Corruption Statute
HR 1872, "Effective Corruption Prosecutions Act of 2007"
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I began following this story in the fall of 2008.
Here are the diaries as they were posted beginning in September, 2008, organized by date of origin.
Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems
ShareNew 0
by War on Error [Unsubscribe] [Edit Diary]
Thu Sep 25, 2008 at 02:30:57 PM PDT
Confusion hides sin!
CHECK OUT THE NAME OF THE HOLDER ON MANY OF THE FORECLOSED PROPERTIES. Check your own newspapers!
Mortgage Electronic Registrations Systems (MERS)! Go to minute 1:38 to witness this. Who/what is MERS? Who owns MERS? Countrywide? Now Bank of America?
MERS = An internet based system that enabled those who wrote mortgages to electronically off load them to Wall Street Hedge Funds
NOT ONCE HAS Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems been called to testify before Congress. NOT ONCE. And yet this is the named holder of the foreclosures in newspayers across the country. THIS IS THE POSSIBLE KING PIN TO BRING THIS CRIME to light.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
How Homes Were Stolen While Wall Street Partied Hardy
ShareNew 0
by War on Error [Unsubscribe] [Edit Diary]
Fri Nov 21, 2008 at 10:47:09 AM PDT
AND WHY MORTGAGE BACKED SECURITIES HAVE LESS VALUE THAN TOILET PAPER.
I think I found the KEY used by Countrywide and others to offload and bundle Mortgage Backed Securities.
CHECK OUT THE NAME OF THE HOLDER ON MANY OF THE FORECLOSED PROPERTIES. Check your own newspapers!
Mortgage Electronic Registrations Systems (MERS)! On this video you will see Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (and Countrywide) if you stop the video and look at two places: first, at the very beginning and then again at minute 1:38 of the YouTube video to witness this
.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Some Homes Saved from Foreclosure, Here's How
ShareNew 0
by War on Error [Unsubscribe] [Edit Diary]
Sun Nov 23, 2008 at 10:56:17 AM PDT
Please read BLOGVIRGIN's comment below. She thinks this info will help her save people from foreclosure.
Please pass this to anyone facing foreclosure with Mortgage Electronic Systems Registration on their foreclosure papers.
HELP PEOPLE SAVE THEIR HOMES.
To learn how the Ownership Society Scam was choreographed.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Save Homes from Foreclosure, Here's How - Please Share With Others
Share2 0
by War on Error [Unsubscribe] [Edit Diary]
Mon Nov 24, 2008 at 08:56:27 AM PDT
Information is the WEAPON to help fight the WAR ON THE MIDDLE CLASS. This info has helped others.
Please pass this to anyone facing foreclosure with Mortgage Electronic Systems Registration on their foreclosure papers.
HELP PEOPLE SAVE THEIR HOMES.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Some Homes Saved From Foreclosure, Here's How - Updated
ShareNew 0
by War on Error [Unsubscribe] [Edit Diary]
Sun Dec 07, 2008 at 12:35:52 PM PDT
Information is the WEAPON to help fight the WAR ON THE MIDDLE CLASS. This info has helped others.
Please pass this to anyone facing foreclosure with Mortgage Electronic Systems Registration on their foreclosure papers.
HELP PEOPLE SAVE THEIR HOMES.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Foreclosure Fraud Smoking Gun? MERS Foreclosure Rules Published in 1999 -
by War on Error [Unsubscribe] [Edit Diary]
Mon Feb 22, 2010 at 09:00:22 PM PDT
Is this the SMOKING GUN that can prove intended mortgage/securities fraud?
If you haven't heard of MERS, check your local newspaper to see who is foreclosing properties in your area.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
AND SOME KOSSACK HOMES MAY HAVE BEEN SAVED!!!
How I am beating the crap out of Countrywide/MERS
Share2 0
by Hangin in the Highlands [Subscribe]
Wed Sep 23, 2009 at 08:15:36 AM PDT
It is excellent news concerning the KS Supreme Court not recognizing the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services (MERS)as a legal entity with standing to foreclose in Kansas. No doubt this is going to have a monumental effect in housing and foreclosure in Kansas. Unless this case makes it to the SCOTUS however where is the relief for the millions of homeowners that are illegally being foreclosed upon as we speak? Here is my story of how I have taken a sock full of quarters to the head of Countrywide and its co-conspirator MERS. Hopefully this will help others that are having their homes taken from them by fraud, greed and deception.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Show Me The Note - KS Supreme Court Slaps Down MERS Foreclosures
Share1 0
by JerichoJ8 [Subscribe]
Tue Sep 22, 2009 at 10:08:54 PM PDT
Back in January I followed a chain of stories at MSNBC that led me to diary about April Charney's fight against predatory actions by banks and their agents foreclosing on homeowners when they didn't hold the note to the property. They had long ago sold off their interest, and therefore had no standing. The parties that bought that note were not signatories to the original contract and so they had no standing in court. Despite all of this, our courts had been allowing the predation of banks on those without the resources to fight. Then came Charney.
And now, as Ellen Brown breaks the story, the Kansas Supreme Court has just put a black eye in their game. If the banks had let cramdown proceed, they might not be in this predicament.
The way I see it, it's a good thing. Think about it. If the home is foreclosed, it gets sold for a lower price. It drags down the property values of all the homes around it. If it doesn't get resold, it could get trashed by nature, by squatters, by time itself. This decision should provide leverage to get the banks to start acting right.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
HELP PEOPLE FIGHT THIS IMMORAL ROBBERY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
Housing values never really increased. The MORTGAGE COMPANIES, Brokers, and Agents colluded to increase prices so that they could all EARN FEES each time a house flipped.
IT WAS A WELL CHOREOGRAPHED, Mafia scale heist.
WE ALL NEED TO BE UP ON THIS INFORMATION TO HELP OTHERS.
HISTORY
KIND OF SNEAKY. Makes it hard to find out who your mortgage servicer truly is!
It gets even weirder. Now foreclosed homes can be purchased by towns and FAITH BASED INITATIVES FOR AN F'N DOLLAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FEBRUARY, 2008 - Once enough homes were up for grabs, Congress passes new laws for FHA that make it possible for towns and faith based initiatives to work together to buy foreclosed homes for only $1.00 and then resell for profit. They even included laws to GIVE, not loan, money for landscaping and home repairs (almost $40,000) per home. Meanwhile, the poor homeowner who lost a home is gone. MERS gives the power to evict the homeowner to the new buyers: cities and faith based initiatives.
http://www.hud.gov/...
Here is the research needed to understand the history and how we are BEING FLEECED.
1980 Change in Federal Reserve Glass Steagal powers including interest rates
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depository_Institutions_Deregulation_and_Monetary_Control_Act
1982 - The Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982
The bill, which deregulated the Savings & Loan Industry, whose full title was "An Act to revitalize the housing industry by strengthening the financial stability of home mortgage lending institutions and ensuring the availability of home mortgage loans," was a Reagan Administration initiative.[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
1999 - Conference Report and Text of_Gramm-Leach-Bliley Bill
Repealed of the 1933 Glass Steagal Act and is attributed to
Contributing to today’s housing bubble meltdown.
http://banking.senate.gov/conf/confrpt.htm
1999 - MERS FORMS to use to bundle and sell Mortgages electronically
http://www.mersinc.org/...
1999 – Simultaneously, as if anticipating the foreclosures of the future, MERS publishes "How to Foreclose" instructions for each and every State on line for all to see.
1999 - How to Foreclose Homes Electronically
http://www.mersinc.org/...
As of 2000, Enter: The Rubber Stamp Congress! Yeah Baby, the sun shines in the board rooms and it is time to make a crap load of hey. Congress had already put in place the laws to open the floodgates of Capitalism. Ten years of political foreplay was about to pay off with a huge investment orgasm for Wall Street, et. al. And, thanks to McCain for inventing the Blackberry, everyone could secretly use our new technology to make buying and trading mortgages unabashed and untraceable.
Ah, the Millennium High Jack was to begin.
2003 - How Greenspan’s Federal Reserve helped the Wall Street Fornicators rev up the money-making, hedge-fund driven scheme into a full-blown capitalist orgy. The rate cut, which the Fed approved by an 11-1 vote at the end of a two-day meeting, pushed the funds rate, the interest that banks charge each other on overnight loans, from 1.25 percent to 1 percent, the lowest level since it averaged 0.68 percent in July 1958.
The Fed began cutting rates in January 2001 as it tried to combat an approaching recession that began in March of that year. It kept cutting rates in an effort to insulate the economy from a series of shocks ranging from terrorist attacks to corporate accounting scandals and then early this year consumer and business uncertainty about war in Iraq might do.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20030626/ai_n11401010
2/2008 - Once enough homes were up for grabs, Congress passes new laws for FHA that make it possible for towns and faith based initiatives to work together to buy foreclosed homes for only $1.00 and then resell for profit. They even included laws to GIVE, not loan, money for landscaping and home repairs (almost $40,000) per home. Meanwhile, the poor homeowner who lost a home is gone. MERS gives the power to evict the homeowner to the new buyers: cities and faith based initiatives.
How to buy a foreclosed home for ONE DOLLAR, $1.00
http://www.hud.gov/...
"WE ARE AN OWNERSHIP SOCIETY" George Bush
None this could have run so smoothly if Greenspan hadn’t dropped the interest rates so low and Congress hadn’t made it legal to offer Subprime mortgages to anyone brave or stupid enough to believe the mortgage brokers and banks when they all said, with straight faces "Hey, don't worry, your home value will go up and you can refinance in a couple of years to a fixed rate after you have also improved your credit rating. It's just the way things are done these days. Wages? Let's see, you need $300,000 for a mortgage, so let's write in that you make $90,000 a year. Is that ok with you?"
And the poor guy who wants a home for his family says "Ya, sure, whatever it takes. You guys know what your doing, I just want a home." And later than night he hears President Bush blaring WE ARE AN OWNERSHIP SOCIETY. He sweats himself to sleep worrying his family will be the only family in America without a home of their own.
My dog, Bruzer, could have gotten a mortgage in 2005, but Bruzer knew better.
The Fed was complicit. The States were complicit. The counties were complicit. The cities were complicit. Appraisers were given free hand to raise the cost of a home for years. All were complicit.
And now we, the taxpayer, are being asked to chip in $2,800 for every person in our family?
The last nail on the coffin? Paulsen is draining our Treasury!
In our new world, where physicists are hired to create Wall Street trading models, where lightly collateralized day traders are allowed to buy huge volumes of equity on a promise, and the internet enables loan officers to scoop as many debtors as time allows and then make small commissions on volume when they whisk their debtor bundles directly into Wall Street’s designer hedge funds...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Who/what is MERS? Who owns MERS? Countrywide? Now Bank of America?
We need to find out soon.