This is huge breaking good news on the foreclosure fraud front....
A California-based foreclosure defense attorney is going after the banks in unusual fashion, filing a Florida RICO lawsuit against J.P. Morgan Chase in Palm Beach County with a Boca Raton resident as lead plaintiff.
Attorney Jeff Barnes, who maintains an office in Boca Raton, lists 35 homeowners from several states in the legal action.
The Florida Civil Remedies for Criminal Practices Act - the civil version of Florida Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act - is used in instances where the defendant has shown a pattern of misconduct.
Barnes claims in the suit that Chase committed "nationalized fraud" by using false and fraudulent documents to foreclose on homes and in claiming it has the right to foreclose on loans made by the now defunct Washington Mutual Bank. Chase took over Washington Mutual in 2008.
Full story can be found here: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/...
From an earlier post on 4 closurefraud.org
The 29-page Complaint alleges several causes of action including violations of the Florida RICO Act, and requests temporary and permanent injunctive relief on a national level to halt all Chase-related foreclosure activity in the eight (8) separate states in which the Plaintiffs reside. The Complaint alleges a pattern of criminal activity on the part of JPMorgan Chase Bank and Chase Home Finance in connection with the institution of both judicial and non-judicial foreclosures, including but not limited to the filing and recording, in the public records, of forged and fraudulent documents; fraudulent collection activities; intentional misuse of the MERS system; and the intentional misrepresentation, in foreclosures across the United States, that Chase is the “successor in interest” to Washington Mutual Bank when in fact Chase itself has affirmatively represented, in multiple Federal court filings in different states, that it is NOT the successor in interest to WaMu, and only purchased certain defined assets and liabilities from the FDIC as Receiver for WaMu.
This civil RICO action and other civil suits by homeowners and mortgage investors will drag on for years, a major reason why the banks were hopeful for a blanket settlement with the 50 Attorney General group chaired by current Iowa AG and former advocate for the little guy Tom Miller....kudos to those who got on the rooftop and shouted "no way", recognizing 20 Billion dollars is a drop in the bucket based on the fraud committed and the resulting staggering losses in equity for the middle class. Every kid in America who finds themself sleeping in a car can at least take some measure of comfort that there is retribution coming, slowly but surely.... and Jamie Dimon can go F himself.
Funny thing is, WAMU might not be so "defunct" after all: http://www.forbes.com/...
A Delaware bankruptcy judge clouded Washington Mutual/Chase's hope for a clean bankruptcy judgment today...
A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Tuesday refused for the second time to approve bank holding company Washington Mutual Inc.'s reorganization plan.
The judge said WaMu's committee of equity security holders had made credible claims that that hedge funds supporting the plan engaged in insider trading of WMI securities based on information they obtained during the bankruptcy
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update... this certainly fits in with the "slowly but surely" and "death by a thousand cuts" meme:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Presidents George W. Bush and Obama spent more than $1 trillion in taxpayer money to bail out our largest banks and corporations. But they exacted no quid pro quo. JPMorgan Chase has recorded splendid profits and has no obligation to bail out hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing dispossession.
Instead, the battle to hold JPMorgan Chase — and its brothers in government-supported finance — accountable has fallen to state and city officials. Some in New York sound eager for a rumble (the attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, has taken a tough line, seeking piles of documents from banks, including JPMorgan Chase).
Pitchforks, too, are raised by movements like the one that Ms. Johnson has enlisted in, New York Communities for Change. Run by the reconstituted remnants of Acorn (a community organizing group laid low by conservative dirty tricksters and its own missteps), the group has joined with unions to lobby towns and cities to close accounts with Chase, unless the bank begins to write down mortgages.
This campaign has a mouse-that-roared quality. The villages of Hempstead and Freeport withdrew millions of dollars. Ithaca barred the bank from bond offerings.
Seems like a good time for each of us to look into the involvement of our towns and cities by talking to your mayor and/or councilman... this can only snowball.
