March 17, 2014

Those of you who follow this website know that Lawrence Nardi, the former WaMu mortgage manager who testified under oath that there was no schedule of mortgage loans, no assignments, no Allonges, and no endorsements as to any mortgage loans allegedly purchased by JPMorgan Chase from the FDIC, now works for Bank of America. Apparently the shuffle continues.

The United States Government has filed a lawsuit as to a scheme by Countrywide known as “The Hustle” which removed roadblocks to having mortgages approves so that Countrywide could sell as many mortgages as possible to Fannie and Freddie. The lawsuit states that Rebecca Marione, the person who ran The Hustle for Countrywide as the Chief Operating Officer of Countrywide’s subprime lending division, was repeatedly warned that The Hustle would generate excessive quantities of fraudulent or otherwise seriously defective loans that were ineligible for sale to Fannie or Freddie. However, the President of Countrywide’s subprime lending division ignored the information, continued with The Hustle as planned, and restricted the publication of quality review reports.

Marione no longer works for Countrywide or Bank of America, where she stayed after the 2009 “acquisition” by BOA of whatever assets were available for purchase from Countrywide. Where is she now? SHE RUNS THE “INDEPENDENT FORECLOSURE REVIEW” DEPARTMENT FOR JPMORGAN CHASE.

So, the executive who “looked the other way while her company removed every removed every speed bump, road block, and toll gate” (read: the regulations as to the proper origination and sale of mortgage loans under the law) is now in the position of reviewing whether all of the proper procedures were followed during the foreclosure process.

Is it thus any wonder that less than 1% of all mortgage loans “evaluated” by the “Independent” Foreclosure Review are found to have any issues?

The former inspector general for TARP has this to say: “Finding out that the person running it for JPMorgan Chase is a person whose conduct in the run-up to financial crisis was allegedly so egregious that she somehow managed to be one of the only people actually named in a case brought by the Department of Justice goes beyond irony…It speaks volumes to the banks’ true intent and lack of concern for homeowners when addressing the harm that they caused during the foreclosure crisis.”

Sounds like a class-action against the “Independent” Foreclosure Review folks may be in order for perpetrating a fraud on the American public for at least an intentional nondisclosure of a conflict of interest.

We thank one of our dedicated followers for bringing this to our attention today.

Jeff Barnes, Esq., www.ForeclosureDefenseNationwide.com