Articles Posted in Real Estate

Following the 1929 Wall Street Crash, the U.S. economy had gone into a depression, and a large number of banks failed. The Pecora Investigation sought to uncover the causes of the financial collapse.  Lasting from 1932 through 1934, and named for the Commission’s fourth and final chief council, Ferdinand Pecora, the Commission experienced a rocky political course…

If at any time since the year 2000, you purchased an American home financed with a mortgage, you most likely will have a MERS(Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems) or MOM(MERS as Mortgagee) Mortgage. If you are in South Florida, you can look up mortgages online on the following County Official Records websites: Palm Beach County Broward…

Tom Grady, a wealthy Naples resident and former Florida state representative (R-Naples), served in the Florida House from 2008 until 2010.  He did not run for re-election in 2010.  Instead, Kathleen Passidomo was ran unopposed in Naples.  In 2011, Grady was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to be the Commissioner of the Office of Financial Regulation.  He’s…

“When the banks went under and the stock market went way down … I lost [most] of it,” said Charlotte Wahlstrom, 74,  who lives in a trailer in a small town in Michigan and gets by on $140/month in food stamps. This wasn’t part of her retirement plan. After her divorce in 1976, Wahlstrom continued…

When financed through complex credit schemes that lack basic consumer protections, homeownership and higher education can quickly become debt shackles instead of the promised brass ring of financial security and middle class status.  In today’s harsh economic and jobs climate, education debt that burdens millions of young Americans is often far in excess of their…

The National Mortgage Settlement which gave Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Chase, and Citi a very easy out for massive financial and real estate crimes is getting a lot of mainstream media coverage in the wake of the release of the first report card. The full report card is here.  Florida’s stats are on page…

When a family is sued for foreclosure of their home by a Wall Street investment scam, the lawsuit looks something like this, U.S. Bank as Trustee for CMLT 2007-AMC2 v Jane Smith and John Smith.   In this lawsuit, U.S. Bank as Trustee for CMLT 2007-AMC2 has no problem with hiring a foreclosure mill lawyer to file papers with an…

When the federal protections put in place to prevent another financial crash after the Great Depression (Glass-Steagall Act of 1933) were repealed in 1999 (Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act) it wasn’t long before the 2008 financial crash followed.  Then came a massive bank bailout in which programs were implemented to help prop up failing financial institutions with hundreds…

The Department of Justice, which has not exactly been chomping at the bit to investigate or prosecute the financial industry fraud that lead to the global economic crash, the depletion of savings, and the loss of millions of American families’ homes, has settled with three banks over “discriminatory lending practices”.   Our firm, which specializes in…

I have been asked, many times, over the past several years of handling foreclosure defense cases, by friends, family, and other attorneys, what is foreclosure defense? There is routinely a follow up of, “aren’t you just trying to buy people time, isn’t that all you can do?” Sometimes helping a client obtain extra time is…