Last week's 60 Minutes piece "There Goes The Neighborhood" was depressing enough, but the real kicker comes from this revelation by Legalprise founder Michael Olenick. It seems the OCC and the current Administration continue to green-light foreclosure fraud at the behest of large banks. Here, Olenick uncovers the conflict of interest with Allonhill and Aurora Loan Services.
"On September 9, 2011, Allonhill signed an engagement letter— a definitive agreement — with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), as part of the consent order wherein servicers agreed to submit foreclosure fraud for reviewby “independent” third-party companies. The engagement letter notes that Allon founded Murrayhill, “which pioneered the concept of independent third-party oversight of loans and servicers.” But there is no mention that Murrayhill was tasked with promulgating and monitoring Aurora’s default policies and procedures.
That is, OCC chief John Walsh signed off on hiring Allon to audit her prior work for fraud.
Let’s repeat that; the OCC — an arm of President Obama’s Treasury Department — signed off, allowing a company founded and managed by the woman who created Aurora’s foreclosure
practices to audit her own firm’s work, and did so pursuant to a consent orderand under the guise of consumer protection. Allonhill, the firm that promulgated and enforced foreclosure policies, is based less than a mile away from the address listed for Murrayhill, the firm auditing for foreclosure fraud on behalf of borrowers.
Until now there has been a mountain of circumstantial evidence that the Obama administration
has been comfortable with foreclosure fraud. There is the conspicuous lack of prosecutions, unwarranted and unwelcome intervention in the 50-state Attorney General review, and references that infer robosigning is a “victimless” crime. But, until this disclosure, there has been no solid evidence the federal government is actively covering up bank-perpetrated fraud.
This arrangement clarifies that the Federal Government, at the highest levels, are comfortable, or even arguably complicit, covering up foreclosure fraud."
Any homeowner who's struggled with a mortgage modification or short sale need only look at what's actually going on behind the scenes to see the government's true intentions. Scapegoating a few execs at Fannie and Freddie (while their defense bills are being paid by taxpayers) won't fix the mortgage market. For all the President's admirable rhetoric, there's been virtually nothing done to rectify rampant criminal fraud in the mortgage and securities markets.
