JOHN L. O'BRIEN, JR.
Register of Deeds
Phone: 978-542-1704
Fax: 978-542-1706
website:
www.salemdeeds.com
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds
Shetland Park
45 Congress Street
Suite 4100
Salem, Massachusetts 01970
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Salem, MA
June 29th, 2011
Contact:
Kevin Harvey, 1st Assistant Register
978-542-1724
kevin.harvey@sec.state.ma.us
Marie McDonnell, President, McDonnell Property Analytics, Inc.
508-694-6866
Southern Essex Registry of Deeds Audit Reveals That 75% of Assignments of
Mortgage Are Invalid; O'Brien Says Banks Responsible for an Epidemic of
Fraud. Once again urges Attorney’s General to stop Bank settlement talks.
Yesterday at the Annual Conference of The International Association of Clerks,
Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers (IACREOT), Register John O’Brien
revealed the results of an independent audit of his registry. The audit, which is
released as a legal affidavit was performed by McDonnell Property Analytics,
examined assignments of mortgage recorded in the Essex Southern District Registry
of Deeds issued to and from JPMorgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, and Bank of
America during 2010. In total, 565 assignments related to 473 unique mortgages
were analyzed.
McDonnell’s Report includes the following key findings:
- Only 16% of assignments of mortgage are valid
- 75% of assignments of mortgage are invalid.
- 9% of assignments of mortgage are questionable
- 27% of the invalid assignments are fraudulent, 35% are “robo-signed” and 10%
violate the Massachusetts Mortgage Fraud Statute.
- The identity of financial institutions that are current owners of the
mortgages could only be determined for 287 out of 473 (60%)
- There are 683 missing assignments for the 287 traced mortgages,
representing approximately $180,000 in lost recording fees per 1,000
mortgages whose current ownership can be traced.
McDonnell told O’Brien, “I have been auditing residential mortgage loans for the
past twenty years on a one-by-one basis. In the process, I have been cataloging the
ramp up in predatory lending and mortgage fraud for all of those years, but I was
not prepared for the shocking results of my audit. What this means is that the
degradation in standards of commerce by which the banks originated, sold and
securitized these mortgages are so fatally flawed that the institutions, including
many pension funds, that purchased these mortgages don’t actually own them
because the assignments of mortgage were never prepared, executed and delivered
to them in the normal course of business at the time of the transaction. In a blatant
attempt to engineer a ‘fix’ to the problem, the banks set up in-house document
execution teams, or outsourced the preparation of their assignments to third parties
who manufactured them out of thin air without researching who really owns the
mortgage.”
O’Brien asked McDonnell what this means for his constituents. “It is vitally
important for your constituents to know that if they are in foreclosure now or if
their homes have been foreclosed upon, they can stop the foreclosure from
proceeding, or institute a court action to vacate a completed foreclosure. The
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has established the law of the land in its
decisions U.S. Bank, N.A. v. Ibanez and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. LaRace and I can tell
you that every single assignment of mortgage that was recorded for the purpose of
foreclosing the homeowner is invalid, overtly fraudulent, or criminally fraudulent.
My findings also show that your constituents who are not in foreclosure, and have
never been delinquent in their payments also have clouds on title due to the
recording of defective and invalid discharges and assignments of mortgage.”
“My registry is a crime scene as evidenced by this forensic examination,” stated
John O’Brien. “This crime that has affected thousands of homeowners in Essex
County who, through no fault of their own, have had their property rights trampled
on and their chain of title compromised. This evidence has made it clear to me that
the only way we can ever determine the total economic loss and the amount damage
done to the taxpayers is by conducting a full forensic audit of all registry of deeds in
Massachusetts. I suspect that at the end of the day we are going to find that the
taxpayers have been bilked in this state alone of over 400 million dollars not
including the accrued interest plus costs and penalties. The Audit makes the finding
that this was not only a MERS problem, but a scheme also perpetuated by MERS
shareholder banks such Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan and others. I am
stunned and appalled by the fact that America’s biggest banks have played fast and
loose with people’s biggest asset – their homes. This is disgusting, and this is
criminal,” said O’Brien.
O’Brien continued “Once again I am asking Attorney General Martha Coakley and the
other state Attorney’s General to follow the lead of New York Attorney General Eric
Schneiderman and stop any settlement talks with the banks. The results of this
report are only for my registry, but I can assure you that this type of criminal fraud
is rampant across the nation. This leaves me to question why anyone would
consider settling with these banks until we know the full extent of the damage that
they have caused to the homeowners chain of title across this country and the
amount of money they have bilked the taxpayers for their failure to pay recording
fees.”
The Full Report is included with this release and may also be requested at
www.mcdonnellanalytics.com.
JOHN L. O'BRIEN, JR.
Register of Deeds
Phone: 978-542-1704
Fax: 978-542-1706
website:
www.salemdeeds.com
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds
Shetland Park
45 Congress Street
Suite 4100
Salem, Massachusetts 01970
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Salem, MA
June 29th, 2011
Contact:
Kevin Harvey, 1st Assistant Register
978-542-1724
kevin.harvey@sec.state.ma.us
Marie McDonnell, President, McDonnell Property Analytics, Inc.
508-694-6866
marie@mcdonnellanalytics.com
Southern Essex Registry of Deeds Audit Reveals That 75% of Assignments of
Mortgage Are Invalid; O'Brien Says Banks Responsible for an Epidemic of
Fraud. Once again urges Attorney’s General to stop Bank settlement talks.
Yesterday at the Annual Conference of The International Association of Clerks,
Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers (IACREOT), Register John O’Brien
revealed the results of an independent audit of his registry. The audit, which is
released as a legal affidavit was performed by McDonnell Property Analytics,
examined assignments of mortgage recorded in the Essex Southern District Registry
of Deeds issued to and from JPMorgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, and Bank of
America during 2010. In total, 565 assignments related to 473 unique mortgages
were analyzed.
McDonnell’s Report includes the following key findings:
- Only 16% of assignments of mortgage are valid
- 75% of assignments of mortgage are invalid.
- 9% of assignments of mortgage are questionable
- 27% of the invalid assignments are fraudulent, 35% are “robo-signed” and 10%
violate the Massachusetts Mortgage Fraud Statute.
- The identity of financial institutions that are current owners of the
mortgages could only be determined for 287 out of 473 (60%)
- There are 683 missing assignments for the 287 traced mortgages,
representing approximately $180,000 in lost recording fees per 1,000
mortgages whose current ownership can be traced.
McDonnell told O’Brien, “I have been auditing residential mortgage loans for the
past twenty years on a one-by-one basis. In the process, I have been cataloging the
ramp up in predatory lending and mortgage fraud for all of those years, but I was
not prepared for the shocking results of my audit. What this means is that the
degradation in standards of commerce by which the banks originated, sold and
securitized these mortgages are so fatally flawed that the institutions, including
many pension funds, that purchased these mortgages don’t actually own them
because the assignments of mortgage were never prepared, executed and delivered
to them in the normal course of business at the time of the transaction. In a blatant
attempt to engineer a ‘fix’ to the problem, the banks set up in-house document
execution teams, or outsourced the preparation of their assignments to third parties
who manufactured them out of thin air without researching who really owns the
mortgage.”
O’Brien asked McDonnell what this means for his constituents. “It is vitally
important for your constituents to know that if they are in foreclosure now or if
their homes have been foreclosed upon, they can stop the foreclosure from
proceeding, or institute a court action to vacate a completed foreclosure. The
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has established the law of the land in its
decisions U.S. Bank, N.A. v. Ibanez and Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. LaRace and I can tell
you that every single assignment of mortgage that was recorded for the purpose of
foreclosing the homeowner is invalid, overtly fraudulent, or criminally fraudulent.
My findings also show that your constituents who are not in foreclosure, and have
never been delinquent in their payments also have clouds on title due to the
recording of defective and invalid discharges and assignments of mortgage.”
“My registry is a crime scene as evidenced by this forensic examination,” stated
John O’Brien. “This crime that has affected thousands of homeowners in Essex
County who, through no fault of their own, have had their property rights trampled
on and their chain of title compromised. This evidence has made it clear to me that
the only way we can ever determine the total economic loss and the amount damage
done to the taxpayers is by conducting a full forensic audit of all registry of deeds in
Massachusetts. I suspect that at the end of the day we are going to find that the
taxpayers have been bilked in this state alone of over 400 million dollars not
including the accrued interest plus costs and penalties. The Audit makes the finding
that this was not only a MERS problem, but a scheme also perpetuated by MERS
shareholder banks such Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan and others. I am
stunned and appalled by the fact that America’s biggest banks have played fast and
loose with people’s biggest asset – their homes. This is disgusting
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