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Industry expectations for a post-Cordray CFPB
Posted Date: Monday, November 20, 2017
Richard Cordray has announced his long-expected resignation from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The day after his resignation was announced to his staff, news reports began circulating that Mick Mulvaney will be appointed the interim director of the bureau after Cordray leaves. With these changes coming, and quickly, what can industry members expect from the bureau going forward?
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English plans to file injunction
Posted Date: Monday, December 4, 2017
The dispute over leadership at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headed into its second full week, as Deputy Director Leandra English said in court filings she expected to file a preliminary injunction in her case by Tuesday. Read on for more of the latest in the ongoing dispute over leadership at the bureau.
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Mortgage company seeks to quiet title, confirm mortgage
Posted Date: Monday, December 4, 2017
After a prior suit to establish a man’s co-tenant as a mortgagor, he quitclaimed his interest to the co-tenant, who then sold the property on land contract. The mortgagee filed a second suit to quiet title and confirm the continued existence of the mortgage that the man had executed. The trial court granted its motion for summary disposition, as well as the buyers’ cross-complaint against the two tenants. Read on to find out what happened on appeal.
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Couple sues bank over loan on family farm
Posted Date: Monday, December 4, 2017
After taking over farming responsibilities on their family farm, a Kansas couple went to their bank seeking advice in arranging necessary financing and the business of running a farm. When they had a hard time keeping up with payments on their line of credit, the bank advised them to consolidate their outstanding debts. They arranged for a mortgage on a portion of the property, but later found out that the mortgage was over their entire interest in the property. They filed suit against the bank and its president for, among other things, breach of fiduciary duty and slander of title. Read on for more details.
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Fraud risk down, correlated to national disasters
Posted Date: Monday, December 4, 2017
First American Financial Corporation released the First American Loan Application Defect Index for October 2017, which estimates the frequency of defects, fraudulence and misrepresentation in the information submitted in mortgage loan applications. The company’s chief economist said that while the overall index is down, the increases that are seen are in areas hit by natural disasters this year. Read on for more details.
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Head of CFPB clear, for now
Posted Date: Wednesday, November 29, 2017
When employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau walked into the office Wednesday, they knew without a doubt who their boss was, for now. Tuesday night Judge Timothy Kelly denied Deputy Director Leandra English’s motion for a temporary restraining order that would have prevented Acting Director Mick Mulvaney form performing his duties. Read on for more details.
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Florida files online notary legislation
Posted Date: Wednesday, November 29, 2017
A bill filed in the Florida House of Representatives would allow for online, remote notarizations in the state. Read on for more details.
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Bank seeks recovery from mortgagor’s wife
Posted Date: Wednesday, November 29, 2017
A man refinanced the loan on his property as a sole mortgagor-grantor, paying off the loan he had taken out with his wife. He later passed away, leaving a balance on the mortgage. Years later, the mortgagee filed suit, seeking equitable subrogation. It argued that since its loan paid off the loan the husband had held with his wife, its interest encumbered the entire property, not just the husband’s interest. Read on for more details.
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Man sues recorder’s office for submitting false deed
Posted Date: Wednesday, November 29, 2017
A man sued the County of Alameda, Calif., alleging that the county and an assistant county clerk-recorder, submitted a false instrument—a recorded deed of trust—that allowed the county to prevail in prior litigation. When the trial court granted the defendants’ motion to declare him a vexatious litigant and the defendants’ special motion to strike his complaint as a strategic lawsuit against public participation, he appealed. Read on for more details about this case.
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New York developer pleads guilty to mortgage fraud
Posted Date: Wednesday, November 29, 2017
A Brooklyn real estate developer pleaded guilty to a 13-count indictment, admitting to engaging in various real estate schemes that defrauded banks and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by creating shell corporations and forged letters to illegally purchase and/or sell multiple Brooklyn properties between 2011 and 2014. Read on for more details.
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Dueling directors, court battle weigh on post-Cordray CFPB
Posted Date: Monday, November 27, 2017
When Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employees walked into the office on Monday, they had two bosses, each believing they were the rightful successor to Director Richard Cordray, who filed his formal resignation Nov. 24, at which time he named a new deputy director of the bureau to succeed him as acting director. Within hours, President Donald Trump appointed his own acting director, as expected, leaving the bureau to question who to report to when the office opened again. On Sunday night, a suit was filed by the new deputy director’s attorney’s, seeking a temporary restraining order against Trump’s appointee. Read on for more about the events that unfolded in the last few days.
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Former business partners sue over distribution of escrow
Posted Date: Monday, November 27, 2017
After the sale of property they owned in New York, two former business partners each held half of the proceeds in escrow. When they reached an agreement about what to do with the proceeds, a third-party lien holder voiced its claim and got involved in the suit. Read on for more details.
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Minnesota governor appoints new commerce commissioner
Posted Date: Monday, November 27, 2017
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton has appointed a new commissioner of the state’s Department of Commerce. The announcement cameas the current commissioner announced his plans to step down. Read on for more details.
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New Jersey attorney, another indicted for mortgage fraud
Posted Date: Monday, November 27, 2017
A New Jersey attorney and another man were charged with running a large-scale mortgage fraud scheme that involved dozens of properties in Jersey City, Clifton, Union, and elsewhere in New Jersey and caused losses of more than $30 million. Read on for more details.
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Inmate gets 16 more years for deed fraud
Posted Date: Monday, November 27, 2017
A federal inmate was sentenced to 16 years in prison for masterminding a scheme from prison that defrauded not only property owners but the City of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania of real property. Read on for more details.
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House committee passes TRID Improvement Act, others
Posted Date: Monday, November 20, 2017
Last week, the House Financial Services Committee approved 23 bills including both the TRID Improvement Act of 2017 and the Mortgage Choice Act of 2017. Read on for more details.
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Homeowner seeks injunction in foreclosure, alleges fraud, negligence
Posted Date: Monday, November 20, 2017
Angela Cao v. BSI Financial Services Inc., Christiana Trust, Wilmington Savings Fund Society, Stanwich Mortgage Loan Trust Series 2012-10 and Stanwich Mortgage Acquisition Co., Inc. (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, No. 4:17-cv-00321)
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New Jersey woman pleads guilty to mortgage fraud
Posted Date: Monday, November 20, 2017
An Atlantic County, N.J., woman admitted her role in a more than $200,000 mortgage fraud conspiracy involving a property she purchased in Mays Landing, N.J. Read on for more details.
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Man sentenced for cyber crime against Georgia county
Posted Date: Monday, November 20, 2017
A Georgia man was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for his part in an e-mail spoofing scheme that cost Sedgwick County more than $566,000. Read on for more details.
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CFPB director will resign
Posted Date: Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Speculation was that Richard Cordray wouldn’t be in his role as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director in November 2017. When President Donald Trump took office, many expected his first move would be to fire Cordray.
Then the rumors picked up in the summer that Cordray would resign over Labor Day weekend to announce a bid for the Ohio governor’s role. That, too, didn’t materialize.
On Wednesday, however, the news came down that Cordray told his staff he would step down by the end of November. Read on for more about the move and initial industry reaction.
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Heirs, buyers dispute mineral rights
Posted Date: Wednesday, November 15, 2017
This dispute in the ownership of mineral interests in land in Karnes County, Texas seeks to determine whether a deed gifting a portion of a man’s rights to his family property to his wife negates a series of deeds purporting to convey the entirety of the family’s property to a third-party buyer. The dispute arose after a 15 year mineral reservation ended and the man’s sons sought an interest in the mineral rights to the portion of the property gifted to their mother. Read on for more details.
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Florida DFS gets new communications director
Posted Date: Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis announced that Anna Alexopoulos Farrar will join the Department of Financial Services as Communications Director. In this capacity, she will oversee the communications strategy for the department. Read on for more details.
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Real estate attorney convicted of short sale fraud
Posted Date: Wednesday, November 15, 2017
A Modesto, Calif., real estate attorney was convicted of three counts of wire fraud in connection with a fraudulent short-sale scheme. Read on for more details.
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Dual U.S. Irish citizen arraigned for mortgage fraud
Posted Date: Wednesday, November 15, 2017
A dual U.S.-Irish citizen was arraigned in federal court in Boston on charges of mortgage fraud and identity theft after being extradited from Ireland. It was Ireland’s first extradition to the United States since 2012. Read on for more details.
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Liability insurer seeks clarity of obligations under title agency’s policy
Posted Date: Monday, November 13, 2017
A professional liability insurer sued its insured title agent to clarify its obligations to indemnify and/or defend under the policy as to a claim against its insured. It argued that the title agent knew potential claim and failed to notify the insurer in time. Read on for more details.
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Illinois passes title reinsurance legislation
Posted Date: Monday, November 13, 2017
Both houses of the Illinois General Assembly have passed a bill that would amend the reinsurance provisions of the state’s Title Insurance Act. The bill awaits the governor’s signature. Read on for more details.
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FinCEN gets new director
Posted Date: Monday, November 13, 2017
The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced Kenneth A. Blanco as director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau in the Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
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Three convicted of mortgage fraud in Sacramento
Posted Date: Monday, November 13, 2017
A federal jury in Sacramento convicted three Northern California residents today of crimes relating to their involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme. Read on for more details.
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Real estate agent sentenced for mortgage fraud
Posted Date: Monday, November 13, 2017
A California real estate agent was sentenced to time in prison and ordered to pay more than $5 million in restitution for his role in a mortgage fraud scheme. Read on for more details.
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