Showing posts with label fraud. Show all posts

Friday, April 9, 2010

Where Has All the Money Gone?

Dylan Ratigan gives an excellent explanation:

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Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Great American Mortgage Scam

Protect Your Home

As foreclosures reach record numbers and the poor are blamed for the sub-prime mortgage fiasco, the real culprit, the mortgage companies and banks escape. Thousands of Americans have been scammed on their mortgages by a very clever securitization technique employed by lenders. Have you been scammed? Here's an easy way to find out:

The easiest way to determine if your "note" was converted to a negotiable instrument by your Lender and sold or traded is to examine your Note and your Deed of Trust. First, your note will have a date approximately at least one week BEFORE you actually sign it.

In the old days, your Note would say, "For value received..."

If you have a Note that the Lender wanted to convert to a negotiable instrument and make 10X the amount of the Note for themselves, your note will start out:

"In return for a loan that I have received, I promise to pay ..."

Of course you have not received an electronic transfer to your account, nor a cashier's check, nor any form of payment at all. The LENDER has completed step one of the fraud. They got you to say you already have a loan when you do not.

Step 2 is to get you to say that you own the home free and clear and can deed it to anyone you want. Of course you don't (or do you?)

Check out Page 3 of your Deed of Trust. Under Borrowers Covenants, if it says: "The borrower covenants that he/she/they are "lawfully seized of the estate."

There it is. You have told the Lender:

1) That you have already received a loan, and
2) That you own your home free and clear of encumbrances.

Based on that, the Lender slaps an allonge on the back and deposits it in their own bank, which considers it just like a cashiers check or pay order and this fractional banking technique will allow the Lender to create 10X the amount of your note. In a common scam transaction, a 1st mortgage of $324K, once sold or traded, earned the Lender $3.24 million, less $400K to pay the seller and commission. Nice payday!

The Lender has been PAID IN FULL for just your signature on the Note.

Of course they ignore the RELEASE section of the Deed of Trust which says that once PAID IN FULL they must then reconvey the property to the Borrower and release the lien. Instead it is "reconveyed" to the Lender who has already been paid in full (10X). He then sits back and gets paid again over 30 years by YOU, the generous fool that gave him the property in the first place.

NICE SCAM.

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Saturday, April 25, 2009

Beware of Consumer Check Guarantee Scam

Check Authorization and Approval Ripoff

Yesterday, I accidentally stumbled upon a consumer scam that, upon research, is apparently a nationwide effort that is creating problems for unsuspecting consumers nationwide. Here is what happened. My wife and I stopped into a Target store and when we arrived at the check-out counter, my wife wrote a check for the amount of purchase, $160.17. The clerk advised us that the check was not approved. Knowing full well that the check was good since we have much more than that in the account, I told her to run it again. She did and said we would have to use a credit or check guarantee card.

Less than happy, I was handed a receipt with the name CERTEGY on it and a telephone number of 1-800-831-7764. This company is located in Tampa. I called the number and an automated voice answered, "Welcome, Target customer". It went on to ask me for various types of identification, then told me that my check was good but it was rejected as part of a campaign that takes certain profiles of check cashers and rejects their checks to provide "greater safety", is part of a prevention program, and one that should "enhance my shopping experience". I was invited to become a Certegy Gold Member which gurantees a better check writing experience...my checks will be accepted in more retailers.

What kind of crap is this? I can write a check at any retailer without having to join your little club and pay you money to make sure my check is approved. At least that's what I thought. I went online to do some research and then it hit me. These guys sign up retailers (Target, Office Max, Circle K, Best Buy, etc.) to use their "Check Approval" services with the intention of rejecting a certain number of them without cause in an effort to sign them up for their CERTEGY GOLD MEMBER services.

Why would retailers want to sign up with this company? Because CERTEGY pays the retailer a commission on every new GOLD MEMBER. It is a scam to help retailers bring in more cash, to make money for this so-called Check Approval company, and to make life a little less convenient and more expensive for unsuspecting consumers.

I located a website filled with consumer complaints about this company. Here are just a few of the multitude of complaints. If this happens to you, complain to your Congressman.

source: CONSUMERAFFAIRS.COM

Doug of Shelby AL (04/12/09)
Certegy refused to process a check from our church account in payment of our website services with GoDaddy.com. I spent 4 days back and forth with a certegy person telling me that there was no reason our check should not clear and GoDaddy being unable to get it to go through. Finally, in desperation I asked to speak with a supervisor at Certegy who informed me that they simply were not going to process the check and there was nothing that could be done. Because of this and the many other similar compaints of this firm's arbitrary and capricious actions I WANT THIS COMPANY SHUT DOWN!!! I urge everyone not to do business with companies that use Certegy, not even in cash, and let them know the reason.

Our church's website was taken down over Easter weekend - a time when traffic would normally be expected to increase.

Sterling of Lakewood OH (12/17/08)
I went to the Target store in Rocky River tonight and had a personal check refused through Certergy, or whatever it's called. I spoke to the manager and he said he couldn't do anything about it. Well, I can. I will NEVER set foot in any of [their] stores again. I've been going to Target since it first appeared in the Cleveland area, even purchased a microwave from that store a few weeks before. I'm 54, have a credit score of about 720, have never had a personal check refused in my life until tonight, have about $5,000 in that checking account they refused! I will also strongly encourage my kids to never buy anything from [their] stores again, don't know or care what [their] malfunction is, [they] have lost a customer for life.

William of Tyler TX (04/02/09)
I purchased business cards at Office Max that cost $141 and change. I wrote a check today April 2, 2009 for the amount of the charge that the clerk at Office Max was required to check with Certegy. To my astonishment and embarassment the check was declined. I then paid Office Max with my American Express card after the clerk told me Certegy said there were not sufficient available funds to clear the check. I left the store wondering what had happened.

I called Certegy and was told that I met a flagged profile and there was nothing they could do. I called my bank and was told that, as I knew, there is several thousands of dollars available in the account and thousands more in a backup account MMA.

I gather that this is not a new problem. I would like to know if there is a class action suit for public embarassment against this company. I would like to join the action.

I am also writing to the Office Max CEO about their business associates. I am a former CFO of a large corporation and I would never do business with unethical people.

BEWARE

Friday, April 3, 2009

Kucinich Exposes HUGE Bailout Scandal

HUGE FRAUD BY BANK OF AMERICA AND MERRILL LYNCH

Dennis Kucinich exposes huge taxpayer bailout fraud by Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, dwarfing the AIG scandal. Merrill Lynch gave out over $3 BILLION in bonuses to high level executives BEFORE receiving their bailout funds and knowing they were going to receive those taxpayer funds. Kucinich calls this "theft from the American taxpayers". The money paid out in bonuses is 22X more money than the AIG bailout.

Click on Kucinich to see Video

Friday, March 13, 2009

Media and GOP Team Up to Con the Public

CRY ME A RIVER

This is ridiculous. The media has been obsessing about President Obama's plan to roll back the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans—from 35% to 39.6%—even suggesting that makes him a SOCIALIST.

But do you know what tax rate the wealthiest Americans paid on the top portion of their earnings at the end of Ronald Reagan's first term? 50%.

Under Richard Nixon? 70%. Under Dwight Eisenhower? 91%!

Shocking, right?

And for all the whining about rolling back Bush's irresponsible tax cuts, the truth is that Obama's plan cuts taxes for 95% of working Americans who are struggling to make ends meet. Further, it closes huge tax loopholes for oil companies, hedge funds and corporations that ship jobs overseas so that we can invest in the priorities that will get our economy back on track.

Set the Record Straight

Republicans are distorting the facts, and we need to set the record straight: Obama's budget asks far less of the rich than President Reagan or Nixon did.

Pass this chart on to your friends, so everyone knows the facts.

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Saturday, March 7, 2009

Kucinich Proposes Government Takeover of Federal Reserve

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men."

by: Woodrow Wilson - (1856-1924) 28th US President Date: 1916

Source: Attributed. In reference to signing the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. Probably a compilation of two quotes from his book The New Freedom, 1916. No source found for "I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country."

On June 4 1963, a little known attempt was made to strip the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the government at interest. On that day, President John F. Kennedy signed Executive Order No. 11110 that returned to the U.S. government the power to issue currency without going through the Federal Reserve. JFK's order gave the Treasury the power "to issue silver certificates against any silver bullion, silver, or standard silver dollars in the Treasury." This meant that for every ounce of silver in the U.S. Treasury's vault, the government could introduce new money into circulation. In all, Kennedy brought nearly $4.3 billion in U.S. notes into circulation. The ramifications of this bill are enormous to this day.

With the stroke of a pen, Mr. Kennedy was on his way to putting the Federal Reserve Bank of New York out of business. If enough of these silver certificates were to come into circulation they would have eliminated the demand for Federal Reserve notes. This is because the silver certificates are backed by silver and the Federal Reserve notes are not backed by anything. Executive Order 11110 could have prevented the national debt from reaching its current level, because it would have given the government the ability to repay its debt without going to the Federal Reserve and being charged interest in order to create the new money. Executive Order 11110 gave the U.S. the ability to create its own money backed by silver. It also was a major factor in his assassination.

Just five months later, JFK was assassinated and no more silver certificates were issued. Our investigation fails to show any evidence that the Executive Order was ever repealed by any U.S. President and is still valid. Why then has no president utilized it? It may be that Mr. Kucinich's attempt to get this bill through Congress may be unnecessary. Obama may already have the power.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Stimulus "Tea Party" Steeped in Deceit

Republican Tea Party Not Like the Original

As I scan through the right-wing blogs that enthusiastically are reporting that the very sparsely attended stimulus tea party somehow constituted a new counter-culture movement, I am laughing hysterically. One thing about your right wing is plainly evident, and this is that facts don't matter. One perfect example is their hysteria about Obama's birthplace. Never mind the fact that his mom was NEVER in Kenya, or that that they completely disregard this item. When asked, "Does this mean Obama was born in Hawaii"? "Yes," said Hawaii Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo, in both email and telephone interviews with the Tribune. "That's what Dr. Fukino is saying." Facts don't matter. They simply disregard them and continue their rants.

Now we have a new rallying point -- a Tea Party. What are the facts? CNBC's Rick Santelli's call for a "tea party" in Chicago next summer was quickly picked up by a website called ChicagoTeaParty.com and spread from there to the Drudge Report. However, the ChicagoTeaParty.com domain is not new. It was registered last summer by the producer of a right-wing radio show in Chicago and, the writers allege, is one of several tied to the anti-tax group FreedomWorks, which is among the sponsors of the current protests.

FreedomWorks is the latest incarnation of an organization formerly known as Citizens for a Sound Economy, which was founded in 1984 "to anonymously leverage corporate contributions into debates on public policy." CSE had close ties to Koch Industries and became one of the major recipients of grant money from conservative foundations and major corporations such as Exxon, Philip Morris, and General Motors.

In 2003, CSE's affiliate, the Citizens for a Strong Economy Foundation, split off and renamed itself Americans for Prosperity. (That group is also a sponsor of the current protests.) CSE itself merged the following year with Empower America -- another fake grassroots group created by Republican Party insiders to promote conservative candidates -- and formed FreedomWorks.

Posters at Democratic Underground have found that a number of anti-bailout and anti-stimulus groups are hosted by the dedicated servers of Citizens for a Sound Economy. In addition to cse.org, empoweramerica.org, and freedomworks.com, those servers also host such domains as angryrenter.com (which was registered in March 2008 to oppose bailouts for mortgage holders), destimulus.com, earmarkpledge.com, nowallstreetbailout.com, and usteaparty.com.

Nice spontaneous "tea party".

source: RAW STORY

Monday, February 23, 2009

Obama Speaks Out on Fiscal Responsibility

OBAMA BLASTS BUSH DISHONESTY

President Barack Obama took aim at the “casual dishonesty” of Bush administration budgets Monday, saying he’ll abandon accounting “tricks” used to hide the ballooning deficit and pledging to cut a $1.3 trillion federal shortfall in half during his first term.

“I want to be very clear,” Obama said to open a “fiscal responsibility summit” at the White House. “We cannot and will not sustain deficits like these without end. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom in Washington these past few years, we cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences to the next budget, the next administration and the next generation.”

In his brief remarks, Obama returned several times to criticism of past budget practices that clearly was aimed at President George W. Bush’s administration, suggesting the former president and his team weren’t candid with the American people about the scope of the budget difficulties.

At one point, Obama criticized “the casual dishonesty of hiding irresponsible spending with clever accounting tricks, the costly overruns, the fraud and abuse, the endless excuses. This is exactly what the American people rejected when they went to the polls. They sent us here to usher in a new era of responsibility in Washington, to start living within our means again and being straight with them about where their tax dollars are going.”

Obama also made clear that he believe he was inheriting the current budget mess from Bush — even though roughly a quarter of the $1.3 trillion deficit stems directly from Obama’s recently economic stimulus package.

Still, Obama said he would break from several of Bush’s practices in building his own 10-year budget being released Thursday. Obama said he would put the full cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars on the budget, and allocate money for natural disasters – two things Bush did not do.

“We do ourselves no favors by hiding the truth about what we spend. In order to address our fiscal crisis, we have to be candid about its scope,” Obama said.

Failure to act quickly and decisively, Obama said, “we risk sinking into another crisis down the road, as . . .our bills come due, confidence in our economy erodes and our children and grandchildren [suffer].”

CLICK TO READ FULL POLITICO ARTICLE

Sunday, February 8, 2009

No Such Thing as an Honest Republican

Michael Steele - Heir to the Republican Tradition of Deceit

I am constantly amazed that the Republican Party has been so powerful for such a long time. This is the party whose only goal is to increase the wealth of the rich and powerful at the expense of everyday people. That they have been able to pull the wool over the eyes of so many Americans for so long is a tribute to their command of such tactics as disinformation and deceit. I look upon old Abe Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower as the last honest Republicans.

The ultimate goal of the Republican Party and its single-minded corporate interests is a GLOBAL ECONOMY. That has been their goal for at least 80 years and George W. Bush's planned destruction of the U.S. economy has landed them the closest they have ever been to their goal. They DON'T WANT A MIDDLE CLASS. They want a wealthy, governing class and the workers. The RICH and the POOR. That's it.

It started with Grandpa Prescott Bush, who attempted to overthrow FDR and implement a fascist dictatorship in the U.S. based upon the ideology of Mussolini and Hitler. In 1933, Marine Corps General Smedley Butler was approached by a wealthy group of industrialists and bankers, including Prescott Bush, Dubya's grandfather, who asked him to lead rogue army of 1/2 million veterans and stage a coup to overthrow President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Their goal was to impose a fascist takeover and "to beat the Great Depression."

Operating under the umbrella of a "front group" called the American Liberty League, the group included many families that are still household names today, including Heinz, Colgate, Birds Eye and General Motors. Butler blew the whistle and identified the ringleaders in testimony given to the House Committee on un-American Activities. However, the Committee refused to even question any of the individuals named by Butler and his testimony was omitted from the record. The media ignored the story.

Prescott Bush was a partner in Brown Brothers Harriman and was also one of the proprietors of the Banking Corporation Union. Both of these companies played a key role in financing Hitler on his way to power in Germany. While we were fighting the Nazis in World War II, Prescott Bush's companies were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act because they were selling fuel to and laundering money for the Nazis. On October 20, 1942 the government ordered the confiscation of Ranking Corporation Union (owned by Prescott Bush) and also seized the Dutch-US Trade Corporation and Seamless Steel Corporation both administered by the Bush-Hamman Bank. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, on November 17, 1942, confiscated all assets of the Silesian American Corporation, which was also administered by Prescott Bush, for trading with the enemy. Investigative Journalist, John Buchanan, who conducted research along with British journalist, Duncan Campbell of the BBC, tells the story many decades after the events.

After WW2, President Eisenhower warned America to be watchful of the "Military-Industrial Complex." Flash forward to today. We now have 761 military bases worldwide staffing over 2.5 million people. Further, George W. Bush has accomplished his grandfather's goal. He has left the borders open and reduced the American economy to its worst condition since Grandpa tried to install a fascist government.

The Republican Party, famous for its "dirty tricks" and lack of ethics, in an obvious attempt to have their own Hillary Clinton, gave us Sarah Palin, a braindead version. Now, in their obvious attempts to appear inclusive (a Black Republican is an oxymoron), they have selected Michael Steele as the head of the Republican National Committee. True to the Republican tradition, Steele is now under investigation for financial fraud. It seems the newly-elected chairman of the Republican National Committee had his 2006 Senate campaign pay more than $37,000 to Brown Sugar Unlimited, a company run by Steele's sister, Monica Turner. Records show the expense being for "catering/web services," but Turner filed to dissolve her company 11 months before the payment was received.

There are also charges that Steele used money from his state campaign improperly; that Steele paid $75,000 from the state campaign to a law firm for work that was never performed; and that he or an aide transferred more than $500,000 in campaign cash from one bank to another without authorization. Mr. Steele will fit right in with traditional Republican politics so clearly established under the Bush family.

END HEMP PROHIBITION NOW

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Obama Extra Check Plan for Low-Income Seniors

Extra SSI Payment Considered

WASHINGTON – More than 7 million poor people who are elderly, blind or disabled and receive cash benefits averaging $477 a month could get an extra monthly payment as part of President-elect Barack Obama's $800 billion economic recovery plan.

Democratic congressional aides said the idea of an extra Supplemental Security Income payment is gaining traction on Capitol Hill as lawmakers and staff aides hold daily meetings to work out details of the upcoming stimulus bill. The aides spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door negotiations.

Democratic lawmakers hope to have an economic stimulus bill ready for Obama's signature by mid-February, although officials indicated Monday night that numerous provisions are unsettled.

Several said the emerging legislation likely will provide at least $70 billion over the next two years to help states meet the demand for Medicaid, which provides health care for low income people, and another $25 billion more to help individuals who cannot afford to pay for private, post-employment health benefits.

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