Quatloos! > Report From Quatloosia > May 2005

Report From Quatloosia

By Tony-the-Wonder-Llama
(May 2005)

Do you hate paying your mortgage? Yeah, I know that Congress gives you a deduction for the interest and all, but don’t you just hate writing a check out for the house that you own?

Well, anytime people hate doing something, odds are that some scam artist will figure out a way not only to make things worse, but also to fatten the scam artist’s wallet in the process. That is how it is with the so-called “Mortgage Elimination” scam that is now going around.

Like most scams, the Mortgage Elimination scam has been around for years and years. The last time that it was popular was back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when many Midwestern farmers were losing their plots of land that had been in their family for ages to the evil bankers (or, about as often, the Resolution Trust Corporation) who were foreclosing on their mortgages. Remember the movie “Field of Dreams”? In large part, that movie was about the frustration of the Iowa farmers, and, accordingly, the foreclosing bankers were portrayed as worse than blood-sucking leeches. John Cougar Mellencamp also did his famous “Farm Aid” concerts around this time.

Never missing an opportunity to profit from others’ pain, many scam artists flooded the Corn Belt selling various books and kits that espoused hinky theories about why the farmers weren’t really liable under the law to repay the banks on their loans. Many of these theories involved so-called “Allodial Title” schemes, while others involved thwarting sheriff sales by repeatedly putting bogus liens on the property. Other popular theories involved the remarkable claim that money isn’t really money, and that the banks never actually made any loans in the first place.

These same theories have resurfaced today in what is known as Mortgage Elimination strategies. Essentially, the scam artists advertise for “Mortgage Elimination” or “Debt Elimination” on internet websites, in the Penny Shopper, in the newspaper classifieds or wherever. People who have difficulty in paying their mortgages and some who are just deadbeats and don’t like to repay debts, see these adds and hook up with the scam artists. Then, they buy into a number of schemes.

Most of these scammers have similar modi operandi. First, they come up with a bunch of untrue and wild theories about why your average Federal Reserve Notes are not money. To do this, they dig up a bunch of old and out-of-context quotes from old Congressional hearings or Federal Reserve press releases, etc. Then they take the position that whatever it was that the bank advanced to the borrower, it wasn’t money; therefore, the loan was both illegal and it is illegal for the bank to require payment of the loan in money.

A similar argument posits that the bank never actually advanced anything, but created “vapor money” out of thin air by making the loan. As crazy as this sounds, it actually appeals to those whose IQs are in the mid-double digits and who never figured out the whole escrow process. Because they never actually touched any money that the bank lent them, these dullards have concluded that no money was ever actually loaned.

It’s really kind of fun to argue with those who are drunk of the Mortgage Elimination Kool-Aid, because their theories are so easily thwarted. One has only to ask “So, the seller turned over title of the house to you for free, right?” to get the deer-caught-in-the-headlights stare, followed by more indecipherable babbling about the whole Federal Reserve conspiracy.

Having decided that the original loan on the home was invalid because of the “vapor money” argument, the homeowner then goes down and files what is basically a phony release of the original loan with the county clerk’s office. This makes the property appear to be free-and-clear, allowing the homeowner to next fill out a fraudulent loan application that will allow the homeowner to receive a sizeable percentage of the (false) equity in their property. The proceeds from this loan are usually either split with the scam artists, or the scam artists generously allows the homeowner to retain up to $50,000 of it.

Of course, as soon as the new loan comes due, the homeowner defaults on that loan too. Presumably, the homeowner could repeat the cycle several times, generating several loans for the same equity in the property.

Usually, the first loan goes into default the fastest (if it is not already in default), and the first lender starts the foreclosure process – only to discover the phony release and that another financial institution has attempted to place a priority lien on the property. The first lender then goes into court to set aside the phony release, whereupon an attorney hired by the promoter appears for the borrower and makes every bogus argument to the court, including the “vapor money” argument (more on the attorney in a moment). The goal of this attorney is simply to gum up the works so badly that the first lender will simply throw up his hands and settle the case (using the money gathered from the second loan), and then this tactic is repeated for each lender in turn.

Apparently, the scam artists and those dumb enough to believe in the mortgage elimination scams think that the courts will waste their time in lengthy hearings. But courts can smell a scam like this a mile off, as a recent federal judge sitting in California did when he commented:

“ The Court here has seen the scam at work. Greater bad faith would be hard to imagine. Plaintiffs and their counsel have employed a smokescreen to burden various lending institutions and impose upon them litigation costs in hopes of extracting settlements. The complaint filed in Kenny is exemplary of plaintiffs' oppressive litigation tactics. In a 35-page, 221-paragraph complaint, plaintiffs made . . . baseless allegations [which] have no basis in fact. They are disjointed, vague and incomprehensible. Fourteen separate complaints containing nearly identical allegations were filed in this district. Moreover, plaintiffs' ‘vapor money’ theory has no basis in law. It has been squarely addressed and rejected by various courts throughout the country for over twenty years.” 1

The court then assessed liability for the lenders’ attorney fees against the promoters and their attorney, jointly and severally. The court also stated that:

“ Given the serious and disturbing nature of the allegations set forth above, including the possibility of mail and wire fraud to further an Internet scam upon distressed and vulnerable citizens about to lose their homes, not to mention the lenders, the Clerk shall send a copy of this order to [the] United States Attorney for the Northern District of California.”

Finally, the court referred the conduct of the promoter’s attorney to the State Bar of California for review (and probable disbarment).

Suffice it to say that mortgage elimination scammers may face serious difficulty in finding an attorney to take their case. The bottom line is that mortgage elimination schemes simply do not work, and the promoters of these schemes have never had a single victory against creditors. Of course that doesn’t mean that the promoters haven’t lined their pockets with huge advance fees for their kits and services, though their chances of success are a precisely calculated 0.000%.

Many of those buying into mortgage elimination schemes are people in desperate financial situations who have gotten into debt over their heads, and probably would have had to downsize their houses and lifestyles anyway. These folks might think that they are buying some time, but they have made matters dramatically worse. By making fraudulent filings with the court and bogus loan applications, they have committed perjury and risk prosecution. If that isn’t bad enough, their odds of having their debts now discharged in bankruptcy will be very low, and maybe even impossible with the new Bankruptcy Act discussed above. Usually, those scammed into buying the mortgage elimination kits are also willing suckers for de-tax schemes, which means that, on top of everything else, they are accumulating tax liability that will never be discharged.

The most recent bizarre episode in the mortgage elimination saga is the rumor that has been circulating that one of the most prolific scammers has forced Fannie Mae to their knees and is forcing them to settle cases on a mass basis. Uh, yeah, right . . . right. If anything happens, it will be mass federal prosecutions for loan fraud of both promoters and those who believed in these schemes.

A Must-Have Book on HYIPs

Following the publication of our Developments newsletter for March, we received a few messages from attorneys and other professionals seeking more information on so-called Prime Bank and High-Yield Interest Programs. While this is a subject that we have covered at Quatloos from the very start, we can’t recommend a better source than Preventing Financial Instrument Fraud, by Jon Merrett and Paul Renner, prepared by the ICC Commercial Crime Services, the anti-crime arm of the International Chamber of Commerce. This unique reference guide uncovers the mysterious world of High Yield Investment Programs (HYIP) and Financial Products such as Letters of Credit, Bank Guarantees, CD's, Safe-Keeping Receipts and more as used by Fraudsters. http://www.fraudbook.com

This is the book that you need to show your clients why the 20% per week “risk free” deal that is being proposed to them isn’t so.

Footnote

[1] Frances Kenny Family Trust v. World Savings Bank FSB, 2005 WL 106792 (N.D.Cal. Case No. C-04-03724-WHA, Jan. 19, 2005).