Mortgage Fraud

Royal Bank of Scotland Settles Mortgage Fraud Case for $4.9B

Published on: May 17, 2018 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Once again, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has arrived at yet another securities settlement related to its mortgage practices leading up to the 2008 housing crisis. This time, RBS is getting ready to pay almost $4.9B. The deal, reached with the US Justice Department, must still must be finalized. The DOJ had been investigating allegations that the British bank sold high risk loans between 2005 and 2007.

CNN reports that since the economic crisis, RBS has paid about $28.4B in fines and settlements, including $500M to the state of New York earlier this year to settle allegations of misrepresentations made and deceptive practices used on investors of residential mortgage-backed securities. The bank settled for $5.5B with US Federal Housing Finance Agency last year to resolve allegations that it bundled and sold more than $30B of risky loans to government-sponsored enterprises Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

RBS previously reached two settlements with the National Credit Union Administration. One, for $1.1BM in 2016, was over claims that it sold faulty mortgage-backed securities to credit unions. The other, for $129.6M, settled claims tied to alleged losses for corporate credit unions Southwest and Members United bought RMBSs. According to NCUA, RBS made misrepresentations when underwriting and selling the residential mortgage-backed securities.

Securities Cases: Medical Capital Executive To Pay Almost $40M for Private Placement Fraud, Momentum Investment Partners Accused of Not Disclosing Fees, and First Mortgage Corp. Settles Mortgage Fraud Claims

Published on: June 22, 2016 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

Ex-Medical Capital Holdings COO Gets 10 Years in Prison
Joseph J. Lampariello, the ex-president and COO of Medical Capital Holdings, has been sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison for his involvement in a private placement fraud that became the Ponzi scam responsible for the shutdown of dozens of brokerage firms. Lampariello must also pay investors almost $40M in restitution.

Medical Capital Holdings, a medical receivables financing company, supervised funds that were supposed to buy account receivables from medical providers that were credited, provide money for general operating costs, and make loans that were secure. Instead, for almost a year, Lampariello misappropriated the money investors had given for MedCap deals, using the funds to pay earlier investors and himself.

Over 700 investors were bilked of close to $49M. Meantime, the independent brokerage firms that sold MedCap notes also suffered. They got in trouble over allegations that they did not conduct the proper due diligence on Medical Capital and other private placements that ended up being scams. A lot of broker-dealers had to close up shop because of the securities fraud cases brought by investors wanting their money back from the Medical Capital fraud.

Momentum Investment Partners Faces SEC Fraud Charges
Investment advisory firm Momentum Investment Partners , doing business as Avatar Investment Management, and principal Ronald Fernandes are charged with fraud. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that the firm and Fernandes did not disclose to clients that they were charging them additional fees. Avatar is no longer in operation.

Mortgage Transfers to Nonbanks Get Closer Regulator Scrutiny

Published on: September 7, 2014 | by Shepherd Smith Edwards & Kantas, LLP

In the last two years, millions of borrowers with mortgages have been moved from banks to nonbanks. This can result in problems for home loan borrowers.

A reason for this is that a lot of banks are getting rid of their mortgage servicing rights. 14 of the leading bank servicers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), and Bank of America (BAC) have sold off over $1 trillion of these rights in the last two years. The primary buyers are nonbank servicers, which now handle one in every seven mortgages.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is engaged in the oversight of nonbanks, enacted regulations earlier this year that extended rules for banks to nonbank servicers that collect mortgage payments and deal with foreclosures and modifications. Last month, the bureau also put out guidance on new regulations that specifies the way loan transfers to nonbanks should be dealt with, including a provision mandating that buyers and sellers conduct meetings in at timely manner to talk about the continuity of service before a mortgage is handed off. Sales contracts also must stipulate that mortgage documents need to be given to the new servicer. However, a recently released CFPB statement reported that some nonbank services are billing customers incorrectly, not honoring approved modifications, and losing paperwork.