Judge Calls Wells Fargo’s Courtroom Behavior “Clandestine” and “Reprehensible”

[xchrom]

http://wepartypatriots.com/wp/2012/04/10/judge-calls-wells-fargos-courtroom-behavior-clandestine-and-reprehensible/

The always excellent bank watchdog blog, Naked Capitalism, recently looked into the systemic accounting abuses of Wells Fargo as court proceedings continue to reveal just how severely victims of the mortgage crisis have been affected.

But Wells Fargo’s legal team has done quite a job of hindering the legal process. Common cases in which homeowners were being charged erroneous fees and penalties while making regular payments are being held up every step of the way. One judge who reviewed the case described Wells Fargo’s tactics as “reprehensible,” according to post author, Yves Smith:

Wells Fargo has taken the position that every debtor in the district should be made to challenge, by separate suit, the proofs of claim or motions for relief from the automatic stay it files. It has steadfastly refused to audit its pleadings or proofs of claim for errors and has refused to voluntarily correct any errors that come to light except through threat of litigation. Although its own representatives have admitted that it routinely misapplied payments on loans and improperly charged fees, they have refused to correct past errors. They stubbornly insist on limiting any change in their conduct prospectively, even as they seek to collect on loans in other cases for amounts owed in error.

Wells Fargo’s conduct is clandestine. Rather than provide Jones with a complete history of his debt on an ongoing basis, Wells Fargo simply stopped communicating with Jones once it deemed him in default. At that point in time, fees and costs were assessed against his account and satisfied with postpetition payments intended for other debt without notice. Only through litigation was this practice discovered. Wells Fargo admitted to the same practices for all other loans in bankruptcy or default. As a result, it is unlikely that most debtors will be able to discern problems with their accounts without extensive discovery….

[saras]

1. Wells Fargo needs to be dismantled completely

To the point where no two executives go to the same new employer and take their bad ideas with them. Ideally these new employers would be selling cigarettes, beer, and porn, and their financial ideas would have little effect on their employers

And all their mortgages forgiven completely. All of them.

And the executives actually responsible for policies resulting in illegal actions need to be in prison.

It's not hard. It's not complicated.

[calikid]

3. The Bank of A**holes needs to be dismantled too.

I agree that it's not hard, Iceland seems to be able to do the correct thing.

[JDPriestly]

2. Classic Taibbi article -- Long, but worth reading and re-reading.

To understand the significance of this, one has to think carefully about the efficacy of fines as a punishment for a defendant pool that includes the richest people on earth — people who simply get their companies to pay their fines for them. Conversely, one has to consider the powerful deterrent to further wrongdoing that the state is missing by not introducing this particular class of people to the experience of incarceration. "You put Lloyd Blankfein in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for one six-month term, and all this bullshit would stop, all over Wall Street," says a former congressional aide. "That's all it would take. Just once."

But that hasn't happened. Because the entire system set up to monitor and regulate Wall Street is fucked up.

Just ask the people who tried to do the right thing.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216#ixzz1rkX9aVG8