We live in a world where white collar crime has become almost acceptable and the normal way of doing business. There are many of you who are feeling powerless in this twilight zone of fraud, thinking that nothing you do will have any impact on the current state of criminality. But the only way out is to take the opposite approach – to realize that every single step we take can make a change when we unite our demands for answers and accountability. The needed change will come because we will create it: we who dared to hope and take action.

As foreclosure evictions rise every day around the country, there are heroes among us – regular folks who only a few years ago knew nothing about the financial industry, mortgage securitization or law terminology. One of these people is KathyJo Torrenga, a mother of two from Muskegon, Mich., and a homeowner whose fight to keep her home involved uncovering fraud within her mortgage documents.

KathyJo and her husband Dave decided to challenge their foreclosure on their own, learning as much as they could about the complexity of mortgage securitization and the damages caused by it. Unable to find any legal representation, with their pleads for help to many government agencies unanswered, they ultimately represented themselves as they tried to postpone their foreclosure eviction.

Two weeks ago, the family was evicted from their home. KathyJo posted every step of the ordeal on her Facebook page, and here is what she told me about the impact social media outlet has had on her fight:

“All of the support in our foreclosure fraud groups are like extended family – you know, there will always be a bond in each and every one of those relationships," she said. "Losing a home to foreclosure fraud is the most humbling and spiritual experience. It's almost like a rebirth. Renewal of life."

With pressure building, two days before the family's eviction, KathyJo had a severe anxiety attack that put her in the hospital. With the support of her family and friends, she was able to go through the eviction knowing her family did everything it could to stop it. But she is determined not to stop the fight here, as the experience reinforced her belief that she must continue to oppose her wrongful foreclosure and keep spreading information to educate others in her community.

"We must speak out on behalf of our neighbors, families, friends and communities. People need to not stereotype people and their finances – not these days," KathyJo said. "Our neighbors, some current and some former, showed [up] on the day of our eviction," which was "priceless."

"People are very angry about our justice system here in Muskegon, but it's definitely not just here – it's global. This has changed me in so many ways, good ways, and some bad. I don't like that I have to teach my kids through this to not trust authority, that's a tough thing. But I am so much stronger, in every way, because of it. I really wouldn't change a thing.”

Corrupt, Criminal – And Electable?

The Torrengas family's foreclosure eviction was processed by the law firm of David Trott – known as the Michigan Foreclosure King. The King is now running for Congress (11th District of Michigan) after completing thousands of allegedly fraudulent foreclosures on behalf of his clients, to the tune of 80,000 per year. Trott has been also featured on MSNBC.

This came from his opponent’s campaign ad: “101 year old woman thrown out of her home during foreclosure eviction, with no food, no shelter, just left on the street, her life saving medication thrown in the dumpster…”

David Trott owns various firms involved in the foreclosure business, including a law firm that represents banks in foreclosure proceedings; a foreclosure paperwork processing company; six companies that process title work on foreclosed homes; and a newspaper that puts out legal notices about foreclosures. )His holdings can be found here.)

It is widely known that the lawyers in Trott's law firm were and are still using fraudulent practices in processing foreclosures, such as robosigning documents (forging signatures and making up dates); forged mortgage assignments; dual tracking, when the servicer offers a modification to a homeowner during which foreclosure proceedings should be halted; and not proceeding with mediation, which is a violation of state law before the foreclosure can take place.

The deviation of moral and legal principles is also obvious in Trott’s run for public office. The Torrenga family long assumed that the law firm was involved in their foreclosure. And once the financial statement was released, they finally had the proof.

“I suspected that his firm was involved for a long time. [But] I hadn't found the proof until he decided to run for Congress. Then I became Ms. Sherlock," said KathyJo.

"Trott had to release his financial statement because of running. On the sixth line of his investments was the very trust that his firm had on the fabricated assignment of mortgage, recorded in the Register of Deeds office. One of the two of his firms prepared that. The trust that was invested in was closed two years prior to them assigning it – the First Franklin Mortgage Loan Trust, series 2005-FF-12.

"Trott is the one claiming ownership of the trust, purported to hold my mortgage. And his law firm also fabricated documents and recorded a forged assignment in my land records. I went to the auctions sales every Friday for a whole year. In the meantime, they stopped having auction sales.

"David Trott also owned the brokerage company where we applied, as well as the title company, Talon Group Title Services. He also owns the place where he publishes his foreclosures, The Detroit Legal News. You have to subscribe in order to find the publication. As of yesterday, nothing has changed in the Register of Deeds – only the fraudulent assignments prepared by Trott's firm.

"My family didn't ask for this. It just fell into our lives, and I'm no longer asking why. I know it's for a purpose and only a good purpose,” said KathyJo.

To find out more about Trott’s law firm illegalities, I contacted Michigan’s Ingham County Register of Deeds, Curtis Hertel, Jr., who told me in the bluntest language possible that “David Trott is the foreclosure king of Michigan who has built a machine that feeds off of human misery."

"He has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying the legislature to assure there is no due process for our citizens in the foreclosure process. His firm has definitely filed fraudulent documents in my office and used them to take families' homes. His claim that he is a conservative Republican should be highly skeptical because of the amount of federal bailout dollars his firm received through the major banks and Freddie and Fannie," said Hertel.

Let me restate that mortgage fraud is not only about illegalities in people's mortgage documents. These mortgages have also been sold as parts of an investment vehicle – MBS, or mortgage backed securities – all over the world. Many municipalities in America heavily invested in MBS, now known as toxic material. And the most intriguing fact is that the pension funds for many judges have also heavily invested in these MBS. These are the same judges who are deciding the outcomes of America's foreclosure cases.

What will happen with these pension funds once the domino effect hits? Those in charge were ready to sacrifice homeowners, silently watching while they were thrown out of their homes in so many wrongful foreclosure evictions. To date, statistics show that only 3% of all foreclosures in the country are being challenged by homeowners. There are various reasons for this, including lack of homeowner knowledge about their legal rights and lack of financial ability to seek legal help.

The complete incompetency of our federal government also plays a very important role in many uncontested foreclosures across the country. Members of U.S. government have left the people who elected them to fight on their own. Meanwhile, on the other side we're witnessing many government settlements with big banks on mortgage backed securities fraud. The homeowners who lost their homes due to mortgage fraud, or who are in the process of losing their homes, do not gain anything from these settlements.

That is why KathyJo Torrenga speaks up for many families who need to be heard – who need that voice and assurance that they still matter.

“I hope people just hang in there, [though] I know that this may sound ridiculous to those who have been victims of this terrifying, unreal, ugly situation. I can only pray that they speak up and tell everyone they know. It took me a while, people probably still get sick of me talking about what these banks continue to do. It is who I am now.

"I hope that our stories help – that the right person, who may be feeling weak, afraid or uncertain, will be reading and take some power back that they probably forgot they own," she added. "I believe we will see justice. Maybe not in my case or yours, but I try to just believe anything is possible. Positive and negative, I'm staying on the side of positive. It shakes their ugliness off me.”

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