The way the mainstream media writes about foreclosure these days gives the uninformed reader the impression that the crisis is over and our country won that unfortunate uphill battle. The reality is different. Foreclosures are still happening all around the country. More importantly, a high percentage of those foreclosures are fraudulent, caused by rampant and systematic fraud on the part of banks, their industry accomplices, and those in office who are now settling with the perpetrators while treating the victims – the homeowners – as bare statistics.
One of those homeowners is Lainey Hashorva, a woman who after fighting to keep her home for many years, recently received a foreclosure notice from Wells Fargo. Here is her story, similar to the stories of many who have entered this ring of fire.
Senka Huskic: How much were you aware of mortgage fraud issues prior to your experiences with Wells Fargo?
Lainey Hashorva: I had no idea of anything this complex nor would I have had any interest in hearing about it. My experience with seeing the patterns of denial for assistance or refinancing my high interest home loan were what began to make me furious and curious as to denials, and I began pushing for answers.
SH: It seems you have record-breaking modification applications with Wells Fargo. What’s the reason that they keep re-opening new applications without providing any work-out offer or resolution for you?
LH: Yes I think I should apply to the Guinness book of World Records! I’ve had 31 applications for HAMP with Wells Fargo. Most of us read the articles [about] the banks incentivizing their employees with gift cards for putting files into foreclosure. I’ve experienced negligence and fraudulent behavior by many points of contact – or as I call them now, Spocs – in dealing with Wells Fargo.
One application was denied because I failed to include my husband’s earnings, even though I’ve never been married and have no husband. Due to this “error” by the servicer, I had to re-submit the documents again and start the application process again. Another denial came when the Spoc told me I wasn’t doing my profit and loss statement properly for my small business. I was exhausted, as each application takes at least three days to complete, and any mistake or error they spotted would start it all over again.
These banks are systemically perpetrating intentional negligence, denials, and ongoing delays, dragging the homeowner to foreclosure. Last year, a Spoc contacted me to open yet another review for modification. This was like number 27. Three months passed, I re-submitted every document that was requested, and I was told they were sent to underwrite for a review. Then I received a call from a new Spoc informing me that Ashley no longer worked there, that they needed additional documents, and an explanation of a W-2 from two years prior for $48.00. This was another irrelevant delay tactic. At that point I asked to speak to a manager and left him a voicemail. I informed him that Wells Fargo in my case and many others had violated the California Homeowner Bill of Rights, and that I work with the head of the National Mortgage Settlement Review as an activist and advocate for homeowners facing issues and violations with the servicing banks. I stated that I was an investigative journalist and advocate via several social media group platforms and that I needed to hear from him regarding my file and these issues.
The very next day I got a call back from Mr. Fowler. All of a sudden I was offered a trial modification. I received an agreement in writing from them. However, there were no rates in the agreement beyond the payment amounts for the three-month trial period. I made the three trial payments. I got a contract for the permanent modification, which was ridiculous – it had a short term lower rate, but had me signing away my rights to sue them for any wrongdoing past, present or future, and had a huge balloon payment due in 20 years of $220,000.
The letter and contract I received was backdated and only allowed three days for me to sign it. I had no legal counsel, could not sign these terms and had paid the trial payments. It would only put me in deeper water moving forward. They said I was now in “default” as trial payments were less than the regular payments. I tried to negotiate the terms but was denied.
SH: During this time, and after many years in this fraudulent twilight zone, you have uncovered what many other homeowners have also become aware of – this is a game that all servicers are playing, hiding the truth from the public, and when caught, they enter into settlements with our government. These settlements bring nothing to homeowners who lost their homes.
LH: It’s staggering that our justice system has so failed the American people on every level. Homeowners and families are being stripped of their only investment, losing their retirement funds, their jobs, their rights to gather and protest – the one most important thing is literally the place you live. I often think of others going through this that have kids or cancer or don’t speak English, or just don’t have the capacity to fight back.
I’ve done nothing but fight back just to get the bank to be reasonable and work with me to keep my home. Sadly they have done nothing but benefit further by twisting the process, all the while appearing to regulators as if they are in compliance with the programs.
SH: You also contacted many government agencies and officials. What were their responses, if any? What must we as society do to make these elected officials do their jobs – in protecting their constituency and justice, and not becoming accomplices to one of the biggest white collar crimes of all time?
LH: I contacted every letter in the alphabet – the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) many times, the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency), the L.A. Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, ACCE (Alliance for Californians and Community Empowerment). The CFPB submitted my complaints to the bank. Wells Fargo sent their response, denying any wrongdoing and the CFPB responded with, thanks but "we can’t act as an attorney on your behalf.”
KYHC (Keep Your Home CA) did reinstate the default with a grant paid to Wells Fargo on my behalf in addition to almost $12,000.00 of my IRA funds after being instructed to default. Then I was told that upon reinstating the arrears I could refinance or modify. This was yet another lie as I was then repeatedly denied a workable solution due to the default.
I have equity in the home as well, but due to what I’ve been through with Wells Fargo, the harm to my credit, the self-employed and diminished income, remission from a catastrophic illness and recovery, the economy, and the duress, I wouldn’t even qualify to rent right now. In seeking assistance at the congressional office and at KYHC, every employee I spoke with was a former Bank of America employee. It was surreal.
SH: Have you tried to hire a foreclosure lawyer to help you with your case?
LH: I reached out to several attorneys regarding ongoing harm done by Wells Fargo as to negligence, inducement, fraud, promissory estoppel, intentional infliction of emotional and financial harm, detrimental reliance, misrepresentation and more. Many were intimidated by taking on the big banks, some charged astronomical fees. I spoke to a firm that had a big homeowner win in California and contacted them. However, due to diminished income and telling me they needed to do a securitization audit, I fired them. They still hadn’t filed anything on my behalf.
SH: Being a small business owner brings yet another layer to your story – since you have spent many hours/days/years trying to save your home and understand what exactly is going on at Wells Fargo, your business must have suffered.
LH: Yes, so much. I created a business for myself in 1994 at the kitchen table painting glassware for holiday gifts. The response was amazing, everyone telling me that I should sell them to stores. I began to do that and it grew and grew, named [“The Magic Bean Company”]. It was magical and inspiring. I began to exhibit my work at international gift shows for the trade, creating a business out of a hobby I loved, and at one point was making over $100,000 a year selling to retailers across the country, and the world.
Eventually I consolidated the rent I paid for an apartment and my work space to buy my home. My business grew, selling to museum stores, fine craft galleries, and boutiques. I then refinanced with Wells Fargo to add a workspace to my home 10 years ago, a room with sunlight, a ceiling fan – a real work room with space, as the garage was cold and dark. The business was thriving and I was doing some commercials as well as voice-over work. But then I was diagnosed with cancer, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, and began chemo and a long rough road of illness and recovery.
Needless to say, my business suffered. Two friends literally jumped in to do the New York exhibition for me and saved my business while I had chemotherapy. After I recovered, the economy collapsed, which is what prompted me to seek assistance as many of my customers went out of business and my income had been hit hard.
SH: How did this change you as a person? How much has this affected your private life and also how much did this push you into activism and thirst for truth and justice?
LH: This has become obsessive for me, trying to understand why collectively and personally we seem to be being stripped of our investments and our homes on every level. I think what makes me so sick is that our own government and regulators allow this fraud and decimation to continue. The DOJ is receiving billion dollar settlements for it as well. It started with outrage and bewilderment and has become something that has literally taken over my life on every level. My business is now more of a hobby and barely contributing to my income now.
As to my personal life, after the cancer I felt as though I fell off the horse of my life in every way. I lost my health insurance two years ago and wasn’t able to go for checkups and that caused more financial distress and worry as to my health. Friends don’t get it unless they’ve experienced it. Explaining the mortgage fraud and the insanity of attempting to save your home from these banks makes you sound crazy. When people ask me how I am, I literally have nothing to say but “Wells Fargo...” It’s so disturbing.
Building platforms on social media, especially Facebook, I have found others in the exact same patterns and twilight zone as I am, so they get it – it’s our own form of shared trauma like a psychological Vietnam. I wrote an article called “Homeowner Hunger Games” that sums it up. Zig zag and fight for your survival. You can’t sleep. You eat, breathe and drink this stuff 24/7 to save your home.
SH: Recently you received a foreclosure notice from Wells Fargo. What are you planning to do?
LH: I am continuing my outreach to the Bureau of Consumer Affairs, am in process with Keep Your Home CA, and ACCE. I have colleagues with Occupy and Occupy Fights Foreclosure here in Los Angeles. I’m working with a nonprofit called HAVEN, and other journalists, and the head of the National Mortgage Settlement review, Joseph A. Smith, who told me several new “metrics” have been imposed on these banks based on my group contributions regarding servicing processes and abuses homeowners face.
I sent Wells Fargo and their attorneys, Pite Duncan/Clear Recon, a letter as to the TILA and RESPA violations, and FDCPA (Fair Debt Collections Practices Act) as to the verification of the debt. The bank must comply within 30 days. I’ve spoken with someone at NPR, created a YouTube channel as to my situation and other stories similar to mine. I’m also speaking with homeowner attorneys for perspective and guidance.
SH: Where can we, as a country, go from here? How can we increase general public awareness about this ongoing fraud?
LH: We need a new conversation with local and national regulators. We all need to be vocal and active beyond our groups. We need to share our stories and raise awareness, dispel shame attached to failure or foreclosure, debt or hardship while the mainstream media keeps pumping stories of recovery. We need to MOVE OUR MONEY from these banks. The middle class is gasping for justice as the housing market is bloated yet again to where it was in the early 2000s. We need to fight for what is left of the future and the very place we call home.
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DC replied on
FORECLOSURE FRAUD BY WELLS FARGO.
I was a Wells Fargo banking client for over 14 years with many accounts including my IRA,and financial adviser,past home loans paid on time and in full when they refused to renegotiate the terms of my Nov 2005 refi of my principle residence,6%,interest only for ten years that at that point I had paid 240k in interest only.
I have seen the lies,and fabricated documents submitted under oath as evidence to courts that dismiss your case because they have been given billions of dollars in Mortgage Backed Securities to their pension funds.
Wells Fargo could care less if we had a long standing banking relationship that put things into a place of "Duty of Care" or fiduciary duty they owed me as a loyal,long time client.
Their lawyers create any document needed to steal your home,no questions asked by the courts who will blackball a lawyer for questioning their holiness.
Loan Mods do not happen,not ever it is another way to get you where they want you,and they have all the info needed to rob you and not lose a wink of sleep.
It is a huge criminal conspiracy that involves every aspect of the real estate industry on every level,title,escrow,local recorders and realtors all colluding for profit and to keep the machine rolling.
Local government has zero incentive knowing that many homes get rebuilt and the prop tax soars to new heights eventually making it into their pockets.
Shameful times for our country,and whats more shameful is we allow it.
Ronda Scott replied on
Epic failure in Wells Fargo modificatiom
I am representing myself in a seven year leagal battle against Wells Fargo got closure fraud. I experienced a systematic deception game can not believe. I started off believing the first denial was a mistake. I explained that there are federal guidelines and the bank wasn't following them. I was given unaffordable payments. The bank refused to reduce the interest. I was given a bait and switch mod that violated truth in lending act. It's obvious they engaged in unfair and deceptive practices by stretching the process out for seven years and two foreclosure proceedings. I hung in there. I refused to give up. I've researched all the cases online of
Others in similar situations. I got a third modification after judge ordered the bank to comply with HAMP. I got an affordable
Payment with strings attached to benefit the bank. They inflated the loan amount beyond the homes value with high interest and fees they drummed up over seven years of violating HAMP. I complained to Senator Elizabeth Warren who is calling for criminal investigation on the bank account scam. I reported that the fraud runs deep in modifications where the bank is stealing homes and equity with fraudulent foreclosures. They are
Violating HAMP for profit. I am screaming for justice as politely as I can in the courtroom. I will find out the judge"s decision on Nov. 15. 2016. I hope the judge finds in my favor and denies the foreclosure. I have argued that the court has the authority to cancel the debt under violations of the truth in lending act. But
The criminal fraud needs to be investigated by the department of justice for racketeering. I've discovered in my own investigation and that Wells Fargo is heavily engaged in racketeering
Influenced organized crime under the disguise of a bank.