Well the dog-and-pony show that was JP Morgan Chase shareholders meeting came and went.

If you blinked, you probably missed it.

Jamie Dimon’s heart-to-heart with his shareholders lasted a whopping 50 minutes on Tuesday. Apparently that was all the time he felt he needed to trot out the same apology speech he gave on Meet the Press, and then duck for cover.

And surprise surprise, nothing changed. Dimon held onto his dual roles as chairman and CEO, as I fully expected he would.

To the shareholders credit, they didn’t take this lying down. They challenged his role as a member of the New York Federal Reserve. They kept the heat on Dimon for Chase’s role in the mortgage servicing fiasco.

But Dimon’s responses were cursory at best, a brush off no different than the ones homeowners have gotten from Chase. They were hardly worth the price of admission.

Now I’m no conspiracy theorist, but clearly Chase held back this information about their $2 billion oops until after all the votes were in. That is clear.

Dimon may be saying the right things in public, but his actions clearly show that he is doing everything possible to downplay this loss. But if it goes unchecked, it could be a harbinger of even BIGGER losses.

Every consumer needs to a long hard look at the the way these banks do business and the interwoven relationship between these banks and our government. Not only are these banks too big to fail, but Dimon himself has become too big to fail in his own right.

The idea that he is both chairman and CEO essentially allows him to be judge, jury and executioner of his bank’s money. It’s too much influence for one man to have, and as this trading loss shows, it proves a need for proper checks and balances, not just for the banking industry, but within the individual banks themselves.

And if the government is going to be serious about financial reform, it has to come down hard on JP Morgan Chase, because Dimon won’t take care of business himself.

Unless he removes himself from the New York Fed, how can we take a thing he says seriously?

He calls his position on the Federal Reserve ‘an advisory role’, but it’s just further proof that it is impossible to tell where the banks end and the government begins.

It is a real problem how some Feds are encompassed by the Big Banks, and Dimon’s position is me example. The largest banks are creating a system that is there to protect their own hides, which is not what the Federal Reserve is intended for, at least on paper.

The Fed needs to be working to stabilize the economy and protect consumers from interest rate spikes and unemployment spikes, but it sure seems like they are there to make sure the banks will have some kind of liquidity, and for the banks to have a bailout big brother in DC whenever they need it.

While the FBI is investigating the trading loss, I have serious concerns about its legitimacy. President Obama points to JP Morgan’s actions when talking about the need for financial reform, but he also described Dimon “one of the smartest bankers we’ve got”, so the President is too is talking out of both sides.

Both the President and Dimon are conveniently overlooking how strong Dimon has campaigned against legit regulation, not to mention that Dimon has been to the White House 18 times, and had a private meeting with Tim Geithner just last March!. (For the record, I’ve been told my invitation is in the mail!)

For Dimon to suggest he is 80 percent for Dodd-Frank is fallacious, because he has been one of it’s most outspoken critics. JP Morgan has done everything possible to make sure Dodd-Frank lacked teeth, and it’s why we still haven’t gotten away from Too Big To Fail.

There have already been a few lawsuits over the $2 billion trading loss, and there are sure to be many more.

If the federal government does not take this incident with a sense of urgency, then it can only be a matter of time before the other shoe drops.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

Jamie Dimon may present himself as a apologetic CEO, but that is not his true face.

The Jamie Dimon Apology Tour is in full swing.

Perhaps you caught the first stop on this weekend’s Meet the Press. The chairman of JP Morgan Chase is trying to play us for suckers, publicly apologizing for his bank’s $2 billion loss.

He called it an “egregious mistake”. He claims he want to get rid of “Too Big To Fail”, and that he supported “portions” of the Dodd-Frank rule.

It might be one of the best acting performances I’ve seen all year. I think his chances of taking home an Oscar are all but guaranteed.

Maybe he had David Gregory fooled, (The NBC host’s lack of tough follow-up questions would seem to indicate it) but I am not buying it.

The reality is had JP Morgan not lobbied so hard against Dodd-Frank, and paid the lobbyists as much as they did, Dodd-Frank would have been much, much tougher, and Dimon would have $2 billion more in his coiffures.

It’s irony in its purest form.

This loss, which came on some very risky trades, is a perfect symbol of Wall Street’s hubris and greed. And it just goes to show you that the big banks have learned nothing from the crisis of years past.

And neither has Dimon. His apology on Meet The Press was the vocal equivalent of crocodile tears. He is another Chameleon, another Two-Face, putting on a public show for the masses, while privately lambasting anyone who is really looking to end “Too Big To Fail” when he thinks we are not paying attention.

I have to give credit to Gretchen Morgenson and the New York Times for helping expose Dimon as a hypocrite. Just a month ago, at a dinner for some JP Morgan’s wealthiest clients in Dallas, the Times reports Dimon attacked two men who are really trying to bring the banks back down to a manageable size.

One of them is Paul Volcker, the ex-chairman of the Federal Reserve, whose Volcker Rule could have very well prevented JP Morgan from engaging in the type of risky investments that lost them the $2 billion in the first place.

The 2nd is Richard Fisher, president of The Dallas Fed, whose annual report I praised here, who has openly called for a break-up of the big banks, like JP Morgan Chase.

Dimon called the men’s arguments against the large banks “infantile” and “nonfactual”, and Morgenson alleges he further lambasted Fisher, to the shock of many of the guests.

Dimon will be in Tampa tomorrow for JP Morgan’s annual shareholders meeting, and it’s a shame most have already placed their votes, because if they had not, I’m sure they would reconsider approving Dimon’s lofty salary.

Dimon must really think we are suckers if thinks we will accept his phony apology. He is still trying to save face and present JP Morgan Chase as a healthy company, but if you think this $2 billion loss is an isolated incident, think again.

The big banks have made tons of bets simply to increase its bottom line, it’s just this time they were exposed reaching into the cookie jar yet again. Except this time there weren’t any cookies for them to grab.

Maybe this loss will not have a lasting impact on our financial markets, but the next one very well might. And that is why the average American needs to be paying attention to these types of risky bets.

The next bad bet could be ten times bigger, and could drag down the entire economy with it, creating a systemic collapse far worse than anything we’ve seen to date.

It will most certainly happen again if the government does not reel them in. I think people are ultimately going to put their faith in government regulation, there simply is no other way of dealing with this. And it is the legislature’s job to do so.

Our government must step up. Last week Republicans shot down a bill that would have fully funded Eric Schneiderman’s Mortgage Fraud Task Force. Just as with the original version of Dodd-Frank, the tools were set into motion, but have not come to fruition.

If the rug keeps being pulled out from meaningful regulation, they will never have the tools to pursue vindication and justice.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

I’m not a reader of tea leaves, so I am not about to guess how the Florida Supreme Court will ultimately rule on Roman Pino vs. The Bank of New York.

But listening to the justices attack Amanda Lundergan, Roman Pino’s attorney, while seemingly going much easier on Bruce Rogow, the bank’s very well-respected lawyer, was at best, discouraging.

It’s common for the justices to try to poke holes in an attorney’s case, and it does not always mean that you can predict what their decision will be.

But with the thousands surely watching Thursday’s hearing, I was hoping the Court would have been a little more sensitive to the perception that they were most certainly creating, that the banks already have this one in the bag.

As a whole I found the Supreme Court judges flippant to the obvious fraud that Bank of New York has brought before the court in this case.

And for the Court to downplay the importance of that fraud, and what it means to the integrity of the judicial system, was offensive.

If you were an average homeowner watching yesterday’s hearing, I am pretty sure you came away with a feeling that the playing field is not level, and there are two different sets of rules for the banks and for the rest of us.

That is truly unfortunate.

The Supreme Court has to be above the fray, and they must not abdicate their responsibility to police their own system.

Which is exactly what would happen if the Court allows the phony documents, the fraudulent backdating, the bogus notes and assignments to be brought before them without penalty.

They would be inviting any plaintiff to bring whatever kind of garbage into the courthouse they choose, because if they get caught, all they have to do is withdraw!

The right to withdraw a case should not be used as a shield to protect yourself when you engage in illegal conduct. It’s the Court’s duty to sanction that conduct and hold the parties accountable, whether it be the banks, the attorneys, even another judge.

And that’s what Roman Pino vs Bank of New York is really about. It’s not about the harm done to Mr. Pino, or whether or not he’s ‘getting a free house’.

It is not OK to just hit the reset button whenever it suits the banks to do so.

The banks are terrified they might actually be held accountable for their actions!

If you haven’t already heard, there is a monumental case that was heard Thursday morning in the Florida Supreme Court, and every single homeowner should be paying close attention to this case.

To watch a replay of the oral arguments, please click here.

The case is Roman Pino vs. Bank of New York. It involves all the customary fraud I have seen in countless cases.

Missing documents, fraudulent assignments, fraudulents notaries, and forged documents, and a bank once again trying to shuffle it’s dirty deeds under the rug like loose dirt.

When Bank of New York first tried to foreclose on Pino, a regular working guy from Greenacres who fell behind on his mortgage when his business dried up, there was no assignment of mortgage.

So Bank Of New York’s lawyers tried to re-file with a new assignment, one which was fraudulently backdated (AKA robosigned).

The bank’s original lawyers, by the way, were from David J. Stern’s office. You know their story.

When our good friend and colleague Tom Ice, Pino’s lawyer, challenged the documents, Bank of New York suddenly decided they didn’t want to foreclosure anymore, dropped their lawsuit and scurried back into their hole.

End of the story??

Not even close. Ice continued to dog Bank of New York like a pitbull, because he, believe it or not, also thinks the banks need to actually be held accountable! (Remarkable I know.)

He tried to have the voluntary dismissal overturned, so that Bank of New York could face sanctions for the forged documents they tried to use to swindle Roman Pino and the court.

Like countless others banks, Bank of New York got their hand caught in the cookie jar. But now they are trying to remove their hand before it slams on them.

While the lower courts have sided with the bank and refused to overturn the dismissal, the 4th District Court of Appeal has asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on a question of “great legal importance, which in their own words, “has the potential to impact the mortgage foreclosure crisis”, since “many, many mortgage foreclosures appear tainted with suspect documents.”

The question is whether banks can avoid punishment simply by dropping a foreclosure lawsuit.

So now you know why this case, and the legal implications it carries, has the entire banking industry shaking in their ratskin boots.

Even though Pino has already settled with Bank of New York, and ‘remarkably’ got to keep his home, the effect this decision will have will go far beyond Roman Pino.

It could finally mean justice for homeowners throughout the state of Florida.

The Mortgage Bankers Association and the Florida Bankers Association have filed a brief with the court, as have the American Land Title Association and the Florida Land Title Association.

Guess who they are backing?

All of these organizations are asking the Court to rule in Bank of New York’s favor, so they can continue the status quo.

The banks are playing a shell game, trying to get the Court to overlook the obvious frauds committed by Bank of New York, all in the name of a “potentially devastating” economic effect a judgement against Bank of New York might have.

In their brief the Bankers Associations claim that banks will write less home loans if they can’t dismiss and then re-file a foreclosure.

Is that a threat?

What they are really saying is ‘Just let us keep doing what we’ve been doing, and let’s forget all about the rules of law.”

The housing market will be just fine. This is a scare tactic on the part of the banks, so please don’t be fooled. They are just worried their con-game will come to an end.

What the Pino case is really about is the court protecting the integrity of the judicial system and protecting the constitution. It is imperative for court to rule against Bank of New York to keep its own integrity above repute.

It’s unfathomable that a bank could simply avoid punishment for a crime that would land you or me in jail just because they decided to drop their lawsuit.

Bank of New York is arguing the case should be left alone, because engaging in fraud is not reason enough to overturn the dismissal.

If the justices dismiss this case, banks will be able to walk away from their transgressions whenever they choose. It’s not only inappropriate, but outrageous.

Roman Pino vs Bank of New York goes to the heart of protecting our constitutional democracy, and it’s critical that the Florida Supreme Court reign in the illegal conduct and behavior of the banks, because as Ice wrote in his brief, the court should not “draw a line that protects wrongdoers and blesses fraud upon the court.”

If the justices side with the banks they will be encouraging continued falsehoods, their impartiality will be implicated, and a form a anarchy that will ultimately lead to total disrespect for our constitutional principles will be unleashed.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

A group from the Miami Workers Center clean up the area around an abandoned bank-owned house, as police officers wait nearby (Photo Courtesy:Miami Workers Group)

It never ceases to amaze me the glaring duality of the world I live in.

I am constantly reminded that we live in world where you and I have to play by one set of rules, yet the vast financial complex that resides on Wall Street isn’t held to even a fraction of those standards.

The latest example comes way of a small protest in Liberty City last week.

A few members of the Miami Workers Center, a grassroots organization, arrived at an abandoned foreclosed home, a property that like countless others is nothing more than a glorified trash dump.

Their nefarious plot? To clean the home up, and try to make it a little less of an eyesore.

Scary right?

And what did this group, which included a grandmother and an pregnant woman, encounter when they arrived at that home?

About a half dozen cops, who threatened to arrest any of them if they stepped foot on the Bank Of America-owned property.

The protesters, to their credit, didn’t give up and cleaned up the public areas around the home. Not once was a burglary tool spotted.

The officers watched over these men and women like mother hens as they picked up beer bottles and broken glass, among other fabulous ‘accessories’ the home had accumulated over the last few years. (Bank of America took the home in 2010.)

But when the banks not only trespass, but break into my clients homes? How many police officers can I get on the case? Not a single one.

Even after the banks burglarize a home, when I have proof of a crime that would land you or I in jail, I am told it’s a civil matter, if I even get that.

Usually all I am left with is a big shrug. Banks can change locks or even tear a house apart, yet when a few ladies decide to pick up trash and try to better a neighborhood, that’s when the cops decide to enforce the laws?

Why do the property rights of banks, banks that simply do not care about their neighbors, mean more to the police than that of good citizens?

As Newsweek joined the voices wondering if in fact the banks are too big to jail, I ask you, how can we put them behind bars if we can’t even get an officer to respond?

Bankers have access and influence that just hasn’t been broken, even by a President who promised hope and change.

Newsweek points out that when it comes to justice in the financial sector, President Obama has not lived up to the hype.

Now he’s been busy when it comes to civil rights or health-care fraud, but when it comes to financial fraud the feds just can’t be bothered.

Prosecutions of financial crimes are at 20 years lows, and they’ve dropped nearly 40 percent since 2003.

Once again, it comes down to two sets of rules. Bankers get to pick and choose which rules they play by, but citizens trying to do some good don’t get that luxury.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

• Banks make bad neighbors.

It’s been one of my mantras for years, and it’s a statement that is again reverberating across the country thanks to The Sun-Sentinel’s 3-part series “Bad Neighbor Banks”.

Thanks to the Sentinel, 60 Minutes, and the National Fair Housing Alliance, we are seeing the hard data that back up my assertion that banks, once they foreclose and take control of a property, just leave them to rot.

The grass no longer gets cut,the garbage accumulates, and before too long you end up with widespread blight not just in urban neighborhoods, but suburbia as well.

It’s the reason why I fight so hard to keep people in their homes. You and I are just better off when you have homeowners, vested in their houses and the neighborhoods they live in, keeping up their homes.

In the Sun-Sentinel’s series there is example after example of banks not doing even the most basic of maintenance. And their argument is usually, ‘It’s not our job’.

A bank has no investment in the neighborhoods you live in, beyond their own bottom line, and the banks have all but admitted it.

“The bank itself has no economic interest or ownership stake in the properties,” a spokesman for Deutsche Bank told the Sun-Sentinel.

So I ask you again, why would you ever want a bank as a neighbor?

The numbers don’t lie. The Sun-Sentinel found 10,300 code violations in bank-owned homes in South Florida since 2007. In the cities they tracked 40 percent of bank-owned homes were cited last year.

So chances are you are living next to one of these eyesores. And I’m betting you’re not too happy about it.

The threat of foreclosure blight is far from simply cosmetic. They become havens for illegal activity, for drug use and gangs.

The Sun-Sentinel cited a Miramar toddler’s 2009 death where a boy wandered into the backyard of an empty foreclosed house and drowned. The boy’s mom told the police the water was dark and full of garbage.

Foreclosure blight is just impossible to ignore, not that the banks and many at the top haven’t tried. Thankfully Florida governor Rick Scott finally took notice, not that I expect much to come from it.

On the one hand he sounded concerned, but in his very next breath he deflected blame from the banks, pointing instead to the poor economy as the reason for the rapid spread of foreclosure blight.

Last time I checked the economy doesn’t own these homes. Banks do.

Let’s not forget who put this governor into office. The banks fully supported Rick Scott’s campaign; I can’t imagine that he will do anything that will harm the banks.

Which means it’s up to the local cities and town to nail the banks and take back their neighborhoods.

Some municipalities are now trying more aggressive tactics, from issuing subpoenas to bank officials to citing banks before they have the title in their hands. But many just haven’t had the mustard to really go after the banks.

Most of the fines or liens issued against the banks just get ignored.

These are at best desperate tactics, if cities really want to get the banks attention, they should hire outside counsel and sue the pants off the banks.

Most local governments just don’t have the resources to take on the banks in a court of law, so just like homeowners, they need to lawyer up.

But the truth is most of these abandoned homes are just too far gone. We don’t have the luxury of waiting for banks to step up.

As I said in my last blog, Pam Bondi should be giving some of the $300 million Florida is getting from the foreclosure settlement to give to cities and towns, so they can raze these decrepit homes and take their neighborhoods back.

It’s time for the banks to stop being slumlords and rotten neighbors.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi

She is openly soliciting your suggestions through her website from now until May 14th. As a foreclosure defense attorney and one of the people on the front lines of the housing crisis, I have more than a few ideas.

So Pam, please consider this my open letter to you and your office.

First and foremost, here is what you should NOT do with the money. Don’t throw it at principal reduction. It will have virtually no impact on Florida’s communities, it would be like throwing the money into quicksand.

So far, Florida’s efforts to offer financial relief to homeowners have just fallen flat.

Florida’s Hardest Hit program just hasn’t worked, and even recent changes to the program’s requirements will not help it reach enough people.

Move The Banks Out of Your Cities

What you need to do Ms. Bondi, is use the money to make systemic changes to Florida’s housing market.

First, give the money to your towns and cities to clear out Florida’s foreclosure blight. Blight caused by the abundance of abandoned homes the banks own, but refuse to take care of.

I’ve long told my readers that banks are bad neighbors, and the Sun-Sentinel now has the numbers that make my case.

Ms. Bondi, despite what your boss says, banks are the problem and you need to get them out of your cities and towns. Give your local governments the ammo to do it.

Your local cities are already going after the banks to try to force them to maintain their homes, as any property owner SHOULD do, but liens and fines mean nothing to these “Too Big To Fail” banks.

So give the money to local Florida municipalities so they can condemn and demolish these eyesores. Then let the cities buy these properties from the banks at their ‘true value’ and auction them off. Let new homes be built.

This will stabilize Florida’s neighborhoods and the real estate market, and in the end reduce suburban blight.

Take Back Your Property Records

Next, support your local clerks by giving them some of the money to support their investigations into MERS. Banks have violated the rules of real estate ownership with this fraudulent record keeping system and thankfully a few clerks, both in Florida and across the country have taken action by filing lawsuits against MERS.

This is the type of action you need to be encouraging and funding. MERS has destroyed our recordation system and turned what once was one of America’s strongest selling points and turned it into a laughing stock.

Our ability to control property ownership records used to be protected by our government, but over the last few years records have been bastardized and suddenly we’re more concerned with protecting banks ownership interests instead of the rights of regular citizens.

The banks have lost control over their own mortgages and it’s time to give your clerks the ability to seize control of these records back from the banks.

Give All Your Constituents Access to Legal Counsel

Lastly, it’s important that anyone have the access to good legal advice when defending their home. Not everyone can afford to hire a foreclosure defense attorney, and when homeowners go without representation, the banks trample all over them.

There are not-for-profit legal counsels offering help to homeowners, but many are understaffed or undertrained. Pam you could help fund these centers with the foreclosure settlement money,

If needed, use the money to offer specialized training to their staffs, so they can offer the same legal advice I offer to my clients.

Homeowners need help in undoing the wholesale violation of their property and constitutional rights, rights which are the bedrock of this nation. They need these rights restored.

Finally if you have any funds left bring an anti-trust action yourself, on the grounds that the banks are too big, anti-competitive and have harmed the state.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

Not only is America’s foreclosure crisis still going strong, it now comes with even more fraud and deception.

With heightened media coverage surrounding the recent national mortgage settlement and refinements to government assistance programs, experts say selling “the schtick” has only become easier for criminals. But there are red flags consumers can watch out for when trying to determine whether or not an organization is legit.

First, homeowners should never have to pay anything up front for a loan modification or information on how to negotiate with their lender, says Roy Oppenheim, whose Florida-based law firm Oppenheim Law has handled more than 1,000 mortgage and foreclosure fraud cases over the past 5 years.

“If you’re paying upfront to a non-lawyer who’s claiming they can modify your loan, that’s a big scam,” Oppenheim says.

Read More from US News and World Report

Short Sales Soar as Home Foreclosures Fall

The foreclosure crisis isn’t over, but a new trend in real estate sales could be the light at the end of the tunnel for many borrowers and lenders. Short sales, which occur when homeowners sell their homes for less than what they still owe, outpaced foreclosures for the first time ever in January,according to a new report from Lender Processing Services, Inc.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced this month that mortgage servicers will be required to review and respond to short sale offers within 30 days and make final sale decisions within 60 days. The new requirements, which take effect in June, have kept lenders busy expanding and training the staff needed to catch up with growing short sale demand.

“When the robosigning crisis hit, there was effectively an 18-month moratorium on foreclosures,” said Roy Oppenheim, a foreclosure defense attorney with Oppenheim Law in South Florida. “The banks got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and the lid slammed closed on it. Fraud, robosigning — it all came to a stop. But through this $25 billion settlement, they’re using the crisis to their advantage. The settlement creates a major incentive for the banks to do short sales.”

Read More from Lawyers.com

Short sales pick up in housing market

Lenders are pricing short sales more aggressively, RealtyTrac adds. In January, the average short sale price was 10% lower than a year earlier, exceeding the drop in U.S.home prices.

Some mortgage servicers started pursuing short sales more aggressively months ago. Bank of America says it did 107,000 short sales last year, up from 92,000 in 2010 and double the 2009 volume. New measures are also likely to boost short sales.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which own or guarantee 60% of home loans, will soon require lenders to decide short sale offers within 60 days. Realtors have complained that short sale offers often linger. The recent $25 billion mortgage settlement also encourages short sales.

New rules have slowed foreclosures in many states, increasing short sales, says Florida foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim.

Read More from USA Today

What would he have said about the banks fraudulent acts?

Last weekend Chuck Coulson, the man once called Richard Nixon’s ‘hatchet man”, passed away at the age of 80.

Known both for his being one of the ‘Watergate Seven’ and his subsequent 2nd life as a born-again evangelist, I can only wonder what he thought of of our current foreclosure crisis.

I don’t know if he ever gave it much thought, but I suspect there would be a level of amazement.

Watergate, which started over a single break-in, landed almost 50 men in jail, including many top Nixon aides like Coulson.

The banks have broken into thousands of homes in their efforts to secure ‘abandoned properties’. Except you and I both know that most of these homes were anything but abandoned.

Sometimes they weren’t even in foreclosure. I’ve had about a dozen clients who’ve had their locks changed or had their homes ransacked by repo agents who were hired by the banks.

The banks, playing the role of Nixon and his cronies, have used aggressive tactics that Coulson, in his days as Nixon’s legal counsel, might have employed.

Coulson allegedly said he would walk over his own grandmother to get the president re-elected, which sounds appropriate because banks have done almost everything else in order to foreclose on homeowners who often didn’t deserve it.

Yet for crimes that would seem to fit in any file on Watergate, there is not a single banking executive who has been arrested.

I’ll bet good money Coulson would wonder why.

Coulson was convicted for his efforts in trying to discredit the man who leaked the Pentagon Papers, but what would he have said about the ‘hatchet job’ banks have done on homeowners?

False documents, forged signatures, tax fraud, all in the name of the mighty dollar. Coulson would likely have admitted that everything the banks have done since the bubble burst is 1,000 times worse than anything he and his cronies did.

There have been many great injustices throughout our nation’s history, and when the book is finally closed on this era of “Too Big To Fail”, I think the banks illegal foreclosures efforts and their bastardization of our legal system will clearly outweigh Watergate.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim

Courtesy:Cesar Cabrera Photography

When President Obama stood before Congress and the American People three months ago and promised to hold those behind the housing crisis ‘accountable’, I was hopeful.

In the days that followed, his new field general Eric Schneiderman was unveiled and almost immediately action was taken.

When Schneiderman issued subpoenas, just days after the President appointed him to run his new Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group, I thought that perhaps, FINALLY, a corner had been turned.

But it’s becoming clear to me now that the train that is the RMBS Working Group hasn’t left the station, and depending on who you believe, there may not even me a station built yet!

After those few weeks of full-court press by Schneiderman, there hadn’t been a peep about the status of the Working Group’s investigation. Yes it may have only been three months, yet I fear that the bold vision you and I were sold might turn out to be just another empty promise.

The press only turned its attention back to the Working Group after a brutal Op-Ed in the New York Daily News. The co-directors of the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, a citizens coalition group, called Schneiderman out and said they had yet to see any footprint of the RMBS Working Group’s investigation.

The 55 staff members promised by Attorney General Eric Holder were nowhere to be found, the pair claimed.

Yet even this Op-Ed could only draw Schneiderman’s mouthpiece out of the woodwork, rather than the Attorney General himself.

Spokesman Danny Kanner refuted their claims, saying that attorneys and other investigators had already been hired, that we shouldn’t draw any conclusions by the lack of public announcements.

“Given most investigatory matters are privileged and confidential, it is simply premature to draw conclusions about the Working Group’s scope and scale of inquiry,” Kanner told “The Nation” via email.

Under normal circumstances that might be true, but if we are to believe the President wasn’t just placating homeowners, as so many politicians have done before, don’t we deserve a transparent, above-board investigation?

There needs to be a public urgency on the behalf of the federal government, if we are to believe this task force isn’t just another dog and pony show.

The skepticism over this latest investigation is about to bubble over, and while I would never want public pressure to dictate the terms of any prosecution, the Justice Department has to know this is a crisis unlike any other.

When the Feds investigated the Savings and Loans, thousands of FBI agents were involved. To investigate the fraud at Enron, a SINGLE company, we got 100 investigators on the case.

The fraud-closure crisis has devastated more families than either and left our economy a wilted mess, so the Justice Department owes homeowners nothing less than full assault on the Too Big To Fail Banks.

Whether or not these 50+ investigators are actually on the clock, it’s not enough. There have been some reports the Justice Department will indeed hire more staff, but Schneiderman and Holder are losing whatever goodwill they created by continuing to sit on their hands.

So much time has been wasted, and the public should not be expected to continue to wait while banks turn increased profits.

Maybe President Obama meant what he said back in January, and I hope Eric Schneiderman has not been co-opted by the very forces he promised to investigate.

But whatever steam was generated by the announcement of the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group has evaporated, so the feds need to step in front of the investigation and remain there.

From The Trenches,

Roy Oppenheim