Posts Tagged ‘Florida Foreclosure Defense’

Foreclosure Scams Rampant in Florida

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

Written By Aaron Kase, Lawyers.com, May 1, 2013 and republished in The South Florida Law Blog.

foreclosure home and sign

Florida is known as the nation’s capital in foreclosure fraud.

A Florida man was recently sentenced to 26 years in prison for foreclosure and short sale fraud. John Lebron, 33, was convicted last week of setting up a complex scheme to buy and sell foreclosed houses, make money on each part of the deal, and default on the loans. He is hardly alone among foreclosure offenders.

Florida is known as the nation’s capital in foreclosure fraud. The state was among the hardest hit by the collapse of the housing bubble and subsequently has seen countless homeowners who can’t make their mortgage payments. In the first quarter of this year alone, one in every 104 houses in the state received a foreclosure notice for a total of 85,671, a rate three times the national average, according market research firm RealtyTrac.

Of the top ten metro areas in the country with the highest foreclosure rates, seven are in Florida, led by the Miami area at number one. The state projects that it will process over a million foreclosure cases in the next four years, according to the Palm Beach Press. And a lot of foreclosures means a lot of opportunities for scams.

Lebron’s scheme involved a complicated house-flopping maneuver using straw purchasers to rip off the banks. However, many of the foreclosure scams out there are aimed directly at distressed homeowners, attempts to wring out what little cash they can come up with or steal the houses outright.
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Bangladesh and Banks: Why Both May No Longer Be Too Big to Fail

Sunday, May 12th, 2013
It’s not much different for the banking industry. While no lives have been lost as a direct result of the banks’ committing fraud, many people’s lives have been financially ruined.

Much like the banking industry in the US, the Recent tragedy in Bangladesh is “Too Big To Fail”

What do the recent tragedy in Bangladesh and the state of this country’s banking industry have in common? At first blush you might say nothing, but scratch just below the surface and you will see there are many parallels.

First Bangladesh – which we all know by now is a corrupt country being run by an ineffective government where rich factory owners sit in Parliament thumbing their collective noses at building codes that no one enforces.

Then, there are the “too big to fail” banks whose CEOs know that, by virtue of their size, the government won’t let them fail for fear they will, just like the garment factory in Bangladesh, come crashing down taking the innocent with them.

Last month’s accident, which killed more than 1,000, isn’t the first one involving garment factory workers. Still, the Bangladesh government has done little to protect those who are just squeaking out a living in what’s estimated to be a $20 billion industry that accounts for more than 75 percent of the country’s exports.

Why are these things allowed to happen? The answer is simple – much like the banking industry in the U.S., the garment industry in Bangladesh is too big to fail.

But the tide may be turning, both in Bangladesh and in the U.S.

In Bangladesh there’s been a groundswell of protests with factories being burned to the ground, and demands for regulation. Those demands, which not only are being heard overseas, but also in this country where many retailers rely on those factories for cheap labor, may serve as a bellwether for the future. In the wake of massive public outcry some retailers are scrambling to respond. But for those who died, it’s too little, too late.

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Florida’s ‘Fair Foreclosure Act’ Is Anything But Fair

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

An edited version of this post by Roy Oppenheim was first published in US News and World Report’s Home Front Blog and is being redistributed on South Florida Law Blog with their permission.

US Foreclosures

House Bill 87 Expedites the Foreclosure Process

Any plan designed to speed up the foreclosure process in Florida and uncork the bottleneck of paperwork jamming up the court system may sound like a good idea at first. After all, who wouldn’t want to see the last several years of this foreclosure crisis become nothing more than a distant memory.

But scratch just below the surface of a recent bill introduced in the Florida House of Representatives called “The Fair Foreclosure Act,” and you’ll find a plan that’s anything but—at least for those facing the foreclosure process.

[ALSO: Where Have All the Foreclosures Gone?]

House Bill 87 allows third-party lien holders—such as homeowner associations—to route foreclosures through an expedited process rather than through a typical court proceeding required by Florida law. (Florida is a judicial foreclosure state meaning that all foreclosures have to go through the court system.)

But instead helping distressed homeowners, HB 87 essentially strips them of basic legal rights. The bill acts sort of like Liquid Plumr, pushing foreclosures through the drain and turning the legal system on its head.

Even criminals are considered innocent until proven guilty and given their day in court before they are thrown into jail. Shouldn’t homeowners be given their day in court before they are thrown out of their homes?

Florida State Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, who introduced the bill, would argue that it protects consumers by ensuring that banks and lenders prove they own a mortgage before they can file a foreclosure action.
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Just Listed: South Florida Law Blog Named AllTop’s “Best of the Best”

Friday, June 10th, 2011

 Just Listed: South Florida Law Blog Named AllTop’s “Best of the Best”All the top headlines from popular topics around the web: that’s AllTop.

And now the South Florida Law Blog is listed on this popular directory of top news sources. Fresh off the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best of Blogs Awards, Oppenheim Law is proud to announce we are part of the feed to the AllTop Real Estate topic: http://real-estate.alltop.com/

What is AllTop?
The website helps users answer the question, “What’s happening?” Alltop prides itself on providing aggregation without aggravation, according to its homepage.

The “online magazine rack” collects the latest headlines from the best sites and blogs. Topics include celebrities, fashion, sports, politics – and real estate. The South Florida Law blog is in good company alongside news giants such as The Wall Street Journal, MSNBC and The New York Times and local blogs from Hanoi to Chicago.

The selection process for Alltop is “highly subjective and judgmental”, not based on an algorithm, as with search engines, so to be included is a special honor. South Florida Law Blog fans are now able to subscribe and view the latest real estate news and commentary alongside their other favorite blogs.

About Alltop and Guy Kawasaki
Named “the granddaddy of blog discovery tools” by Mashable, Alltop was founded by former Apple evangelist and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki. Kawasaki was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing the Macintosh in 1984. Kawasaki is a renowned public speaker and best-selling author of 10 books including his latest, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions. Although he’s been described as a business legend, Kawasaki says that being a legend shouldn’t be your goal in life: “What you should do is create a great product or service…the goal is to change the world…if you do that, maybe you’ll be a legend.”


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