Banks serving foreclosure notices to dead people

The mishandling of foreclosures by the banks continues with a new allegation that says they’re playing dirty pool with the dearly departed!

Last year, you may recall there was a big scandal with bank employees ignoring the rules in place about how to proceed with foreclosures in some states. Some employees were falsely “robo-signing” affidavits that said all foreclosure paperwork was in order and that delinquent homeowners were served properly in judicial foreclosure states where a court order was necessary to proceed. But that wasn’t the case.

Piggybacking off that disgrace, we now have word from The Florida Sun Sentinel  about one case where a process server claims to have served foreclosure documents to a client just a few weeks ago… but the delinquent homeowner has been dead for almost a year! (Obviously, the process server falsified and forged the documents.)

In the bigger picture, the banks — in all their incompetence, fraud and dishonesty in how they made loans and now how they go about foreclosing on them — are holding up the market for a recovery. At the core of it, if you don’t pay, you don’t stay; that’s a given. But the laws of the United States and the various states are not to be flouted by the banks. Paperwork still must be done in an ethical and legal manner to proceed with a foreclosure.

So after all the scandals, the banks are still up to their shenanigans.  It’s just ridiculous! I think about how many Americans have been out of work because of the fraudulent and dishonest behavior of the banks. Yet to this moment, no bank officers have gone to prison for their actions.

How will the banksters ever learn? They get trillions in bailouts; the executives continue to have perks like planes, country clubs and huge pay; and there’s no consequence for any of their illegal actions. It’s enough to make you sick.

There is one ray of hope I hold out. There are now numerous state investigations into how the banks packaged loans and sold them to investors, lying about the condition of the loans and the security of the borrowers. I’m hoping this will be the route to which the banksters are brought to account.

There’s so much cynicism across our land because the perpetrators have gotten away scot-free so far, and it’s the American people who have been the collateral damage with job losses and the reduction of standing of our country on the world stage.

We worry about enemies, but many times it’s our friends who do us the greatest harm.