[Occupymendocino] Let's stand at Safeway with Signs telling shoppersthat Wells Fargo

[agnes at mcn.org]

So why are we not protesting at Safeway's Wells Fargo Bank site on Fridays?
Agnes

March 21, 2014  |
A new internal report says the Justice Department massively overstated its
successes in targeting mortgage fraud while in fact ranking it as a low
priority for investigation. The Justice Department’s inspector general
says despite playing a central role in the nation’s financial crisis,
mortgage fraud was deemed either a low priority or not a priority at all.
This comes as a recently revealed internal Wells Fargo document appears to
guide lawyers step by step on how to fabricate missing documents to
foreclose on homeowners. Wells Fargo is the country’s largest mortgage
servicer and services some nine million home loans.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

Juan González: A new internal report says the Justice Department massively
overstated its successes in targeting mortgage fraud while in fact ranking
it as a low priority for investigation. The Justice Department’s inspector
general says despite playing a central role in the nation’s financial
crisis, mortgage fraud was deemed either a low priority or not a priority
at all. In one instance, Attorney General Eric Holder claimed to have
filed lawsuits on behalf of homeowner victims for losses totaling more
than $1 billion, but the actual amount was 91 percent less, around $95
million.

This comes as a recently revealed internal Wells Fargo document appears to
guide lawyers step by step on how to fabricate missing documents to
foreclose on homeowners. Wells Fargo is the country’s largest mortgage
servicer and services some nine million home loans.

Amy Goodman: State and federal regulators are now focusing on the
allegations in the lawsuit brought by Linda Tirelli, who joins us now.
She’s an attorney representing clients being foreclosed on by Wells Fargo.
Earlier this month, she discovered the Wells Fargo manual on how to
produce missing documents to foreclose on homeowners. She’s a partner at
the Garvey, Tirelli & Cushner law firm in White Plains, New York.

In Minneapolis, we’re joined by Kevin Whelan, campaign director for the
Home Defenders League, a national movement of underwater homeowners and
allies who organize to keep people in their homes and demand
accountability.

Wells Fargo declined Democracy Now!'s interview request, saying they're in
a, quote, "quiet period" pending the announcement of their quarterly
earnings.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Linda Tirelli, let’s begin with you.

Linda Tirelli: Good morning.

AG: Can you describe this manual, how you got it and what it reveals?

LT: Absolutely. The manual that I have, it’s actually entitled the "Wells
Fargo Home Mortgage Foreclosure Attorney [Procedure] Manual, Version 1."
And it says on it that it’s last published 2/24/2012. Mind you, the
national mortgage settlement agreement was announced a week prior, on
2/19/2012.

The way I obtained it, it was actually sitting right there on the
Internet, of all things. A colleague of mine, through a Max Gardner’s
Bankruptcy Boot Camp, which I am a member, an active member, gave it to me
and said, "Hey, I found this online, and I know you’re doing a lot of
Wells Fargo cases. Maybe you can use this."

Reading it, my jaw just dropped. As I see it, it’s clearly outlining
procedures, not just for the $12-an-hour robo-signers that we’ve heard
about all these years, but for the lawyers, who need to be held
accountable to a much higher degree. It’s the manual for the lawyers to
actually fabricate documents, as I see it, and request that documents that
are lacking be fabricated by Wells Fargo. It’s absolutely appalling.