Upside Down Mortgage

Posts Tagged ‘accounting’

Loan Modification Watchdog

Two bills designed to address some of the problems resulting from the economic crisis have been signed by President Obama. The first deals with mortgage fraud and the other with helping families who are involved in a foreclosure situation save their homes.

Look out rip-off artists, enforcers of the new mortgage fraud bill means serious business. Almost half a billion federal dollars has been authorized to spend on targeting charges of mortgage fraud. Agencies the likes of the Secret Service, U.S. Postal Service and HUD are all getting additional funding to increase their security measures.

The Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act now sanctions the government to go after companies or individuals currently out of reach. Currently, an incidence of mortgage fraud can result in investigation, prosecution, civil penalties and prison time at a federal level, opposed to the prior gentler state penalties previously enforced. This new Act applies to all types of mortgage fraud, no matter how minor the offence.

In the past, these schemes defrauded home owners, realtors, lenders and builders out of billions of dollars each year. The FBI intends to send a message that mortgage fraud will not be tolerated and it is expected that offenders will receive stiff penalties in order to set an example to others.

The second bill, simply entitled, "Helping Families Save Their Homes Act," is intended to simplify the process for homeowners to receive foreclosure financing and modifications to existing loans. It also makes it easier for the lender to offer these types of options and hopefully prevent an impending foreclosure.

The new law also offers protection for renters who find themselves living in a home whose owners are facing foreclosure. Under the old rules, tenants would have to move immediately following foreclosure, now they have the option to continue renting for a term negotiated with the lender. This makes sense on so many levels. Now hundreds of families who otherwise would have found themselves on the street, still have homes. Lenders no longer have to deal with the problems associated with the upkeep of an empty home. Hopefully this will reduce occurrences of complete neighborhoods of foreclosed houses sitting vacant and facing ill repair and vandalism. In many cases, reliable tenants are happy to stay on and maintain the property.

The law provides additional homeless relief, makes better use of local organizations in this role, and allows them more latitude when allocating federal funds for assistance.

Part of the reason that mortgage fraud became so widespread was attributed to the lack of a single watchdog affiliation to oversee the the sketchy subprime loan offerings, underwriting and lending schemes. Instead there were a number of small agencies, each only seeing part of the problem, but no single unit had the power to actually deal with the issue as a whole. Currently, the Obama administration has a plan in the works to establish a single federal agency designed to watch over everyone involved; from the small brokers to the major lenders.

About the Author:

Search Sandy Springs GA condos at TinaFountain.com, the home of Sandy Springs real estate experts.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Mortgage Fraud Bill Signed, Sealed & Delivered

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Fair Value Accounting Subprime

Did you lose money in due to investing with Oppenheimer Funds?

The law firm of Weiss Imbesi PLLC has been approached by numerous investors regarding the Oppenheimer Core Bond Fund  and Oppenheimer Champoion Income Fund. Claims have been filed on  behalf of investors that purchased both funds.

Oppenheimer Core Bond Fund

The OppenheimerFunds Core Bond Fund (OPIGX) in 2008, began to lose value (more than 40%.) Similar bond funds posted gains of as much as 4%. The performance of the Oppenheimer Core Bond Fund has created unexpected financial losses for investors. The returns didn't match the representations made by Oppenheimer because the fund's managers bet big on toxic mortgage-backed securities.

Oppenheimer Champoion Income Fund

The Oppenheimer Champion Income Fund (OCHCX) invested heavily on subprime mortgage securities and risky credit-default swaps. The fund has fallen by more than 80% in value, making it the worst-performing taxable high-yield bond fund of 2008. Similar bonds were down 30%.

The Oppenheimer Champion Income Fund also sold credit-default swaps on such firms as Lehman Brothers Holdings, American International Group (AIG) and General Motors Corp (GM). In 2008, all three firms either went bankrupt or sought financial protection from the federal government.

If you have purchased any of these funds, please call attorney Vincent J. Imbesi at (212) 736-5599.

Vincent J. Imbesi, has recovered millions of dollars for investors in FINRA arbitration. Mr. Imbesi has represented investors against some of the world's largest brokerage firms, including: Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Wachovia.

Routinely, investors place their trust (and life savings) with their financial advisors, only to see their money disappear due to bad advice or fraudulent actions. Financial advisor negligence and misconduct may involve the act of misleading an investor or purposefully providing incorrect advice in order to profit from a client's investment decision. Securities stock broker fraud can include excessively trading your account, false statements, misrepresentations, concealment of information, or intentional misuse of investor trust. When information is tainted, investors cannot fairly weigh the risks versus the opportunities, and are more likely to lose money.

Attorney Advertising

About the Author:

Vincent J. Imbesi, has recovered millions of dollars for investors in FINRA arbitration. Mr. Imbesi has represented investors against some of the world's largest brokerage firms, including: Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and Wachovia.

Mr. Imbesi's e-mail is [email protected]

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Stock Fraud Lawyers Bringing More Claims Against Oppenheimer

Fairvalue #174 Fair Value Accounting Standards

Accounting Subprime Crisis

Question: Is phony accounting by business firms &our USgov a rootcause of all the financial crises that keep popping up?

The Fully worded Q, if it could have fit the Q-box, is this:

Is phony accounting by our business firms & our USgov one of if not the main root cause of all the financial crises that keep popping up hurting all Americans?

The subprime/ No-dues-No documents home mortgage debacle ,and the S&L bail out many years ago before that, involved/involves phony accounting. Nothing that Henry Paulsen, the Fed Chair, said yesterday 3/31/2008 addresses this problem? More deregulation? Did he wish us all Happy April Fools Day to all a day early? It feels that way to me. (BTW Enron came to mind too but do you mentioning here would be overkill??
google "Henry Paulsen plan" And if you have a conflict of interest in answering my Q, please admit it!
Which dogs might you be referring to? The top dogs with previous gains to fall back on?

Answer: No. Markets are cyclical. We've enjoyed great growth through the nineties and through most of this decade. The markets are now in a downward cycle. This have happened, on average, every seven years for a century. The longer the period and larger size of the growth the larger and longer the retraction. Enron was six years ago and regulation has been put in place to keep it from happening again. (Accounting standards have changed dramatically since then) If anything the government might be going to far to prop our economy up and not letting the markets put the dogs out of their misery.

You sound really angry. Im not affiliated with anyone. I studied the Enronnron case in a lot of my classes. Ive also taken several economics courses that explain that markets expand and contract. The saving and loan crises happened because the companies got greedy and issued credit to people that shouldn't have gotten it. It's not the governments fault people got in over their heads and signed mortgages they couldn't afford. A number of the issuers are out of business and heads have rollled and continue to roll as a result of this mess but it will get sorted out in the end. The the cyclical nature of our economy will continue and people will praise the government when the markets go up and condemn it when it goes down just like they always have.

Sub-Prime Crisis Analysis on "Left, Right and Center" Pt 2