Chain of Title

How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street's Great Foreclosure Fraud

De: David Dayen

Narrado por: Kaleo Griffith

In the depths of the Great Recession, a cancer nurse, a car dealership worker, and an insurance fraud specialist helped uncover the largest consumer crime in American history - a scandal that implicated dozens of major executives on Wall Street. They called it foreclosure fraud: Millions of families were kicked out of their homes based on false evidence by mortgage companies that had no legal right to foreclose.

Lisa Epstein, Michael Redman, and Lynn Szymoniak did not work in government or law enforcement. They had no history of anticorporate activism. Instead they were all foreclosure victims, and while struggling with their shame and isolation they committed a revolutionary act: closely reading their mortgage documents, discovering the deceit behind them, and building a movement to expose it.

Fiscal Times columnist David Dayen recounts how these ordinary Floridians challenged the most powerful institutions in America armed only with the truth - and for a brief moment, they brought the corrupt financial industry to its knees.

©2016 David Dayen (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Totally Unbelievable, Except It Happened

Any additional comments?

I was captured by the stories told and amazed and saddened by how broken the systems are that are supposed to prevent all of this and get justice for those that suffer through these crimes. The book has places that list a lot of legal type details that did drone on in this audio version - I would likely have skipped over those details if I was reading this book. I will say that I have gone back and reviewed my own mortgage documents.

Still relevant information!

This is a book every person in America should read or listen to! It’s highly detailed and a lot to digest at times but I found it quite riveting! I’m absolutely gobsmacked that the banking system industry in collusion with the courts and the federal government committed such blatant fraud against American homeowners! Unfortunately, the banks have never really paid for the foreclosure fraud they committed and the courts still tend to side with them! This information is priceless! Make sure your kids read it! With the current administration intent on dismantling the consumer protection bureau, I can only surmise that the banks and the servicing industry could possibly continue this type of fraud. If you get a foreclosure notice please do your due diligence and don’t panic! If the chain of title can’t be proven you can fight it! Read/listen to this book and get a good attorney!!! Banks use/used robo-signers and document mills and fake affidavits and fake notaries! It just goes on and on! I feel so sorry for the homeowners who lost their homes in the crisis and those who committed suicide over it! Good luck and please be careful in your home buying!

Thank you

The Truth is always the best Entertainment. Heartbreak is sometimes just down the block. There but for the Grace of God shall go I.

important book

There are a lot of details and it's a sad story about where our bankocracy is at. This book is important if you want to understand the aftermath of the 2008 meltdown. Obama could have easily stopped this but he didn't. The Democratic party need look no further than this to understand why they are losing at all levels of government.

Infuriating Account

I found this to be a fascinating book. David Dayen tells the story of three Florida homeowners as they discover that banks have been lying about signatures. Lisa Epstein, a nurse, learns that the bank foreclosing on her could not prove it had legally obtained the loan. Lisa met Michael Redman, a car salesman, and encouraged him to published an online guide as to how to find information online about who had the loan on their homes. The two of them connected with Lynn Szymoniak, an attorney, who investigated the signature in her own foreclosure action and found one with a date when the signor was actually in State Prison.

The book is well written and meticulously researched. Dayen skillfully narrates a slow reveal of fraud and uses some interesting metaphors. Dayen reveals the mechanics of the foreclosure business in an easy to understand way. The book reads like a fast-paced thriller instead of non-fiction book. I am not an expert in banking/mortgages so I cannot tell if the author is calling mistakes or process weakness fraud or if what he describes is actually deliberate fraud. Because the process was so widespread and there was a cover-up used, my inclination is to agree with the author that it was widespread fraud by the banking industry. If it is the later, why are these big bankers not in jail? This is an excellent book about the collapse of the housing bubble.

The book is fourteen hours long. Kaleo Griffith does an excellent job narrating the book. Griffith is an actor and multi-award-winning audiobook narrator.

Deadbeats didn't cause

I live in Florida where much of the mortgage fraud took place, even bought just ahead of the bubble in 2003, but had no idea of what was going on. I thought this was about deadbeats who just backed out of obligations. Far from what really happened.

When I read of the forced insurance placement scam a lightbulb came on -- that's what a major bank tried to do to me. Even though I had the required insurance in place, each year the bank had to be notified, but seemed to "lose" it every time. My local insurance broker sent fax after fax after fax...I guess I got lucky and this was resolved each year, but only after several phone calls. Minor fraud compared to other schemes described, but nevertheless just makes me shake my head.

If you're not familiar with this scam, the bank would say they show no insurance, then place their exorbitantly expensive insurance on the property, and then--here's the kicker--take the payment from what the homeowner(s) think is their monthly mortgage payment. Thus the mortgage falls in arrears and everything goes downhill from there with the bank's late charges, penalties, etc. that the homeowner has no idea about until its too late.

Some of the first part of the book is a tad dry when the interconnection of multiple banks, mortgage companies, government entities, etc. is explained, but the rest is easily relatable and amazing reading.

Definitely glad I read and the early whistle blowers should receive whatever prize is beyond the Nobel.

VERY DISAPPOINTING

Any additional comments?

A truly incredible story of how the sub prime mortgage scam executed by the major national banks & other financial companies destroyed the homes and literally creating the largest fraud in American History.
I love a true financial story, like the Madoff case & Enron but this books hardly held my attention as it is way too legal & does not really get to the devastating effect it had on tens of thousands of families. Often the same information is repeated time & again, for instance as to how the banks lost the paperwork & then faked them. What happened is beyond belief but this book does not really send the message home as to how outrageous this nationwide fraud was.

Read and understand

What made the experience of listening to Chain of Title the most enjoyable?

Quite simply, it breaks down the financial crisis in a crisp and compelling way that will allow even the least real estate savvy among us to understand how and why it happened and who is really guilty.

What did you like best about this story?

It tells the stark truth

Which scene was your favorite?

When the CEO of Doc-X was sent to prison. The only person to ever be convicted throughout the entire ordeal.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I did listen to it in one sitting

Any additional comments?

Some of the terminology may be hard to follow if you are not familiar with real estate jargon.

A little terrifying

It’s fascinating how Mr. Dayen so skillfully made fraud terrifying. As a homeowner with a mortgage, I hope I never get to learn these issues first hand.

Every American must read this book before voting.

This book shows how wealth and power circumvent the legal system and how the legislatures made it easier for financial institutions to foreclose on loans they did not make and lost no actual money on. It shows how vindictive they were in getting their way, foreclosing and wasting the assets. It's socialism for wall street and libertarianism for people.