Chain of Title

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

By: David Dayen

Narrated by: 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.

Engaging and outraging

This was a fascinating book to read and listen to. Dayan's approach hooks you right in and takes you on a comprehensive journey through the chaos and frustration and outrage of the foreclosure crisis and resulting fallout.

Never Trust Banks

I was raised to never trust banks because of a particular bank still in business today stealing from my grandmother. My dad was told (and this was in the 60s) that our family would have been millionaires if it hadn't been for the bank. However, this book only enforces what I was brought up to believe and now I also believe people should learn never trust politicians no matter what side of the aisle they are on. No one protects the little man. This book exudes just how corrupt our government and banks are. I definitely recommend this book.

If it wasn't non-fiction - a great mystery novel

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

The sequence of events made it possible to build on my knowledge as the story unfolded.

What did you like best about this story?

The fact that some Americans won't give-in to the system!

Which scene was your favorite?

The ah-ha moment when they find robo-Signatures on documents and bogus bank names on forms.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Sub-standard treatment of Americans during the Subprime Blowup.

Any additional comments?

Chain of title: how three ordinary Americans uncovered Wall Street's great foreclosure fraud – describe how Wall Street banks were using robo-signers as signature guarantees for legal documents that were in titling the banks to foreclose on homes.There are documented records of signature guarantees being on vacation/out of town and signing hundreds of documents.This legal documentation/proof allowed some people to prevent Banks from foreclosing.Unfortunately, the US government, is basically in bed with Wall Street bankers. I know this is a shocker to you!Still, if you look at the details in your documentation, you might find weaknesses and irregularities that will allow you to have a fighting chance to keep your home.

Why did no one go to jail?

A thoroghly researched and deeply disturbing account of the mortgage crisis and the courage of 3 people who fought the banks and other complicit crooks.

Informative

I kind of liked the story aspect but some parts seemed unimportant. Lots of info

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.

Great telling of a frustrating story

In the rush of information from a 24-hour news cycle it's difficult to hold on to the small cumulative facts that stream by as part of a major news story. There's a shortage of long-form journalism, either in print or in broadcasting, that can bring an event into full and unflinching focus. That's where a book like Chain of Title is especially valuable.

David Dayen places three "ordinary Americans" in the center of this book about the housing/banking crisis of 2007-2008. The most powerful character in the book is Lisa Epstein. Like millions of other Americans, Epstein was a victim of the banks. She worked as a nurse, was careful with her money, invested carefully in a house she could afford, and after marrying bought a new home with her husband. While she never missed a payment she found herself in a legal battle over foreclosure.

Lisa noticed irregularities in the notices that she was receiving and became obsessed with researching both the laws and bank practices surrounding foreclosure. The things she found would give any homeowner with a mortgage nightmares, and were the cause of millions of people losing their homes ... the largest loss of wealth in American history ... even for those who had never missed a payment in their lives.

Among other practices she found a banker-created clearinghouse for shifting titles outside the control of county records that regulated property titles for the whole of the country's history. She discovered foreclosure mills in which employees holding notary seals would forge the signatures of bank officers and then notarize the documents. She found lenders who were foreclosing on homes without having any financial interest in the property.

The book details Epstein's obsessive research and her efforts to try to get action from the US Department of Justice and the judges making the rulings on foreclosures. She and another of the book's major personalities, Michael Redman, join forces to try to educate homeowners through a website on their basic rights while collecting as much evidence as possible.

It's almost as frustrating and terrifying to read as it must have been for those finding themselves homeless without having done anything wrong. It would be nice to say that the work of Epstein and others helped solve the problem. Instead, Dayen details the inaction of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and his ability to convince Obama that the issue was not a danger to the banking industry (as if it were the only important player). He tells of the Department of Justice closing down the one working team that picked up the investigation and running the investigators out of their jobs. He covers the slow conversion of judges and attorneys dealing with foreclosure, where history left them with the presumption that the banks didn't lie and anyone facing foreclosure was clearly guilty with no evidence provided. And, finally, he describes the total failure to act by Congress, either by refusing to pass remedial legislation or refusing to fund programs that did pass. This is an indictment of the banking system but it's also an indictment of a legal system unwilling or unable to adapt to benefit voters over contributors.

If you read it like I did you may find your jaw tired from grinding your teeth at the end of the day. It isn't easy to read about people being railroaded out of their rightful property by greedy swine at the trough, and then blamed for the theft as people wanting a free handout. Still, knowledge is power. This is the kind of book that can fuel the fire needed for change. If you find yourself wondering why you should bother about the next election this book will give you the reason.