Hence, the “farmer issue,” particularly “the black farm issue,” has a lot of common ground with the foreclosure crisis in the nation’s urban areas. The criminal conspiracy which many farm activists claim surrounds the billion dollar farm foreclosure industry reflects the corruption and illegal debt collection, which is a large part of the current mortgage crisis.
According to one research study, fee padding in the subprime mortgage loan industry adds to the consumer’s debt and actually increases the probability of the loan’s going into foreclosure:
Even if they are able to avoid foreclosure, homeowners pay a heavy cost for being in default on their mortgage, including late fees, collection fees, and legal fees assessed by the lender or servicer. (In fact, fee-padding and other tactics used by some subprime servicers have been alleged to increase the risk of foreclosures, a potential contributory factor that is beyond the scope of this study.36) (Ibid)
The disabled, elderly, or minority home buyer is more vulnerable than other property purchasers. Those who do not understand what they sign, those who lack the knowledge and connections to fight for their rights, those who are financially illiterate and vulnerable, are more apt to become a target of con artists and property thieves.
Simply put, today’s consumers are particularly vulnerable because of over-extended credit, shrinking incomes, and the rising costs of food, fuel, childcare and other day to day living expenses. Added to the crisis is the f act that the aforementioned costs have dipped so heavily into the consumer’s wallet, that Americans are dangerously low in savings. Many families have no savings at all—the only loans or mortgages that they can get are either predatory or subprime.
The growth of the subprime mortgage market has in part been spurred by the deteriorating financial situation of households in the United States. In large measure, this reflects macroeconomic factors:
over the past two decades, after-tax income for the bottom 60 percent of families climbed only five to 15 percent while costs for such basics as housing, child care, and health care rose 53 to 75 percent. 8 At the same time, rates of personal savings—the financial cushion for most families—have dropped steadily and have been negative since mid-2005.9 In addition, for many families, their income stream is much less certain than in the past: a 2004 study reported that the average annual variation in income for middle-income households ($13,500 at that time) had doubled since the 1970s.10 (Losing Ground: Foreclosures in the Subprime Market and Their Cost to Homeowners)
Yes, there are a lot of people out there who bought more house than their budgets could handle. Yes, there are many homeowners who went into their “deals” with their eyes wide open. On the other hand, there are millions of homeowners who didn’t understand what they were signing—and some didn’t even sign the papers, which provided the basis for the loan they received.
In the course of investigating mortgage fraud, investigators around the nation have noted the existence of so called “in house forgers”, people inside loan company offices who served as “designated forgers”, signing documents for the consumer, without the loan applicant’s knowledge or consent. The same tactics: document deception, forgery, fraud, failure to post loan payments to the proper account, and allegations of collusion between so-called officers of the court, real estate agents, and county deed recorder offices, have become part and parcel of the property thieves’ toolbox.
According to several investigations, from the FBI, various state and local law enforcement agencies and the United States Attorney’s Office, bank fraud, deed forgery and criminal conspiracy flow back and forth within the agricultural loan servicing industry and the residential loan servicing industry like a trail of slime. The same tactics used in fraudulent foreclosures on the farm are also reportedly being used in illegal home foreclosures in the city, and bogus student loan garnishments as well.
Many Americans are in denial and have convinced themselves that if you stay out of trouble, pay your bills on time and don’t make waves, you will have no trouble with the law and you will be successful. And they also believe that if you pay your bills, the bill collectors will have no legal reason to bother you.
They are correct in their assumption that there is no LEGAL reason for bill collectors to target them, but today’s conspirators are operating outside of, and in violation of the law. Hence, when farmers and homeowners say their land and homes have been illegally foreclosed and auctioned over non-existent, or bogus debts, most middle class blacks and whites have difficulty acknowledging the possible corruption of the nation’s various bureaucracies and the American judicial system.
The idea that your land, property and freedom can be taken from you, even if you are a law abiding, upstanding, pay your bills on time American citizen, is too awful for many Americans, black and white to bear. Those who claim their land and freedom have been illegally taken are often regarded as whack jobs, lunatics and liars.
An elderly, legally blind landowner in Indiana paid off his land contract, took his documents to the county courthouse, and has been getting the run around about getting the deed put in his land for more than a year. To add fuel to this fire, he says someone allegedly bought part of the land he owns and their deed was reportedly filed. He bought the property on a land contract 20 years ago, has proof of payment in hand, and, according to his family, has not been able to get his title to the land property recorded.
On the other side of the fence are the many civil rights activists, property rights proponents and constitutional extremists, who have long complained about what they say is corruption in the nation’s judiciary, which is the lynch pin which holds the whole property foreclosure industry together. It is the courts, who put the seal of approval on foreclosures and garnishments, and, unfortunately, many victims of illegal foreclosure say the courts are not as impartial as the general public believes they are.
Several groups point to the alleged existence of a $70,000,000 bribe fund which reportedly funds judicial corruption in property rights and foreclosure cases. Many who have darkened the doors of federal court believing that justice will prevail have been steamrolled out of their property in a move worthy of a con artist with a PhD in thievery.
While the thievery is across the board, blacks and minorities fare the worse, because they can not hire the best legal representation, and many of the “officers of the court” are more loyal to people who look like them, rather than upholding the law and constitutions, which they were sworn to serve.
Simply put: how can land theft victims expect to receive justice, when many of the judges openly side with land pirates and crooks. A case in point: A black family with few resources has their back to the wall in a land dispute after a judge in Mississippi allegedly called the family of black landowners a bunch of jigaboos in open court. Across the border, an Arkansas farmer claims property thieves are using a dead man’s probate to hide the current theft of his land. The dead man died more than 60 years ago, yet, according to the forged documents in his probate file, he was selling and buying land more than 40 years after his death.
Many outspoken property rights activists say the crooks can not operate without a compliant or complicit judiciary. When judges are too willing to accept “the word” of an alleged lienholder without the documentation mandated by the Fair Debt Collection Act, the possibility of collection fraud increases exponentially. To date, billions of dollars in farm and residential real estate has been illegally foreclosed upon, auctioned and sold without proof that debt was owed.
A bank or financial institution hauls an alleged debtor into court and wham, bam, sam—the judge rules in favor of the institution.
More than one newspaper reports the existence of a multi-million dollar judicial bribery fund which is allegedly tied into property foreclosure cases. A particular object of their ire appears to be a so-called bribery fund. According to a 2006 press release from an organization calling itself Independent Federal Fund Oversight Committee:
David Martin Price, President of Independent Federal Fund Oversight Committee (IFFOC), today announced that he has filed suit in Topeka, Kansas against the Seventh Circuit Bankruptcy Court, U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge Eugene R. Wedoff, Federal Court Judges Mark R. Filip and James Zagel, State Court Judges Stuart Nudelman, Barb Disco, and Alexander P. White and law firms Seyfarth Shaw, Jenner & Block, Miller Shakman & Beem, Bryan Cave, Novak & Macey, Lord Bissel & Brook, Cummins & Cronin, and Jenkins & Gilchrist.
