More Mortgage Scandals out of Countrywide/Bank of America!

It has just been revealed that this past Friday, October 26, 2009, the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., has issued a subpoena to Countrywide Financial Corp., now owned by Bank of America Corp.

The subpoena is for records related to Countrywide’s VIP program, which provided mortgages to several Senators and other officials with preferential terms.  Apparently while most of the homeowners in this country were being given mortgages they could not actually afford, and that would cause them to later lose their homes, some of our elected “public servants” were gorging themselves at the mortgage trough!

Countrywide Financial Inc., and undoubtedly others who just haven’t yet been caught, essentially bribed public and regulatory officials with mortgages and loan terms unavailable to the general public.  What was the bribe for, some may ask?  The answer is simple.  These mortgage companies could only fleece America as long as these elected officials and others involved in regulating the mortgage industry were willing to look the other way, while the mortgage companies ripped off unsuspecting homeowners with outrageous loan fees and points, pre-payment penalties, and negative amortization loans that could never be refinanced out of.

It would almost appear to have been an orchestrated move, for the banks to become the major real estate owners of America.  What better way to take over Billions of dollars worth of real estate than by saddling homeowners with so much debt that they would obviously default at some point, thereby allowing the banks to take over the real estate at rock bottom prices.  They could then hold onto the property until they could turn around and sell it at a profit.  This is exactly what is happening as records show the banks are holding onto a higher percentage of their foreclosed properties, rather than putting them on the market at current prices.

Considering that the banks are not really losing anything from their loans defaulting, after all the government bailed them all out and is reimbursing them for any losses, many loans also had Private Mortgage Insurance, aka PMI, to cover any losses, and it is easy to see how the banks are coming out ahead while the American taxpayers are left holding the bag.  And it is not actually the current group of American taxpayers who will have to pay the piper in full.  Sure, there will be higher taxes soon and significant pain for American taxpayers going forward but it is our children who will bear the full cost!  Because the Trillions of dollars of debt our government is pushing onto our backs is so much that it will never be paid off in our life time.  It is our children and even our grandchildren who will suffer the primary burden of paying this money back.

In addition to the subpoena sent to Countrywide and Bank of America, Representative Towns also sent letters seeking information on various mortgage programs run from 2000-2008 by Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Residential Capital (owned by GMAC) and U.S. Bank Home Mortgage.  Who knows what other secrets are being held by these major banks?  Only time and determined investigators will uncover the skeletons still hidden in the vaults of these banks.  We can only hope that the fleecing of America has stopped!