Remembered more examples of the “paper terrorism” of the banks that belonged in the original “Robo-signing=’Paper Terrorism'” article, thanks to a friend’s Facebook post:

Here’s one from the New York Times on February 15, 2012:

“An audit by San Francisco county officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation, according to a report released Wednesday…The improprieties range from the basic — a failure to warn borrowers that they were in default on their loans as required by law — to the arcane. For example, transfers of many loans in the foreclosure files were made by entities that had no right to assign them and institutions took back properties in auctions even though they had not proved ownership.”

Sounds like “paper terrorism” to me.  So does this, from the opposite side of the country:

“Register John O’Brien revealed the results of an independent audit of his registry.  The audit, which is released as a legal affidavit was performed by McDonnell Property Analytics, examined assignments of mortgage recorded in the Essex Southern District Registry of Deeds issued to and from JPMorgan Chase Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, and Bank of America during 2010.  In total, 565 assignments related to 473 unique mortgages were analyzed.

McDonnell’s Report includes the following key findings:

• Only 16% of assignments of mortgage are valid

• 75% of assignments of mortgage are invalid.

• 9% of assignments of mortgage are questionable

• 27% of the invalid assignments are fraudulent, 35% are “robo-signed” and 10% violate the Massachusetts Mortgage Fraud Statute.

• The identity of financial institutions that are current owners of the mortgages could only be determined for 287 out of 473 (60%)

• There are 683 missing assignments for the 287 traced mortgages, representing approximately $180,000 in lost recording fees per 1,000 mortgages whose current ownership can be traced”.

This led O’Brien to famously declare that “my registry is a crime scene.”

So Barbara Bratton sits in jail this very moment as she has for almost two weeks, while these banks are free to carry on this paper terrorism.  This is not what most people imagine when they hear about “equal protection of the laws.”