California sues law firms on national mortgage fraud

From http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE77H6B320110818?irpc=932

"California says sues law firms on national mortgage fraud
Thu, Aug 18 16:08 PM EDT

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - California has broken up what it called a ring of law firms that preyed on struggling homeowners nationwide to pay thousands of dollars each to file mass lawsuits against their mortgage lenders.

Kamala Harris, the state's attorney general, sued three law firms, four lawyers and 14 other companies and individuals who she said conspired to fleece struggling borrowers desperate to obtain mortgage relief.

California said its state bar seized the law practices of the three law firms: Kramer & Kaslow, whose principal Philip Kramer it called the leader of the scheme; Mesa Law Group Corp, and Mitchell J Stein & Associates. The lawsuit also seeks fines and other penalties.

A call to the Kramer law firm was answered by a recorded message. The Mesa law firm did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Stein's office referred a call to the office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. A spokesman there had no immediate comment.

Harris said the defendants solicited homeowners in 17 U.S. states with at least 2 million pieces of mail, and extracted retainer fees of as much as $10,000 from roughly 2,500 borrowers to participate in "mass joinder" lawsuits.

She said the firms deceived these borrowers into believing their participation would help them avoid foreclosures, reduce their loan balances or interest rates, or even receive clear title to their homes.

Instead, the borrowers were often provided bad legal advice or unable to receive answers to simple questions, including whether they had actually been added to the lawsuits.

Victims were led to believe that these lawsuits "would be the way that they could receive justice," Harris said at a news conference monitored via webcast. "The only people who paid were those homeowners."

A disproportionate number of victims were black or Hispanic, officials said.

The case is California v. The Law Offices of Kramer and Kaslow et al, California Superior Court, Los Angeles County, No. LC 094571.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Additional reporting by Jeff Roberts; editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Matthew Lewis)"

This shows how you can be manipulated by GREED and Power:)

What goes around, comes around....

Be smart, hold on to your leash or you just might get flees if you hang around with the "DOBERMAN".

OMG, I think I'm going to cry... we lost our home due to these crooks.  Our condo went up for auction because of a mistake in their paperwork.  Granted, we were trying to get out anyway but I'm just sick over seeing this.

You might try contacting the AG over that, to see if there is something that can be done on their end.
Otherwise follow the progression of the suit and you may be able to go in for some sort of recovery with your own lawyer.

Thank you, I will :-)

I seem to remember seeing Mesa Law Group in the new about something else within the last year.  I can't for the life of me remember what though.

I wish Kamilla Harris office would have taken my complaint about a foreclosure mill trying to evict me in under 30 days  when i have 10 more months on my lease. Further these people have  recorded docs that make no sense and that constitutes Judicial Fraud, and I was told to hire an attorney and  take the matter up in Civil court. I was under the impression CRIMINAL ACTS were for Law Enforcement agencies to pursue. I don't think my name has changed to the state of California. There is NO help for crimes in progress. New Federal Laws, and State laws, attorney offices who refuse to respond to letters simply asking who is the legal owner and whom is authorized to accept the rent. They already have a copt of the lease!  It kind of hurts to see that some crimes are chosen. Sadly this isnt my first rodeo. The scumbags who changed the numbers on my mortgage and then recorded it with a 11.99 % ARM  and falsified my signature and  notary signatures on blank pages.. literally on the AG website the same year i reported mine, they choose to go after  the exact same crime. I could have swapped my name for the other party who was scammed it was different people but exact same details. A very elaborate crime, sounding like organized crime. They prosecuted and demanded restitution. I was almost in tears when I read it. I lost my home which started an avalanch of landlords who took rent and defaulted, a slumlord who stole from me, ruined my things due to the falling down roof and I couldnt get anyone to even take a report, I have been in eviction cout 4 times since 3/09 i have seen 137 cases all go against the occupant or owner. I was told i had no defense , yet retaliatory eviction is a California Constitution Right to protection from this. ALl utilities shut off in 20 days after i refused to get out in a week after the roof rained black water all over my leather sofas and my antique tables. I pointed out the proof of service was mailed 3 days before it was signed and  he tossed it, then the slumlord faked a proof of service and got a default , no money thank god. DId I mention  there were people living in my yard with mean dogs and  there to abuse , they ran water all day, tampered with gas lines and reported my kitties  for tresspassing in my own yard and i had to go to court and pay 270 and get rid of my 3  14 year old cats because i adopted 3 kittens left in 107 degrees in a box no water or food. I took them in so i was over the limit,  we had a 1 day kill in the local shelter and the animal cop banged on my door daily trying to take them all after 5 days into a 2 week to cure the problem notice.  I would like to once have Justice. I have always paid on time, I lost over 100K in equity, and I used my rent money to hire an attorney so i could not get nailed for like 11000 the slumlord claimed I owed and  for damage.. he claimed i ruined the dump, which we had to rent because the judge in the foreclosure wouldnt grant 4 days longer so we could get a paycheck to get out .  The lock out was 4 lousy days before and the slumlord, saw our income and  promised to get us some help moving and in the middle demanded we give our pool table as payment. We had no room anyway.. the worst thing for me. I had 6 lousy autyographed baseballs. They meant something to me. some were personal to me,  the scum stole my damned baseballs while i was at the new place.  there were some other things.. but  those were my a few favorite things. Now they say my loan was also a robo signer... how are they gonna fix that and the 24% car loan the foreclosure has cost me and my credit score.. well.. if it could go into negative it would be there.  One last thing... If there was no credit score numbering system, the entire  housing meltdown COULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. The reason.. the banks wouldnt have had the ability to abuse us and say we didnt qualify for a reliable bank so nthey funneled us to some scumbags in NY.  I am so sorry to vent, it just hurts when a person cannot find an attorney and even if i could afford one, my money would run out as it did when i paid 10K and  he didnt even go to court because my retainer got burned up in fake negotiaions.  Now i am scared to death to go into the same eviction court.  These people are scum, i have proof, and  thus far all i got was a letter saying the  AG  doesnt help citizens , to handle it in civil court. I know it was an intake person, but geez  dont they even read the  complaints. I reported it to the FBI task force the  gov. office  and Dianne Feinstein at least sent me some resources , but  they were for foreclosure victims, i am a renter veictim. The sad thing is the house is so cheap it would be 1/3 of teh rent i can prove i paid for almost 3 years to 3 landlords. on time.  But no one will talk to me because my score is under 580.  a 60K loan and  payments if i had good credi  330 a month... Come on. the bank is also in trouble because they do not have a chain of title.  I dont know how to do the case myself, and cannot retain any help. I got the most recent 3 day notice  for not allowing some photocopied letter company whom isnt the bank and not a relatytor or from atty office saying I refused to allow photos of the house!!!  No one ever even knocked, sent letter called or asked, this is the 4th person who claims i should pay them money.. yeah right. LETTERHEAD and an ATTORNEY LETTER  and I will do anything they ask.  Sorry to vent., It hurts to be a citizen who pays my bills and trys to be a good person and i even volunteer my time to help others. I have studied the law since 2005 when my first instance of a foreclosure attempt  spooked me so bad i dealt with the numberchangers.  Please oh please someone prosecute and ask for my restitution .. 2 houses and 3 landlords later i have no money, health problems due to stress, and I am in fear of the judge telling me i have no defense. I refuse to lose hope

There is no justice in California, DA's are evil

I am shocked. At your  storyI agree .

I am shocked. At your  storyI agree .

I live in PA. I responded to a letter stating Mesa Law Group was taking loan modification apps. This was supposed to be a part of the govt.'s national program. I was not part of a bank suit by MLG.  I have documentation of every call and email. I was lied to all along even up to the "check is in the mail" back in August. Is there any organized class action suit for this matter?

I'm not sure if there is any class actions at this time, my suggestion is to get a lawyer to look this over and see what can be done. Contact the California AG to find out the progress of their case and see if it is open for testimony from outside CA. Also contact your states AG to inform them of what is happening in CA and that you were a victim too.

Thanks for that advice. I will contact the AG in PA and see where the CA case is.

Unfortunately, the PA AG can't get involved because this matter is being litigated in court. Once a case has reached this point, the parties are involved in an adversary proceeding for which there are no specific rules for fact-finding and exchange of information. I live in PA and was duped into this false "mass joinder" lawsuit. I have contacted anyone I can think of who may be able to help me, including the PA AG, and according to them, they can't get involved for the reasons stated above. If I can find a lawyer who works on a contingency basis, I will try to sue NMLG in a civil suit. They got away with $4000.00 of my money and now I'm in danger of losing my home. I know I'm not the only one who was scammed by these people. They got away with thousands of dollars from trusting homeowners who were only trying to make their mortgage payments more manageable. Since the AG of CA is suing NMLG,  I think every one of the victims of this scam need to have restitution. Take all the money these [***] stole, take away THEIR homes, send them to jail, and give the victims their money along with compensation for pain and suffering.