MFI-Miami Blog

Florida Supreme Court Puts Mark Stopa Suspension Into Effect Immediately The Florida Supreme Court made the Mark Stopa suspension official on Friday. The suspension prevents St. Petersburg attorney Mark Stopa from practicing law or signing new clients. He must also stop representing existing clients within 30 days. Stopa’s name must also be removed from his law firm and other attorneys will take over hundreds of pending cases. Stopa’s lawyer, Scott Tozian told The Tampa Bay Times: The firm can continue in the ownership of other people, and hopefully, they can put their finger in the dike. There’s no question he’s the warhorse, and there are going to be transition pains. Stopa’s attorney contested the suspension by saying the Florida Bar had known about  Stopa allegedly instructing a client to lie in court  for more than a year. Yet, they never rendered a finding of probable cause or took other steps to resolve the allegations. The Florida Bar also claimed  Stopa settled

Typhoid Emily Convers Bolts Out Of The Town She Divided And Sold Out Former United Monroe leader Typhoid Emily Convers is leaving Monroe. Rumors have been floating around about her leaving since she resigned as Chairman of United Monroe in February. Her home at 22 Sunset Heights is  on the market for $359,900.00 . Typhoid Emily Convers is following several other United Monroe activists and leaders who are moving from the town they helped divide. Convers earned the nickname, Typhoid Emily Convers because of her frivolous lawsuits against elected officials and her anti-Semitism. She and 12 other activists managed to divide the Town of Monroe to create the first religious municipality in America. Her cause started with a political feud with late Town Supervisor Harley Doles over a movie theater. Convers soon morphed her cause into absurd claims against the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel. She and her friends turned town council meeting into circuses with Jerry Springer style ant

Delaware Lawyer John Shasanmi Accused Of Stealing $600,000 From Harlem’s Second Providence Baptist Church Delaware lawyer John Shasanmi is   facing charges for stealing $600,000   from a Harlem church. Shasanmi represented them in a land deal.  The Manhattan DA charged the Delaware lawyer was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of a forged instrument  Shasanmi allegedly   diverted $600,000 intended   for Harlem’s Second Providence Baptist Church into his own personal bank accounts. The lawyer allegedly stole the money while representing the church in a land deal with Azimuth Development. In November of 2014, the church agreed to give Azimuth the rights to develop the church’s land in Harlem. The plan called for a multi-use development with the church owning the first three floors of the new building. Read more at MFI-Miami

FHFA Director Mel Watt Tried To Woo Woman With Sexy Ankle Talk And Guacamole FHFA Director Mel Watt is under investigation for alleged sexual harassment of an employee. The agency regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. An FHFA staffer accused Watt of repeatedly  making inappropriate sexual advances  when she tried to discuss career and salary concerns. The conversations included a 2016 meeting during which Watt steered the discussion to his feelings for the woman. POLITICO reports Watt asked about a tattoo on her ankle, saying,  “If I kissed that one would it lead to more?” The employee filed an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint. The employee’s lawyer, Diane Seltzer Torre, told Politico: There is an investigation in progress. Our preference is to let that investigation proceed. An investigator working for the U.S. Postal Service, which is handling the case, declined to comment. The FHFA inspector general’s office also declined to comment. FHFA Director Mel Watt w

Florida Bar Presents New Evidence Of Mark Stopa Wrongdoing. Florida Bar Demands Immediate Suspension For Stopa The Florida Bar Association has presented new evidence of Attorney Mark Stopa wrongdoing. The Bar is seeking an immediate emergency suspension of Stopa. They claim he appears to be causing great harm to the public by practicing law. The Florida Bar says Stopa continues to engage in the misconduct that got him in the first place. The Florida Bar filed a petition with the Florida Supreme Court. The petition presents more evidence of Mark Stopa wrongdoing. Lawyers allege that Stopa settled cases without his clients’ knowledge. They also allege that he failed to disclose his ownership of a company to which a client deeded her house. In addition, the Bar alleges Stopa instructed one client to lie about the amount he had borrowed. That client is currently facing felony perjury charges. The petition calls for immediate suspension: Immediate action must be taken for t

Wells Fargo Tellers Call Cops On Elderly Black Bank Manager From Another Bank For Attempting To Cash A Check It seems like white Wells Fargo tellers aren’t immune from calling police on black people for doing everyday things. This pandemic of white paranoia has even hit culturally diverse South Florida. An elderly black woman in Florida is suing Wells Fargo after  staff at one of its banks called the cops on her when she tried to cash a check . Barbara Carroll told the  Miami New-Times,  she went to a Wells Fargo location in Fort Lauderdale to cash a check for $140. Carroll said she was forced to wait two-and-a-half hours. She also claims Wells Fargo employees took and held both her check and her driver’s license. Apparently, the Wells Fargo tellers suspected she’d forged the check. Wells Fargo tellers questioned her about the check and refused to cash the check. In addition, the person who wrote of the check also confirmed that he’d actually done so. Read more at MFI-Mi

Mortgage Bankers From Federal Savings Bank Get Immunity To Rat Out Trump Confidant Paul Manafort Two mortgage bankers from The Federal Savings Bank will dodge jail by ratting out Paul Manafort. The judge overseeing the upcoming trial of ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort granted them immunity. The judge also granted immunity to 3  other witnesses in exchange for being government witnesses. Dennis Raico and James Brennan are employees of The Federal Savings Bank. The bank gave Manafort $16 million across two mortgage loans shortly after he left the Trump presidential campaign. Brennan serves as the bank’s vice president commercial and construction loan manager according to his Linkedin account. The Chicago Sun-Times is  reporting  that Raico is a senior vice president at the bank. The Federal Savings Bank released a statement saying it will not comment on the proceedings. Bank CEO Steve Calk served as an economic adviser to the Trump campaign before the election. Spe

Seagrams Heiress Clare Bronfman Indicted In Nxivm Sex Cult Case  Seagrams Heiress Clare Bronfman walking out of federal court. Four more people  have been indicted  for their alleged leadership roles in the sex cult Nxivm. Seagrams heiress Clare Bronfman is one of them. Bronfman allegedly answered to former Amway salesman and Nxivm leader Keith Raniere. Federal prosecutors allege Bronfman  used her fortune to bankroll the group. The arrests are part of an ongoing federal investigation into the group. Raniere and actress Allison Mack are charged with  sex trafficking  and conspiracy for coercing women into the master-slave group. Raniere was a former multi-level marketing schemer before creating Nxivm with Nancy Salzman. Salzman is a former nurse. She trained in hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming The former Amway salesman created a twisted secret master-slave “sorority” within Nxivm called “The Vow” named in 2015. Read more at MFI-Miami

Mortgage Fees – What Should You Pay, What You Shouldn’t Pay Our good friend   Casey Moseman   at All Western Mortgage posted an awesome blog on her   company’s website   about mortgage fees. This blog unlocks the Rubik’s cube of mortgagees. Fees that can be confusing and sometimes mind-boggling. Give her a call if you are buying a house or refinancing in the Las Vegas area at 702.271.1274.  Mortgage fees will always be involved if you are using a mortgage to purchase or refinancing your home.  Your mortgage down payment isn’t the only upfront payment you’ll be making. You will also have to pay closing costs. You can expect to pay 2% – 5% of your home’s purchase price in closing costs. It is widely believed that all mortgage fees (closing costs) go to the lender. In reality, many costs are related to services performed by other people involved in the transaction. Lenders typically have no control over these costs. You should always carefully check our breakdown of common closin

FHFA Abandons Plans To Create Alternative Credit Score For GSEs. Agency Decides To Right New Credit Score Rules The Federal Housing Finance Agency is abandoning plans of creating a new credit score for homeowners. Instead, the agency will instead begin creating new regulations for lenders. As a result, they have requested providers of alternative credit scores to submit their proposals. FHFA wants to consider them for use by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A section of the  regulatory reform bill  signed by President Trump in May also requires the FHFA to define the criteria Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will use to validate  credit scoring models. The FHFA had begun evaluating credit score models last year. It also evaluated if the GSEs should be required to  switch to the latest scoring model  from Fair Isaac Corp. Fair Isaac introduced their latest credit score model named FICO 9. FHFA is also considering the use of VantageScore’s latest model, 3.0. The FHFA had given itself a

Billionaire Richard Branson and NFL Legend Joe Montana Jump Into Artificial Intelligence Mortgage Lending NFL legend Joe Montana joins billionaire Richard Branson invest in SnapLoan Billionaire Richard Branson and NFL legend Joe Montana are betting that artificial intelligence can make mortgage origination a better experience The two are among the investors in startup   LoanSnap Inc.  Loan Snap has raised $8 million in a Series A funding round led by  True Ventures , Founders Karl Carroll and Allan Jacob want to make getting a mortgage faster and easier. They also want to present data gathered in the application process to customers to help them make better financial decisions. LoanSnap isn’t the first company to view technology as a potential solution. Quicken Loans introduced  Rocket Mortgage in 2016 . Read more at MFI-Miami

Florida Court Says Lenders Must Prove Homeowners Received Mortgage Acceleration Letters Prior  To Foreclosure Attorney Mark Stopa successfully argued the Soule’s appeal without going berserk in the courtroom. The 2nd Florida DCA ruled that mortgage servicers must prove they mailed mortgage acceleration letters to a homeowner before initiating a foreclosure.  The appellate court ruled in favor of homeowner Steven E. Soule . Soule appealed the final judgment of foreclosure entered in favor of U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee for BNC Mortgage Loan Trust 2007-1 Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates, Series 2007-1 (the MBS Trust). Soule raised a number of grounds for reversal of the final judgment. The court rejected all of his arguments except one. The justices agreed that the MBS Trust failed to comply with paragraph 22 of the mortgage. Paragraph 22 of a mortgage dictates the steps the lender must do when giving notice of the default. The Court reversed the trial court’

Fifth Circuit COA Ruled Government Regulator Federal Housing Finance Agency Is Unconstitutional Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt The  Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled  this week that the Federal Housing Finance Agency   is not constitutionally structured. The Federal Housing Finance Agency or FHFA is the oversight for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The government created the FHFA was in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008 as a result of bailing out the GSEs. The court also dealt with the question of the agency’s leadership structure. The lawsuit questioned if the FHFA director can wield absolute authority. Shareholders didn’t like that the Federal Housing Finance Agency modified its conservatorship agreement with Fannie and Freddie. The modification swept all the profits from the GSEs into the government’s coffers. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders sued the government. Shareholders challenged the structure of the FHFA. They also refer

Matsuba Mortgage Fraudster Family Members To Serve 45 Years In Prison Three members of a mortgage fraudster family will spend more than 45 years in federal prison. The  Matsuba family  ran a $20 million mortgage fraud scheme that preyed on financially distressed homeowners for nearly a decade. Dorothy Matsuba will serve 20 years. Whereas, her husband, Thomas Matsuba, and her daughter, Jamie Matsuba, each received a sentence of more than 10 years in jail for taking part in the nearly decade-long scheme. The mortgage fraudster family ran a 10-year long foreclosure prevention scam that defrauded financially distressed homeowners. The Matsubas offered short sales as a way to stop a foreclosure. However, the Matsubas never executed the short sales. They and others rented out the properties to other people and did not pay the mortgages on the subject properties. In addition, the mortgage fraudster family submitted fake documents to mortgage servicers to delay the pending foreclosu

Experience The Most Aggressive Connecticut Foreclosure Defense Team Ever Assembled MFI-Miami has created the most aggressive Connecticut foreclosure defense team Connecticut has ever seen! We are the only foreclosure and mortgage experts with the strength to successfully challenge any mortgage lender in a Rhode Island courtroom. Our competitors show off one or two victories but they can’t beat our track record. How do we know this? Because  we have the track record to prove it .  MFI-Miami has become a lender’s worst nightmare. Why? MFI-Miami has successfully challenged some of the most arrogant foreclosure mill lawyers and lenders in Connecticut. Steve Dibert has also helped keep lenders from discriminating against Hispanics and people of African and Caribbean descent. In addition, he has helped keep combat veterans in their homes.  Furthermore, MFI-Miami also has access to some of the top forensic accountants and former FBI agents available. MFI-Miami can also call on mo

Connecticut Foreclosures Still Rank One Of The Highest In The Country Connecticut foreclosures are still some of the highest in the United States. The state entered July with the fifth-highest rate of residential mortgages under foreclosure in the nation. Bridgeport had the largest number of pending foreclosure sales in Connecticut. Bridgeport was followed by the cities of Stamford, New Haven and Hartford with 18 each. Affluent towns are also seeing high activity. There are dozens of foreclosure sales under way in Westport, five in Ridgefield and a pair of properties in Greenwich. New Connecticut foreclosures made up 40 of every 10,000 homes in the first half of the year. This number does not reflect homeowners already in some part of the foreclosure process according to  Attom Data Solutions.  This includes everything from new default notices, lender repossessions or scheduled auctions. Read more at MFI-Miami

Brooklyn Hasidic Heavyweights Get Unmasked As They Trek To  The Hudson Valley The Hasidic heavyweights in Brooklyn run a clandestine real estate empire. They are also active and powerful players in New York politics. They have spent nearly $ 4 billion on acquisitions in Brooklyn and in New York’s Orange County in the past decade. These Hasidic heavyweights mask their identities through a network of frontmen and a labyrinth of LLCs. Yet, this hasn’t stopped them from transforming slum neighborhoods to yuppie central where sales and rental properties have skyrocketed. Pinnacle Realty’s  David Junik told the Real Deal: The Hasidic community helped create the frenzy [in Brooklyn] we have today. They let the market explode after that. The Real Deal’s  Mark Maurer  reviewed every building purchase in Brooklyn’s fastest-growing neighborhoods. He looked at Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Borough Park from January 2006 and mid-June 2016. Read more a

New Wells Fargo Public Relations Campaign Blows Up In Their Face As Bank Fraud Scandals Continue To Plague The Bank Former Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf crashed the Wells Fargo Stagecoach A new multi-million dollar Wells Fargo public relations campaign is a bust. The new campaign featuring the slogan,  “Established in 1952, reestablished in 2018″  is not installing confidence in the public. Wells Fargo deposit holders and investors continue to flee the bank due to the  multiple bank fraud scandals . The bank has been forced to pay billions of dollars in fines since 2016. The scandals are now having an effect on Wells Fargo’s earnings. The bank has put forth efforts to move past its fake accounts scandal. However, the bank continued to announce new fines levied against it for yet more bank scandals. In the first quarter, Wells Fargo confirmed that it was facing a  $1 billion fine  over its mortgage lending and auto insurance abuses. To no one’s surprise, this fine weighed hea

Brad Pitt Came To The  Lower 9th Ward Wanting Be A Hero But Became Known As Joe Black Mold Homes built by the Make It Right Foundation are covered in black mold and falling down. Actor Brad Pitt made a lot of promises to the people of Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The hunky heartthrob promised to regenerate the area of New Orleans with new homes. Unfortunately, the homes he built homes were built with shoddy building materials. The homes are covered in black mold. Pitt’s charity promised to build affordable housing and encouraged through his charity,  The Make It Right Foundation . The actor and local politicians encouraged people to move back to the Ninth Ward. Brad Pitt and his then-wife, actress Angelina Jolie promised to build 150 affordable homes through the foundation. However, less than 100 homes were built. Nearly 40% of the homes built are now uninhabitable. The homes were built using shoddy building materials. Read more at M

Was Bank of America Part Of A 102 Million Dollar Ponzi Scheme? Bank of America is accused in a lawsuit of providing more than 100 accounts to perpetuate a 102 million dollar Ponzi scheme. The class-action suit filed in Ocala, Florida. It follows a complaint last week by the SEC. The SEC alleges that five men and three companies defrauded more than 600 investors. One of the alleged ringleaders allegedly commissioned a song about himself for a party in Las Vegas. The song’s lyrics celebrate his $10,000 suits and his partner’s affinity for champagne. The brother and sister who filed suit to recover losses from their late father’s investment. They also claim the fraudsters could not have perpetuated their scheme without the knowing assistance of Bank of America. They claim BofA lent the scheme an air of legitimacy and provided critical support. Read more at MFI-Miami

Donald Trump Loses New York State Tax Exemption On Trump Tower Residence. Taxes To Increase $49,000 A Year President Trump can no longer claim the New York State tax exemption on his condo in Trump Tower New York City has axed a $49,000 New York State tax exemption for President Trump.  Trump receives the exemption  on his Trump Tower condo because it was his full-time residence. President Trump can no longer claim the exemption since he is now a full-time resident of Washington, D.C. New York homeowners are only eligible for the tax break if the condo is his primary residence. New York tax rules define primary residence as: The dwelling unit in which the owner of the dwelling unit actually resides and maintains a permanent and continuous physical presence.   The NY Daily News asked the city Department of Finance about the abatement. The tax exemption was immediately removed from Trump’s tax records for the new tax year. We have removed the