Recent Food Recalls

FSIS Public Health Alerts
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/recalls-and-public-health-alerts/current-recalls-and-alerts

FSIS Issues Public Health Alert for Chicken Soup due to Misbranding and an Undeclared Allergen​ (Dec 13, 2019)
FSIS Issues Public Health Alert for Products Produced With Romaine From the Salinas, California, Growing Region | En Español (Nov 22, 2019)
FSIS Issues Public Health Alert for Ready-to-Eat Entrees due to Possible Listeria Monocytogenes Contamination | En Español (Nov 8, 2019)
FSIS Issues Public Health Alert for Raw Pork Products Due to Misbranding and an Undeclared Allergen | En Español (Nov 2, 2019)
FSIS Issues Public Health Alert for Beef Products due to Possible E. coli O157:H7 Contamination | En Español (Oct 16, 2019)
Prior Years

Looking for a recall not listed below?

After an FSIS recall is completed, it will be removed from this listing, but will be included in the Recall Case Archive.
*Information on recalled foods other than meat (including fish of the order Siluriformes), poultry, or processed egg products is available from the Food and Drug Administration website or from FoodSafety.gov.

Related Information

About Retail Distribution (Consignee) Lists

Current FSIS Recalls

Product Recalled Date of Recall Retail Distribution List
123-2019 Advance Pierre Foods Recalls Ready-to-Eat Ground Beef Products Due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination Dec 20, 2019 N/A (Class II Recall)
122-2019 Ashland Sausage Co. Recalls Sausage Products Due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination Dec 20, 2019 N/A (Class II Recall)
121-2019 Alli & Rose, LLC Recalls Siluriformes Fish Products Produced Without Benefit of Import Inspection Dec 19, 2019
120-2019 Montpak International Inc. Recalls Veal and Lamb Products Produced Without Benefit of Import Inspection | En Español Dec 18, 2019
119-2019 Ruiz Food Products, Inc. Recalls Frozen Sausage Breakfast Burrito Products due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination | En Español Dec 10, 2019
118-2019 Blue Grass Quality Meats Recalls Pork and Turkey Products due to Misbranding and Undeclared Allergens | En Español Nov 29, 2019 N/A (Class II Recall)
117-2019 Ajinomoto Foods North America, Inc. Recalls Chicken Fried Rice Products Due To Possible Foreign Matter Contamination | En Español Nov 22, 2019 N/A (Class II Recall)
116-2019 Morris Meat Packing Recalls Pork Products Produced Without Benefit of Inspection | En Español Nov 21, 2019 Dec 19, 2019
115-2019 Missa Bay, LLC Recalls Salad Products Due to Possible E. coli O157:H7 Contamination Nov 21, 2019
114-2019 BrucePac Recalls Ready-to-Eat Chicken Sausage Products Due to Misbranding | En Español Nov 19, 2019 N/A (Class II Recall)
113-2019 Central Valley Meat Co., Inc. Recalls Ground Beef Products Due to Possible Salmonella Dublin Contamination | En Español Nov 15, 2019 Nov 18, 2019
112-2019 Creative Food Processing Recalls Poultry Products Due to Misbranding and Undeclared Allergens | En Español Nov 13, 2019 N/A (Class II Recall)
111-2019 Ezzo Sausage Company Recalls Meat Products due to Possible Listeria Contamination | En Español Nov 09, 2019 No retail sales
110-2019 You Chang Trading, Inc. Recalls Siluriformes Products Produced Without Benefit of Inspection | En Español Nov 08, 2019 Dec 11, 2019
109-2019 Rastelli Bros., Inc. Recalls Meat Products due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination | En Español Nov 07, 2019 N/A (Class II Recall)
108-2019 Simmons Prepared Foods, Inc. Recalls Poultry Products due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination | En Español Nov 06, 2019 No retail sales
106-2019 Cay Thi Queentrees Food USA Recalls Poultry Products Produced Without Benefit of Import Inspection | En Español Nov 04, 2019 Dec 09, 2019
105-2019 H&T Seafood Inc. Recalls Siluriformes Products Produced Without the Benefit of Inspection | En Español Oct 29, 2019 Dec 10, 2019
101-2019 Pride of Florida Recalls Beef Products due to Possible E. Coli O157:H7 Contamination | En Español Oct 18, 2019 Dec 03, 2019
100-2019 T & R Enterprise USA Inc. Recalls Meat and Poultry Products Due to Insanitary Conditions | En Español Oct 18, 2019 No retail sales
099-2019 MawMaw’s Chicken Pies Recalls Chicken and Meat Products Due to Misbranding and Undeclared Allergens | En Español Oct 18, 2019 Oct 21, 2019
097-2019 Kenosha Beef International Recalls Seasoned Beef Products due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination | En Español Oct 14, 2019 No retail sales
096-2019 YOUBITE, LLC Recalls Pork Sausage and Turkey Sausage Products due to Mislabeling | En Español Oct 11, 2019 N/A (Class II Recall)
095-2019 Fisher Packing Company Recalls Ready-To-Eat Pork Products Due to Possible Listeria Contamination | En Español Sep 28, 2019 Oct 08, 2019
094-2019 Tip Top Poultry, Inc. Recalls Ready-To-Eat Poultry Products Due to Possible Listeria Contamination | En Español Sep 28, 2019 Dec 10, 2019
093-2019 Astrochef LLC. Recalls Chicken Pub Style Entrees Due to Misbranding and Undeclared Allergens | En Español Sep 20, 2019 Nov 27, 2019
091-2019 Hy-Vee Fresh Commissary Recalls Ready-To-Eat Beef and Chicken Products Due to Misbranding and Undeclared Allergens | En Español Sep 10, 2019 Sep 12, 2019
085-2019 Tip Top Poultry, Inc. Recalls Fully Cooked Poultry Products due to Possible Listeria Contamination | En Español Aug 20, 2019 No retail sales
084-2019 Tyson Foods, Inc. Recalls Weaver Brand Ready-To-Eat Chicken Patty Products due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination | En Español Aug 15, 2019 Aug 27, 2019
083-2019 Taylor Farms Illinois Inc. Recalls Chicken Products due to Possible Processing Defect | En Español Aug 09, 2019 Aug 13, 2019
080-2019 Premium Foods USA, Inc., Recalls Siluriformes Products Produced Without Benefit of Import Inspection Jul 27, 2019 Jul 29, 2019
079-2019 Kent Quality Foods, Inc. Recalls Ready-To-Eat Sausage Products due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination Jul 26, 2019 Aug 02, 2019
075-2019 Koch Foods Recalls Breaded Poultry Products Due to Misbranding and Undeclared Allergens | En Español Jul 18, 2019 No retail sales
073-2019 Ada Valley Gourmet Foods, Inc. Recalls Beef Products Due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination | En Español Jul 13, 2019 No retail sales

Dick Bove: Trump poised to take control of the Federal Reserve

President Trump sharply criticized the Federal Reserve this week, saying interest rate increases are hurting the economy.
Trump will have the opportunity to fashion the central bank in the image he would like as he has four vacancies to fill on the board of governors.
The result could be a more politicized Fed.
Richard X. Bove
Published 11:58 AM ET Fri, 20 July 2018 Updated 6:26 PM ET Fri, 20 July 2018 https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/20/trump-poised-to-take-control-of-the-federal-reserve.html

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/07/19/trump-i-dont-necessarily-agree-with-raising-rates.html

Trump: I don’t necessarily agree with raising rates
Trump: I don’t necessarily agree with raising rates
1:41 PM ET Thu, 19 July 2018 | 01:35

President Donald Trump has multiple reasons as to why he should take control of the Federal Reserve. He will do so both because he can and because his broader policies argue that he should do so. The president is anti-overregulating American industry. The Fed is a leader in pushing stringent regulation on the nation. By raising interest rates and stopping the growth in the money supply it stands in the way of further growth in the American economy.
First, He Can

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is required to have seven members. It has three. Two of the current governors were put into their position by President Trump. Two more have been nominated by the president and are awaiting confirmation by the Senate. After these two are put on the Fed’s board, the president will then nominate two more to follow them. In essence, it is possible that six of the seven Board members will be put in place by Trump.

The Federal Open Market Committee has 12 members and sets the nation’s monetary policy. Seven of the 12 are the members of the Board of Governors. Five additional are Federal Reserve district bank presidents. Other than the head of the Fed bank in New York, who was nominated by the president, the other four can only take their positions as district bank presidents if the board in Washington agrees to their hiring. One of these, the Fed Bank president in Minneapolis, Neel Kashkari, is already arguing for no further rate increases.
Experts react to President Trump’s comments on Federal Reserve hike
Trump’s comments on the Fed were a big deal. Here’s why
6:19 PM ET Fri, 20 July 2018 | 02:05
Second, Regulation

Following the passage of the Dodd Frank Act in July 2010, the Fed was given enormous power to regulate the banking industry. It moved quickly to implement a number of new rules. The Fed set up a system that would penalize banks that failed to obey its new rules. These rules included setting limits as to how big an individual bank could be; how much money the banks had to invest in fed funds and Treasurys as a percent of their assets; which loans were desirable and which were not; where the banks had to obtain their funding and many, many, more up to and including how much a bank could pay its investors in dividends.

These rules have meaningfully slowed bank investments in the economy (the Volcker Rule) and they have had a crippling effect on bank lending in the housing markets (other agencies have had an impact here also).

Thus, of all of the government agencies the Fed has been possibly the most restrictive. The president has already moved to correct these excesses by putting in place a new Fed Governor (Randal Quarles) to regulate the banking industry.

Three, Killing Economic Growth

In the second quarter of 2018, the growth in non-seasonally adjusted money supply (M2) has been zero. That’s right, the money supply did not grow at all. This is because the Fed is shrinking its balance sheet ultimately by $50 billion per month. In addition, the Fed has raised interest rates seven times since Q4 2015. Supposedly there are five more rate increases coming.

This is the tightest monetary policy since Paul Volcker headed the institution in the mid-1980s. It will be recalled his policies led to back-to-back recessions. Current Fed monetary policy is directly in conflict with the president’s economic goals.

Moreover, the Treasury is estimating it will pay $415 billion in interest on the federal debt in this fiscal year. A better estimate might be $450 billion if rates keep going up. There are a lot of bridges and tunnels and jobs that could be created with this money.

Then there is inflation. It is likely to rise if the Fed eases its policies. If that happens paying down the federal debt becomes easier. On a less desirable note, higher interest rates lower real estate values. Lower rates that stimulate inflation increase real estate values.
Bottom Line

The president can and will take control of the Fed. It may be recalled when the law was written creating the Federal Reserve the secretary of the Treasury was designated as the head of the Federal Reserve. We are going to return to that era. Like it or not the Fed is about to be politicized.

https://s25.postimg.cc/4ze62wysf/image.jpg !!!

American Workers Praise Trump’s Battle for Fair Trade: ‘He’s Keeping Promises, Instead of Lip Service’

ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

 

20 Jul 2018Spartanburg, SC162

American workers in South Carolina are praising President Trump’s battle for fair trade between the United States and its trading partners.

https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/07/20/american-workers-praise-trumps-fair-trade-promises-instead-lip-service/

A new report by the New York Times highlights how many American workers are supportive of Trump seeking to balance trade between the U.S., the European Union (E.U.), and China.

Most recently, as Breitbart News noted, Trump has threatened the E.U. with a 20 percent tariff on imported cars. Currently, the E.U. imposes a 10 percent tariff on American-made cars, while the U.S. imposes a small 2.5 percent tariff on European-made cars.

Trump Threatens Europe with a 20 Percent Tariff on Carshttps://t.co/0qKOQyPC3l

— John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) July 20, 2018

While the executives warn against tariffs, U.S. workers told the New York Times they see Trump’s battle for fair trade has a campaign promise that is being kept.

“I don’t see where we have been affected by the trade war like they’ve been talking about,” Glenn Jamison, a 62-year-old South Carolina Port Authority worker told the Times. “We don’t see any instability. We’re hearing about it, but we don’t see it yet.”

Another U.S. worker, Michael Spellman, praised Trump for sticking to his fair trade agenda.

“American workers have been sold down the river with Nafta and other agreements,” Spellman said.

“He’s doing what he said he would. He’s keeping promises, instead of lip service like every other politician,” Spellman continued.

The workers are similar to the Harley-Davidson workers who are losing their jobs at the motorcycle company’s Kansas City, Missouri, manufacturing plant as their jobs are being outsourced overseas. Despite Harley-Davidson executives blaming Trump’s trade agenda for the layoffs, the company’s outsourcing scheme came months before tariffs were placed on aluminum and steel.

As Breitbart News reported, the Harley-Davidson workers who are having their jobs reportedly outsourced to Thailand told NPR last month that they don’t blame Trump, they blame Harley-Davidson. More so, the workers praised Trump for trying to level the country’s trade deals.

“If you really look at it… different countries that have been kind of burdening us with these unfair tariffs over the last decade and [Trump] is trying to correct the course now…” one Harley-Davidson worker said.https://t.co/C9Fa6tZhjS

— John Binder 👽 (@JxhnBinder) June 27, 2018

“If you really look at it, it’s the people … that different countries that have been kind of burdening us with these unfair tariffs over the last decade and is trying to correct the course now is really who is to blame,” one Harley-Davidson worker said.

Another worker said, “He’s just trying to save American industry.”

“The president must have a good reason for doing battle against U.S. trading partners,” another worker told NPR. “He wouldn’t do it for no reason. I look at him as a very smart businessman and if he feels it’s what he needed to do, that’s what he needed to do.”

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder. 

Wonderful Story, Thanks Whitewolfpack!

From:  http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2014/07/heroic-pit-bull-saves-deaf-boy-from.html?showComment=1405682028244#c1564072031171231199

Heroic Pit Bull saves deaf boy from house fire (VIDEO)

 

Ace the Pit Bull is being hailed as a hero after he alerted a sleeping deaf boy that the house was on fire.

Thirteen-year-old Nick Lamb was at home alone and was sleeping when Ace jumped on his bed.

“My dog licked my face and woke me up,” Nick told WISH-TV Indianapolis. “I was like, ‘Stop it! What? You want to be fed?’ I thought he wanted to be fed or go outside.”

But Ace wouldn’t stop licking Nick and that’s when he noticed the house was full of smoke.

“I couldn’t hear anything because I had my cochlear implants off. … My dog Ace smelled it,” said Nick. Nick grabbed one of his implants and without any shoes he went downstairs with Ace. Nick and Ace navigated to the back door through the smoke and fire.

The blaze destroyed the family’s home, but firefighters were able to rescue the cat stuck inside. The family home was a total loss, but the family is incredibly grateful that Ace saved Nick’s life.
Source

VIDEO 

 

DOG, VIDEO

Corrupt Attorneys

Courts

Judges Slam More and More Plaintiffs’ Attorneys for Corruption

By Paul M. Barrett March 13, 2014

---

Photograph by Miguel Alvarez/AFP via Getty Images

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-03-13/judges-slam-more-and-more-plaintiffs-attorneys-for-corruption#p1

Peasants in Leon, Nicaragua, march in 2007 to denounce the use of harmful pesticides at banana plantations

On March 7 a California appellate court upheld a trial judge’s finding that what had been billed as a watershed liability verdict against Dole Food over pesticide use in Nicaragua was actually the product of a conspiracy by corrupt plaintiffs’ lawyers. That decision came only three days after a federal judge in New York ruled that a multibillion-dollar pollution judgment against Chevron (CVX) in 2011 was so tainted by bribery and coercion that it wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.

Meanwhile, in Texas, a prominent class-action injury lawyer faces mounting woes because of allegations that he faked thousands of damage claims against BP (BP)related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. When you combine these cases with the criminal convictions several years ago of plaintiffs-bar titans Mel Weiss, Bill Lerach, and Dickie Scruggs—all of whom served time for corrupting the civil justice system—it’s hard to deny that there’s deep dysfunction within a powerful portion of the legal profession that claims to fight corporate abuse on behalf of the little guy.

A look at the Dole ruling illustrates the point. The California Court of Appeal in Los Angeles affirmed dismissal of one of a series of suits filed against Dole, alleging the company’s use of pesticides in Nicaragua left banana workers sterile in the late 1970s. In all, these suits resulted in billions of dollars in judgments against Dole.

STORY: The Coming GM Ignition Litigation Storm: 4 Blunt Points

The case at issue in the March 7 ruling, known as Tellez, went to trial in 2008 and produced a multimillion-dollar verdict for workers. That verdict was thrown out when Dole’s attorneys proved that many of the plaintiffs never worked for the company and weren’t, in fact, sterile. Witnesses and investigators were intimidated in Nicaragua, and plaintiffs were coached to concoct false stories. One supposed victim testified that he was instructed to memorize and repeat phony evidence “like a parrot.”

Plaintiffs’ lawyers and law firms are major political contributors, particularly to Democrats

The California appellate court said the trial judge correctly sent the Tellez plaintiffs packing. The ruling was a win for the Los Angeles firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, which has engineered the negation of multiple pesticide verdicts against Dole. That accomplishment prompted Chevron to hire Gibson Dunn to fight back against a $19 billion oil-contamination judgment imposed by an Ecuadorean court in 2011. In the Chevron case, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of New York ruled on March 4 that plaintiffs’ attorney Steven Donziger turned his Ecuadorean lawsuit against the oil company into a racketeering scheme, complete with extortion, bribery of judges, and fabrication of evidence. Donziger has denied wrongdoing and vowed to appeal.

STORY: BP Spill Payout Probe Finds Corruption and Lets Money Keep Flowing

Mass-tort and class-action securities-fraud suits reached their apogee in the 1990s, fueled in part by the energy and ingenuity of an elite fraternity of plaintiffs’ firms and individual lawyers, some of whom became phenomenally wealthy as a result of their success. There’s nothing necessarily wrong, of course, with plaintiffs’ attorneys doing well along the path to doing good, just as there’s nothing necessarily improper with corporate-defense lawyers getting richly paid.

But as the plaintiffs’ bar achieved lucrative triumphs in asbestos litigation and the tobacco cases, some of its leaders lost their bearings. Scruggs, who earned a fortune in both of those arenas, pleaded guilty in 2008 to crimes related to a judicial bribery scheme. Weiss and Lerach, impresarios of securities-fraud class actions, went to prison for paying kickbacks to shareholder plaintiffs-for-hire. Last year the Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the disbarment of Stanley Chesley, a scourge of the pharmaceuticals and chemicals industries, among others. Chesley allegedly sought “unreasonable” fees in the settlement of a diet drug class action against Wyeth, now part of Pfizer (PFE).

Mikal Watts of San Antonio ranks among the nation’s most feared mass-injury lawyers. In the wake of the BP oil spill four years ago, his firm filed some 40,000 claims on behalf of deckhands and others alleging economic harm from the disaster that killed 11 rig workers and sullied the Gulf Coast. Last December, BP hit back, accusing Watts of seeking to shake down the company by filing claims for thousands of “phantom” clients who didn’t fit his description of them or didn’t exist at all. Then, in January, another well-known mass-tort attorney, Danny Becnel of Louisiana, filed a separate suit against Watts on behalf of Vietnamese American fishermen and business owners who say Watts used their names without authorization. Watts last year resigned from the plaintiffs’ steering committee helping to direct the litigation against BP after media reports that federal agents had searched his offices in connection with the phantom-claims scandal. The federal criminal probe is continuing. Watts, a major fundraiser for the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, has denied any wrongdoing—civil or criminal. His lawyers have said all his filings against BP were made in good faith.

Despite the egregiousness of the plaintiffs’ bar abuses, there’s little chance that Congress will enact tort reform anytime soon, says Victor Schwartz, a lobbyist for business on the issue and a partner in Washington with law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon. Plaintiffs’ lawyers and law firms are major political contributors, particularly to Democrats, who have fought attempts to cap settlements in big corporate liability cases and class actions. Lawyers spent about $135 million in 2012 helping to elect Democrats, compared with $56 million for Republican candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political money. “There have been no major business civil justice victories [in Congress] for almost a decade,” Schwartz says. Likewise, President Obama has shown little interest in taking on attorneys who invested $28 million in his reelection effort in 2012, more than twice what they gave Mitt Romney, according to the center. And bar associations and state attorneys general rarely seek to prosecute litigation fraud, which is expensive to pursue and politically fraught. As a result, says Sherman Joyce, president of the corporate-funded American Tort Reform Association, “too many plaintiffs’ lawyers believe there’s not much risk in filing fraudulent suits.”

STORY: The Case Against Class Actions, Kind Of

previous12next

The bottom line: Dole and Chevron have won major court victories after federal judges ruled that plaintiffs’ lawyers engaged in fraud.

Barrett is an assistant managing editor and senior writer at Bloomberg Businessweek. His new book, Law of the Jungle, which tells the story of the Chevron oil pollution case in Ecuador, will be published by Crown in September 2014. His most recent book is GLOCK: The Rise of America’s Gun.

http://enenews.com/new-tests-show-plutonium-millions-of-times-above-normal-levels-at-wipp-site-concern-air-filters-at-plant-may-not-have-worked-govt-accussed-of-lying-about-radiation-leak-video

LATEST HEADLINES

• Fox News Host: I think the Fukushima radiation leak is causing great harm; “I just don’t even know what to say to you… This is obvious” — At least 100 Navy responders suffering (VIDEO)
• Massive die-off of oysters and scallops in Pacific Northwest: “Millions of shellfish dying” — Never seen anything like it — “By July mortality hit 95 to 100 per cent” — “Deformed shells, smaller in size” — “Cause is unknown, but ocean acidification is main suspect” (AUDIO)
• Most likely a ‘worst-case scenario’ at WIPP — NPR: ‘Huge chunk’ of salt believed to have crushed drums of radioactive waste — ABC: “Investigators now admit problem is serious” — NYT: Plutonium, americium can bombard organs “for rest of person’s lifetime” (VIDEO)
• Gundersen: “Nuclear core has disintegrated” at Fukushima Unit 3 — Japan Energy Expert: Location of melted fuel for 3 reactors is unknown, this has never happened anywhere before (VIDEO)
• New tests show plutonium reached millions of times normal levels at WIPP site — Concern air filters at plant may not have worked — Gov’t accused of lying about radiation leak (VIDEO)
• PBS special on Fukushima starts tonight with rare look inside plant — Correspondent loses arm after filming in Japan — “Amputated after an apparently minor injury” (VIDEO)
• Hearst Newspaper: Bad news, Fukushima radioactive releases may be “far greater than originally stated” — Bloomberg: Levels ‘significantly’ undercounted — Fairewinds: Data they reported for nearly 3 years is wrong — Asahi Interview: “Politicians are hiding the dangers of radiation” (VIDEO)
• CBC: Radioactive particles arrive ‘far earlier than predicted’ for N. America — Mag: ‘Plumes stretch 4,800 miles across ocean!’ — Experts: There’s great alarm… Legitimate concern… Expected to dilute, but don’t really know — US Govt: ‘Monitoring beaches for debris from Fukushima nuclear disaster’ (VIDEO)

LivingLies’ Neil Garfield Post on Fannie and Freddie

New post on Livinglies’s Weblog

Fannie and Freddie Demand $6 Billion for Sale of “Faulty Mortgage Bonds” by Neil Garfield You read the news on one settlement after another, it sounds like the pound of flesh is being exacted from the culprits again and again. This time the FHFA, as owner of Fannie and Freddie, is going for a settlement with Bank of America for sale of “faulty mortgage bonds.” And most people sit back and think that justice is being done. It isn’t. $6 Billion is window dressing on a liability that is at least 100 times that amount. And stock analysts take comfort that the legal problems for the banks has basically been discounted already. It hasn’t. For practitioners who defend mortgage foreclosures, you must dig a little deeper. The term “faulty mortgage bonds” is a euphemism. Look at the complaints there filed. When they are filed by agencies it means that after investigation they have arrived at the conclusion that something was. very wrong with the sale of mortgage bonds. That is an administrative finding that concluded there was at least probable cause for finding that the mortgage bonds were defective and potentially were criminal. So what does “defective” or “faulty” mean? Neither the media nor the press releases from the agencies or the banks tell us what was wrong with the bonds. But if you look at the complaints of the agencies, they tell you what they mean. If you look at the investor lawsuits you see that they are alleging that the notes and mortgages were “unenforceable.” Both the agencies and the investors filed complaints alleging that the mortgage bonds were a farce, sham or in other words, a PONZI Scheme. Why is that important to foreclosure defense? Digging deeper you will find what I have been reporting on this blog. The investors money was not used to fund the REMIC trusts. The unfunded trusts never had the money to buy or fund the origination of bonds. The notes and mortgages were never sold to the Trusts even though “assignments” were executed and shown in court. The assignments themselves were either backdated or violated the 90 day cutoff that under applicable law (the laws of the State of New York) are VOID and not voidable. What to do? File Freedom of Information Act requests for the findings, allegations and names of investigators for the agency that were involved in the agency action. Take their deposition. Get documents. Find put what mortgages were looked at and which bond series were involved. Get a list of the mortgages and the bonds that were examined. Get the findings on each mortgage and each mortgage bond. Use the the investor allegations as lender admissions admissions in court — that the notes and mortgages are unenforceable. There is a disconnect between what is going on at the top of the sham securitization chain and what went on in sham mortgage originations and sham sales of loans. They never happened in the real world, no matter how much paper you throw at it. And that just doesn’t apply to mortgages in default — it applies to all mortgages, which is why all the mortgages that currently exist, and most of the deeds that show ownership of the property have clouded and probably “defective” and “faulty” titles. It’s clear logic that the government and the banks are seeking to avoid, to wit: that if the way in which the money was raised to fund the loans or purchase the loans were defective, then it follows that there are defects in the chain of title and the money trail that were obviously not disclosed, as per the requirements of TILA and Reg Z. And when you keep digging in discovery you will find out that your client has some clear remedies to collect the profits and compensation paid to undisclosed recipients arising out of the closing of the “loan.” These are offsets to the amount claimed as due. If the loan was not funded by the Trust, then the false paper trail used by the banks in foreclosure is subject to successful attack. If the loans were in fact funded directly by the trust complying with the REMIC provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, then the payee on the note and the mortgagee on the mortgage would be the trust — or if the loan was actually purchased, the Trust would have issued money to the seller (something that never happened). And lastly, for now, let us look at the capital structure of these banks. A substantial portion of their capital derives from assets in the form of mortgage bonds. This is the most blatant lie of all of them. No underwriter buys the securities issued by the company seeking financing through an offering to investors. It is an oxymoron. The whole purpose of the underwriter was to create securities that would be appealing to investors. The securities are only issued when you have a buyer for them, and then the investor is the owner of the security — in this case mortgage bonds. The bonds are not issued to the investment bank as an asset of the investment bank. But they ARE issued to the investment bank in “street name.” That is merely to facilitate trading and delivery of certificates which in most cases in the mortgage bond market don’t exist. The issuance in street name does not mean the banks own the mortgage bonds any more than when you a stock and the title is issued in street name mean that you have loaned or gifted the investment to the investment bank. If you follow the logic of the investment bank then the deposits of money by depository customers could be claimed as assets — without the required entry in the liabilities section of the balance sheet because every dollar on deposit is a liability to pay those monies on demand, which is why checking accounts are referred to as demand deposits. Hence the “asset” has been entered on the investment bank balance sheet without the corresponding liability on the other side of their balance sheet. And THAT remains that under cover of Federal Reserve purchase of these bonds from the banks, who don’t own the bonds, the value of the bonds is 100 cents on the dollar and the owner is the bank — a living lies fundamental. When the illusion collapses, the banks are coming down with it. You can only go so far lying to the public and the investment community. Eventually the reality is these banks are underfunded, under capitalized and still being propped up by quantitative easing disguised as the purchase of mortgage bonds at the rate of $85 Billion per month. We need to be preparing for the collapse of the illusion and get the other financial institutions — 7,000 community and regional banks and credit unions — ready to take on the changes caused by the absence of the so-called major banks who are really fictitious entities without a foundation related to economic reality. The backbone is already available — electronic funds transfer is as available to the smallest bank as it is to the largest. It is an outright lie that we need the TBTF banks. They have failed and cannot recover because of the enormity of the lies they told the world. It’s over. Neil Garfield | October 21, 2013 at 9:24 am | Tags: Bank balance sheet, Bank of America, defective mortgage bonds, defective mortgages, Fannie, faulty mortgage bonds, faulty mortgages, FHFA, foreclosure defense, Freddie, loan closings, loan origination, mortgage bonds, sale of loans, underwriting mortgage bonds | Categories: CORRUPTION, evidence, expert witness, Fannie MAe, foreclosure, GARFIELD GWALTNEY KELLEY AND WHITE, investment banking, Investor, MODIFICATION, Mortgage, Motions, Pleading, securities fraud, Servicer, trustee | URL: http://wp.me/p7SnH-5Mz

From Matt Weidner in Florida Foreclosure Hell

A COURT ACTUALLY MADE A BANK FOLLOW THE LAW AND ITS OWN RULES!

KABOOM! Non-Compliance With Pooling And Servicing Agreement (PSA) Voids Assignment of Mortgage….

Posted by: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq. | on May 8, 2013

http://mattweidnerlaw.com/blog/2013/05/kaboom-non-compliance-with-pooling-and-servicing-agreement-psa-voids-assignment-of-mortgage/

Down here in Florida Foreclosure Courts, we are treated to a constant, steady, nearly impenetrable wall of,

“Fraud in Foreclosure Doesn’t Matter at All!”

and

“Banks Can Ignore All Laws, All Rules, All Foreclosure Processes And Still Take Your Home”

and a recent favorite

“Banks Can Spit In The Face of The Attorneys General And Ignore Their Absurd National Mortgage Settlement”

But up in New York, a court reached a stunning result…..

A COURT ACTUALLY MADE A BANK FOLLOW THE LAW AND ITS OWN RULES!

The assignment of the Defendant’s note and mortgage, having not been assigned fromthe Depositor to the Trust, is therefore void as in being in contravention of the PSA. The evidence submitted by Defendant that the note was acquired after the closing date and that assignment was not made by the Depositor, is sufficient to raise questions [*10]of fact as to Whether the Plaintiff owns the note and mortgage, and precludes granting Plaintiff summary judgment.

The assignment of the note and the mortgage which affected the transfer was dated July
16, 2008, however, pursuant to the terms of the PSA the trust closed on November 14, 2006.

Section 9.02 of the PSA specifically prohibits the acquisition of any asset for a REMIC
part of the fund after the closing date unless the party permitting the acquisition and the
NIMS (net interest margin securities) Insurer have received an Opinion letter from counsel, atthe party’s expense, that the acceptance of the asset will not affect the REMIC’s status. No such letter has been provided to show compliance with the requirements of the PSA.Plaintiff has provided no evidence that the trustee had authority to acquire the note and mortgage herein after the trust had closed.

Since the trustee acquired the subject note and mortgage after the closing date, the
trustee’s act in acquiring them exceeded its authority and violated the terms of the trust.The acquisition of a mortgage after 90 days is not a mere technicality but a material violation of
the trust’s terms, which jeopardizes the trust’s REMIC status.

Section 9.01(f) of the PSA provides that neither the Trustee, the Servicer or Holder of
the Certificates shall cause any REMIC formed under the PSA, by action or omission, to
endanger the status of the REMIC or cause any imposition of tax upon the REMIC.

Since the trust was organized as a REMIC, the investors received certain tax benefits on
the income that passed through the trust to them. Section 26 U.S.C.A. § 860D(a)(4) defines a REMIC as an entity that
as of the close of the 3rd month beginning after the startup day and at all times thereafter,
substantially all of the assets of which consist of qualified mortgages and permitted
investments.

From Our Friends at 4closureFraud.org

CIFG ASSURANCE NORTH AMERICA, INC., V. GOLDMAN SACHS: GOLDMAN SACHS MUST FACE FRAUD CLAIMS FROM INSURER

Posted by 4closureFraud on May 8, 2013 · Leave a Comment

GOLDMAN SACHS MUST FACE FRAUD CLAIMS FROM INSURER

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) must face fraud claims brought by CIFG Assurance North America (CADEGA.UL) over insurance it provided for $275 million in mortgage-backed securities, a New York state appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

CIFG claimed in a 2011 lawsuit that the investment bank fraudulently induced it to provide insurance for a portfolio of more than 6,000 subprime residential mortgages by concealing the shoddy quality of the loans.

A trial judge in Manhattan threw out that claim last year, ruling that CIFG would have uncovered the alleged misrepresentations had it performed proper due diligence.

The New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, First Department, reversed on Tuesday, finding that CIFG had done enough by having an outside consultant analyze the loans.

“There is a question of fact as to whether plaintiff reasonably relied on defendants’ representations,” a five-judge panel wrote in a unanimous decision.

Rest here…

~

4closureFraud.org

From Living Lies Important Info On Banks!

http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/new-york-getting-ready-to-prosecute-banks-for-violations-of-settlement/

 

New York Getting Ready to Prosecute Banks for Violations of Settlement

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Neil Garfield

At the end of the day everyone knows everything. If you start with the premise that the securitization of debt was a farce and that the necessary element of the false securitization of mortgage loans was the foreclosure of those loans, then you move one step closer to understanding the mortgage and foreclosure mess and a giant step forward to understanding and implementing a solution. All the actions, statements and myths promulgated by the Wall Street banks become clear, including their violation of every consent decree,order and settlement they ever made with respect to mortgage loans.

Attorney General Schneiderman of New York seems to understand this and he is taking the mega banks to task for violating a settlement that looks like pennies on the dollar. He doesn’t care why they violated the $26 Billion settlement but he is taking action for their consistent violation of the settlement. But I care about the reason and so should you. The reason is nothing less than the obvious: the mega banks expose themselves to liability that far exceeds the terms of the settlement.

In any normal circumstances when a big company enters into a settlement that amounts to pennies on the dollar, the company rushes to make the settlement final by paying the money and performing the actions required in the agreement. Thus they commit illegal acts and get away with it by entering into an agreement that looks big but doesn’t put them out of business. They are nothing but anxious to put the settlement behind them.

So why are the mega banks refusing to abide by a $26 billion settlement on a multi- trillion theft? The answer by pure logic and my sources is that if the banks actually performed on the material portions of the agreement they risk going out of business. Why?

The answer is arithmetic. The purpose of the settlement was to stop illegal foreclosure practices and compensate those who lost their homes in illegal Foreclosures (as opposed to simply reversing the Foreclosures and starting over again which is what any court of law would require if there was an admission that the documents and claims in foreclosure were false).

Arithmetic is the answer. Without Foreclosures, the banks cannot support their claim of failure of the mortgages. If the loans are reinstated then the “sales” of loans and mortgage bonds become immediately subject to an accounting and to payback to investors who bought empty bogus bonds issued by a trust that existed in name only. If the loans must be considered performing loans because of any of the reasons contained in those multistage settlements, consent decrees,orders and agency settlements, then the banks must reimburse the insurers, buyers and counter-parties on hedge products like credit default swaps.

Thus satisfactions the settlement agreement exposes the banks to a reduction in their tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 capital such that the reality and empty underbelly of the banksia displayed for all to see. Those banks and are not nearly as big as they say they are and must be resolved by the FDIC because they actually do not have the minimum capital requirements that all banks must have to continue operations. That is why the Brown bill in the U.S. Senate is dead on right.

If the Foreclosures were invalid there is only one way to correct them, just like any title problem. Correct the defect In Title by reversing the foreclosure or get an affidavit from the homeowner joining in some correction of the corrupted title resulting from fake Foreclosures.

With trillions in liability at stake of course the banks are violating the settlement agreements and consent decrees. All they can do is try to control state and federal action by providing photo opportunities and planted articles around the media to make people feel good. But neither the housing market nor the economy will get the stimulus necessary for a full recovery until the truth is addressed instead of pretending you can fix this mortgage and foreclosure mess with Tiny settlements and promises that nobody intends to keep.

Wells Fargo, BofA threatened with lawsuit over mortgage allegations
http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/blog/morning_call/2013/05/wells-fargo-bofa-threatened-with.html

Eric Schneiderman: Banks Have ‘Confidence’ That Law Enforcement Is Not Taking Violations ‘Seriously’
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/eric-schneiderman-banks_n_3226992.html