First dump of Anon BofA Documents is up
bankofamericasuck.com
bankofamericasuck.com
In outline: banks were supposed to be funneling mortgage payments to holders of bonds backed by the mortgages. But they were (allegedly) siphoning off some of that money for themselves or their cronies --- nominally in the form of ludicrously overpriced premiums for insurance policies against default. This would be legally actionable if it held up, and there have been consent decrees in the past.
I halfway hope that Wikileaks is using Anonymous as a smokescreen and has given them a little bit of info so that BoA can burn their PR on them, then the supposed hard drive that is referenced again here actually comes out later.
And here's the torrent: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6241472
See argument here: http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/g3hgw/bank_of_amer...
The guy who leaked this information is a former employee of BofA. Since his firing BofA has ruined his life/credit/relationships and he will probably be in court for the rest of his life.
Bank of America made a lot of errors with their loan adjustments due to not updating and/or staying on top of things and subsequently forclosed a lot of homes that should not have been forclosed on. So the emails you see at the bottom of the page are BofA execs asking for the removal of certain DTN records from their Databases (from what i understand DTN's are like information records). The reason they are doing that is because they are being audited, and when the auditors look up the loans that should be tied to those DTN's and find that there is no existing DTN record, they will discount it as a system error and move on. The result of this "deleting of DTN's" was some $60B worth of fraud on the part of Bank Of America in order to cover up the mistakes they made during the housing crisis.
These emails are just the first ones released, but they are clearly TO and FROM BofA execs, asking for the deletion of DTN's from the system and even a response from one exec saying, "Are you sure we can do this"??
I'd really like to hear more, as I'm having trouble understanding what they could do other than take him to court for stealing documents or whatever. Specifically, how did they ruin his relationships? Do they call and hang up when his girlfriend answers? Do they call his friends claiming to be him, impersonating his voice, and saying things like, "you know, your feet really smell"?
(Not that I think he is blowing the whistle on anything, really. It sounds like he was upset that he was fired so he tried to make his Outlook dump sound interesting enough to get himself some media attention. It didn't work.)
A lot of rappers talk about talking to the police, they all have great advice.
They're fine, thanks. The guy who tries to blow the whistle gets nailed, though.
That's not why they nailed him to the cross, that's how they did it. The why is evidenced by the fact that they're not going after the actual tax cheats in addition to him.
I don't understand this bit; what, other than non-payment of mortgage, makes a house a "should have been foreclosed on" as opposed to "should NOT have been foreclosed on"?
Many homeowners skated through this mess with a free house because the banks could not actually prove that they have a valid lien on the home. The downside for these folks is that they are trapped in the home, as the title isn't clean.
At least, that's what the Fed's audit (of a sample of foreclosures, not all foreclosures in the US, obviously) said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/10/fed-reports-finds-n...
The bondholders are the real victims in this mess.
Once the recession hit, the market value of these homes dropped like crazy. Instead of being worth $500k each, they were valued at $300k. This meant that the loan on the homes were more than the market value of the homes and apparently there was a clause in the bank contract that allows them to call the entire amount of the loan if the loan amount is more than the market value of the house.
That is exactly what they did, which seems crazy to me as he had really good tenants in each of the homes and they all continued paying on time so he was actually making ALL his payments on time for all houses.
This is one way that a bank could forclose on a house even if non-payment isn't an issue. Contract details are crucial.
Really? Where and what originating financial institution?
I read my notes and I don't remember anything like that. (I found a lot of other things that I wasn't happy about.)
For example, his friend may not have, by law, owned the houses, but may have transfered rights to his business. If the lender somehow knew this and didn't like it (not a "natural person), it may have triggered an "acceleration."
Don't know his contract details, just a possible scenario.
I made all my payments on time - had a credit rating of 750 was never late or missed a payment.
One day - I went to make my payment online and the payment button was missing of the page.
Everything else was the same on the sie - just the make payment button was gone.
I called the bank and inquired. They stated very matter-of-fact "Oh, that's because we sold your loan. Your loan is no longer with us - you need to call your new lender"
WTF?!
I had no indication, no notice, no letter.
I said "Who did you sell it to?" They claimed they had no idea - that it was sold "with a whole bunch of other loans - they have no idea who has it now, the new lender should have contacted me."
They hadn't.
For more than 6 months this went on - no notice from my lender, no contact from the supposed new lender. At first - I was calling my lender every day - then every week - continually asking. No info.
Then after six months - I got a notice of foreclosure and a statement saying I needed to pay $30K
I didn't have $30K - and other situations had changed as well (change of job, divorce, change of income level).
The new lender refused to work with me on the delinquency stating "I did not make enough money to qualify for a refinance"
They ended up taking my home and ruining my credit - I still haven't recovered financially, and emotionally form the experience. My credit rating is now poor - and I cant seem to fix this.
As I mentioned, I had a great credit rating of 750 - and had zero debt (I have made it a choice to not carry credit cards) and after this incident I could not get a credit card now that I would need one.
It has totally fucked over my life and I dont see how I can fix this part.
It seems the only recourse in this type of situation is to contact your local representatives in Congress for help and to bring attention to your situation, because of the bureaucratic nightmare these mortgage backed securities that your house was rolled into are.
My circumstances were farked in multiple ways... The amount I was making on my income was less than required for all my bills - as we had joint income of around ~250K.
After we split, and then later I lost my job - I had to make decisions on what to pay: utilities/food/gas etc.. which took away from what I had saved for the mortgage - when I was finally contacted, via the foreclosure notice - which was the first and only communication from the new lender - I didn't have the total amount and was farked.
However - I was obviously just some number to the bank given that they heartlessly sold my loan as some lump sum group of loans out without notification or explanation - so I can only speculate....
Yes, I offered them everything I had, asked to refinance - filled out all their forms for refi - got a re-appraisal - sent them new employment info once I got a new job and they refused to work with me.
They said, quote:
"You make too much money for us to help you" - but with divorce, bills, child-support - I couldnt affor the 3600 a month mortgage any longer.... Now I can only afford about 1400 a month.
Yes, I offered them everything I had, asked to refinance - filled out all their forms for refi - got a re-appraisal - sent them new employment info once I got a new job and they refused to work with me.
They said, quote:
"You make too much money for us to help you" - but with divorce, bills, child-support - I couldnt affor the 3600 a month mortgage any longer.... Now I can only afford about 1400 a month.
I’ve been in contact for with attorneys involved in foreclosure defense. One thing they stress is that a significant number of their clients facing foreclosure has made every single mortgage payment. Read that again.
Now how can that be? It’s actually very simple.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/11/servicer-driven-forec...
One number that stood out for me:
Thompson estimates that servicer-driven foreclosures represented about 50% of the cases she handled.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/opinion/06krugman.html
Rebuttals: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/08/krugman-... http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/08/paul-kru...
Here is a his attempt to debunk the hypothesis that job losses are concentrated in a few sectors. Of course, he doesn't actually present job loss numbers, but instead ratios of people who want a job and are actively looking to people who have one:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/whos-unemployed/
Of course, if you look at actual job numbers, you see huge losses in construction and much smaller losses in other sectors: http://crazybear.posterous.com/structural-shift-in-the-econo...
Here is Krugman relying on Simpson's Paradox to argue that education is better in Wisconsin than in Texas:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/28/opinion/28krugman.html?par...
Here are more detailed numbers: http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2011/03/longhorns-17-ba...
Claims that our current budget deficits are not caused by government spending:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/why-have-deficit...
Rebuttal: http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/10/krugman-wrong-abou...
These are just a few that spring to mind.
Dishonesty is easy to show - and a link avalanche is rhetorically a good way to make it seem like you've shown it, at least to people who don't follow the links. People like me, who are curious and do, will end up resentful of the waste of time.
I have no opinion on whether Krugman is dishonest or not, but if know you can't make a case, please don't respond with a link avalanche. If you can: quote a statement, reference it, quote the evidence that it is factually incorrect, reference it. Argument made.
Sorry for being snarky, but this technique irritates me when I fall for it.
Krugman: "But in that case, why not ask CBO to score the revenue, to see if it agrees? The answer given is that CBO refused to do an analysis beyond 10 years; OK, but why not at least have the 10-year analysis?" http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/ryan-predictions...
Krugman: "I look at how he [Ryan] has gone about selling his ideas, and I see an unscrupulous flimflammer. Think about that CBO report: getting the CBO to score only the spending cuts, not the tax proposals, then taking credit for being a big deficit reducer, is simply sleazy." http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/06/how-to-spot-a-fl...
Paul Ryan's website: "In fact, Congressman Ryan’s staff did ask CBO to analyze both the tax and spending provisions in the Roadmap. However, CBO declined to do a revenue analysis of the tax plan, citing that it did not want to infringe on the traditional jurisdiction of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT). The JCT is responsible for providing the official revenue score of legislation before Congress. JCT, however, does not have the capability at this time to provide longer-term revenue estimates (i.e. beyond 10 years)." http://www.roadmap.republicans.budget.house.gov/News/Documen...
After Megan McArdle pointed this out (see my previous links), Krugman made this response (entitled "Doubletalk express"): "I also see that Ryan is perpetuating the runaround on revenue estimates. If you read either this article or his original response to the Tax Policy Center, you could easily get the impression that nobody would do a revenue estimate, that CBO said it was JCT’s job, and JCT balked. Even Nate Silver has fallen for this.... In other words, Ryan could have gotten JCT to do a 10-year estimate; it just wouldn’t go beyond that. And he chose not to get that 10-year estimate. So it was Ryan’s choice not to have any independent estimate of the 10-year revenue effects." http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/doubletalk-expre...
Megan McArdle: "To be honest, I too found that passage ambiguous. Which is why I contacted Ryan's staff, who were happy to clarify that yes, they asked the JCT to do a forecast, and JCT said no." http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/08/paul-kru...
The factually incorrect claim is that Ryan a) didn't ask the CBO to score the revenue side of his plan, b) didn't ask the JCT to give a long term score and c) didn't ask the JCT for a short term (10 year) estimate.
My second example is misdirection, not an outright lie. He opens by discussing the claim of "shifting workers out of construction", presents a graph which doesn't directly relate to the issue, and then declares victory. A careless reader will easily be led to believe he debunked the claim of a structural shift.
This is Krugman's usual mode of deception - discuss an issue, show a peripherally related graph while ignoring a much more useful one, and declare victory.
He reserves outright lies and character assassination for people he is threatened by (it's really easy to dismiss Palin or Huckabee as dumb hicks, but Ryan is smart and honest enough to admit that we need to make painful spending cuts).
"JCT, however, does not have the capability at this time to provide longer-term revenue estimates (i.e. beyond 10 years). Given these functional constraints for an official analysis, staff relied on its original work with the Treasury Department and other tax experts to formulate a reasonable expected path for long-term revenues given the tax policies in the Roadmap combined with the economic growth projections available at the time."
How I read this (and how Krugman read it):
Our staff relied on its original work because of the functional constraint of JCT not having the capability at this time to provide longer-term revenue estimates (i.e. beyond 10 years).
A pretty reasonable read, if you ask me. Or McArdle, as you have pointed out: "To be honest, I too found that passage ambiguous."
I'm not sure if that screams deceptive liar who assassinates people's characters in order to protect himself from the "smart and honest," and if it's the most "torrid" claim, you're pretty easily aroused.
Filing documents containing claims that are false is perjury. Filing 10,000 documents containing false claims is 10,000 instances of perjury. Other corporations have taken similar actions, filing tens of thousands of documents in court, withdrawing the documents, and admitting that they were factually incorrect.
Additionally, knowingly originating securities that do not meet the representations made in their prospectuses is securities fraud. We know because of FCIC-related testimony that this was done at BofA at the very least.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/business/20gret.html?_r=1&... (article is related but not about BofA)
I would normally recommend that you read something at market-ticker.org, but for the most part KD's been light on the evidence lately so I'd be hard pressed to sift through his recent angry rambling to find something substantial.
I can imagine that filing documents with errors in them would really annoy the hell out of a judge, but it doesn't seem on its face like it necessarily crosses into perjury.
The securities fraud seems much stronger, maybe via some sort of breach of duty claim by the bondholders who got stuck holding the bag? They pretty much got sold a bill of goods, so they would seem to have the clearest path to getting their pound of flesh out of the originators.
On the securities fraud side, some action is being taken along those lines. My impression from what I've read is that a group of bondholders whose combined share is a large portion of the offering has to be assembled before they can take any action, so it's moving fairly slowly.
He went to jail because he didn't tell the whole story and tried to cover up his part. Whistleblowing rules require full disclosure of your information to prevent them just being used to take out rivals; by covering up his part in the illegal activity, he forefeited part of his protection and so is in prison. This is normal and perfectly fine.
I'm just not jumping to conclusions I'm not qualified to make. It's impressive to me, that you can do that.
http://bankofamericasuck.com.nyud.net/03/13/ex-bank-of-ameic...
(The linked URL was, when I checked, a legitimate and non-malicious mirror of the original.)
EDIT: Obviously a phishing page is not a proper mirror - but they both share the attribute of being very similar to another page, and with "name.tld" as a sub-domain it makes sense that a browser might incorrectly label a mirror as a phishing page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Content_Distribution_Netw...
http://www.businessinsider.com/wow-bank-of-america-bought-su...
How can we verify this is legit?
The primary domain is registered to James somebody, email address Nope@gmail.com, which doesn't exactly look like valid info.
I'm fairly certain people can handle more than disaster porn at any given moment.
Ex: Go to CNN.com. What's splashed all over the front page right now? Can you find even one link to an article about the BofA leak?
Which in reality could be snipped to "one guy", and not lose any real meaning.
You can read the whole stream from the 10th to follow how this was put together. It's not really HACKERS ON STEROIDS material; he was contacted by an ex-BoA employee because he ran http://bankofamericasuck.com/.
Contrast this no-4chan/no-hacking reality with breathless headlines like: "4chan hackers leak internal Bank of America emails" -- http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/13/anonymous-bank-of-america/
Maybe there is a link- I couldnt see all of the screenshots to be sure. But the emails I saw were a bit paranoid sounding for me.
It's just not thorough. This better be just the tip, because I think it's more damaging to the credibility of this leaker than anything else.
I get "503 : Service Temporarily Unavailable"
But it also means overloading an already overloaded server with more requests.
I fear that OperationLeakS probably cannot imagine how screenshots can be forged, so he believes them to be more authoritative than emails.
EDIT: nm, got through on the coral cache site.
I used to work as a jr accountant when my 2 year degree in CS and Business was first granted for a Home Health firm non profit that received funds from the state and federal governments.
As it was explained to me at the time by a lawyer when I discovered some financial fraud with those state funds at the firm I was employed by..you cannot keep it a secret and expect the state not bring a case against you when they find out as its criminal activity.
This ex BOAf employee is damned if he or she does or not as the state might bring a case against the ex employee when they discover the criminal activity or BOAF makes his or her life hell when they are exposed.