BECAUSE WELLS FARGO REFUSES TO DELAY FORECLOSURES, THEY WILL HAVE TO BE FORCED TO ... PROBABLY BY THE END OF OCTOBER. CONSUMERS WILL REFUSE TO DO BUSINESS WITH WELLS FARGO, PEOPLE WHO WANT TO KEEP THEIR HOMES OR INCREASE THEIR INVESTMENTS WILL, ANYWAY. GOODBYE WELLS FARGO, GOODBYE. YOU ARE SUCH COLOSSAL ASSES.

Wells Fargo Won't Delay Foreclosures
as JPMorgan, BofA Check Their Filings
By Dakin Campbell and David Mildenberg -
Oct 5, 2010 11:00 PM GMT-0500

Wells Fargo & Co. is standing by the accuracy of foreclosure filings and won’t follow competitors in delaying seizures, after an employee testified he signed documents for proceedings without personally reviewing records.

The bank said yesterday it doesn’t plan to halt repossessions because its “procedures and daily auditing demonstrate that our foreclosure affidavits are accurate.”

In a May 20 deposition, a Wells Fargo Home Mortgage employee said he signed 50 to 150 documents a day, including statements describing debts and borrowers, without personally confirming that all information was true. His testimony related to a civil claim against the bank filed in a Washington state court. A judge dismissed the case in June.

Mortgage firms have drawn fire from borrowers, lawyers and state officials for letting employees sign affidavits for court- monitored foreclosures without personally checking loan records. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. last week delayed foreclosures to review the accuracy of their filings. Last month, Ally Financial Inc. said its GMAC Mortgage unit would halt evictions for a similar review.

The Wells Fargo employee said he relied on foreclosure attorneys and personnel in other departments to check files, according to a deposition transcript provided by Melissa Huelsman, the Seattle attorney representing the homeowner. The employee said he confirmed the date on the file before signing without verifying other information.

‘Out of Context’  

Those comments “should not be taken out of context,” Wells Fargo said in yesterday’s statement, e-mailed by a spokeswoman, Vickee Adams. The judge “reviewed Wells Fargo’s procedures, documents and declarations and summarily dismissed the borrower’s case, confirming that the foreclosure was valid,” the bank said in the statement.

Such a dismissal doesn’t necessarily invalidate testimony, said Peter Henning, a professor at Wayne State University Law School in Detroit and a former federal prosecutor.

“It’s not that the judge rejected the deposition, or found that the deposition was incorrect,” he said. “The firm probably went back into court and said ‘Here you go, you can inspect all the documents.’ Maybe that was enough.”

Wells Fargo is the second-largest servicer of U.S. home loans, according to industry newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance. The San Francisco-based bank handles roughly $1.8 trillion of residential mortgages, according to company filings. Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citigroup Inc. and Ally round out the top five. Through June, 92 percent of Wells Fargo’s mortgages were current, according to the statement.

‘How Do You Know?’

Andrew Yates, a Seattle-based lawyer representing the employee, didn’t return calls for comment. Adams declined to comment beyond the statement.

During questioning from Huelsman, the bank employee described his efforts before signing filings.

“So you’re simply signing the document that’s presented to you and you’re just making sure the date is correct?” Huelsman asked during the deposition.

“Correct,” the employee said.

“So how do you know when you’re signing this document that it’s true and correct?” Huelsman said.

“There are people that are responsible for” maintaining the paperwork, the employee said.

The employee said he oversaw 53 full-time staff and 15 contract workers, and that other supervisors within the department signed the same amount of paperwork. That would amount to each supervisor signing between 1,000 and 3,000 documents during 20 business days each month.

In a separate case in Florida, an employee at New York- based JPMorgan said in May that her team of managers signed about 18,000 documents a month. In a December deposition, an employee at Detroit-based Ally said he signed about 10,000 documents a month. Attorneys general in at least seven states including Texas, Florida and Ohio are investigating practices at Ally’s GMAC Mortgage unit.