We are running out of heros; we are in short supply of true investigative journalists. The days of Woodword and Bernstein are long gone. The days of true journalism are gone. It is infotainment funded by Corporate America. The fact of the matter is that Foreclosurepedia reached out to both Priya Anand of Marketwatch, a Wall Street Journal online publication whom we have spoken with in the past and Ben Hallman of the Huffington Post. Many will not recall Anand; however, there probably is not a Member of Labor whom will forget Hallman condemning Labor and not putting the fire to the feet of National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) Offender Members.
Corporate responsibility; vanity; and the advertisement revenues. That is what reigns supreme today with the Drive By Media. It has been this way ever since 60 Minutes took a face plant by allowing CBS Corporate to dictate to CBS News with respect to the original airing of the Jeffrey Wigand story which was canned due to fear from potential litigation by tobacco giant Brown & Williamson. CBS later aired the story after a cacophony of anger spilled out over both the airwaves and in print.
As early as October, 2014, Foreclosurepedia possessed what is now commonly referred to as the Brown v Five Brothers, US Bank, et al. case. The fact of the matter is that early on, we were arguing with the Relators attorneys whom appeared to be more comfortable fighting toothpaste litigation than the uncharted waters of the Mortgage Field Services Industry.
Joe Badalamenti is a man whom has been around the block a time or two. Tom Kalas, his son-in-law and General Counsel for Five Brothers, Bada’s company, is one whom has been taken around the block a time or three. I would like to think that if Bada — the euphemistic name given to Badalamenti by others — had it to do over again, he would have arranged for a different marriage for his daughter. White collar, soft to the touch and dainty are probably not terms Bada wanted left as his legacy. More on point, though, getting raked over the coals for a sealed complaint is something that a well schooled lawyer would have avoided — hell, a first year law student would have had a better strategy for Bada than which Kalas put forward from what I can tell.
I am loathe to lay the entire cesspool of shit at Bada’s feet; however, if he is truly a stand up Italian, he will shoulder the burden. The reality is that in the same way that the name of Five Brothers was unoriginal, so to is the story of his corporate history.
As advocate, a lawyer zealously asserts the client’s position under the rules of the adversary system.
Valorie D Smith, the Assistant US Attorney for the District of New Jersey is yet another interesting piece of the puzzle. Smith, formerly employed by Stites and Harbison PLLC, should have recused herself from the case early on. The reality is that keeping a Qui Tam under seal for over a year strikes at the very grain of both Qui Tam and the False Claims Act (FCA). Smith’s former firm, Stites and Harbison have been the attorneys representing US Bank in cases in the past. It is not always the direct implication of a Conflict of Interest which perplexes the American public, it is also the perception of a Conflict of Interest. This perception has always almost guaranteed recusal, bar none, of Counsel and Judge alike.
- Why did Smith elect to decline intervention; and
- Why was US Bank presented with a copy of the Complaint.
It is worth noting, as well, that the US Department of Justice, Public Affairs Division stated they could not issue a photo of Smith. They referred us back to Skaggs, whom, in turn, stated they could not either. Ironic, as US Taxpayers paid for her photos so that we could publicly identify US Government employees. These questions are spot on in light of Smith’s previous employer’s representation of US Bank and her potential access thereof. In light of the climate of distrust both for the relationship which Big Government has with its citizenry and its relationship with Corporate America, the #ForeclosurepediaNation and the American Public have the right to be told the truth. While perhaps coincidental, the reality is that there were several other civil indictments pending against US Bank and these seem to have either been consolidated with the $200 Million US Bank Settlement we reported upon and SFMS seems to have no mention of any longer — gee, love the lack of Conflict of Interest there by the Relator’s Counsel and US DoJ as US DoJ rolled the Settlement out around the time of the filing of the Sealed Qui Tam — or simply were dispatched with the Wink and a Nod Program that Eric Holder is so famous for while performing his grotesque facial contortions during his Dog and Pony Show Press Conferences.
With that said, the below pertains to Foreclosurepdia’s opinions with respect to SFMS and DPLO based upon our interactions with them:
The brazen disregard for their Clients, whom I have taken the time to speak with pertaining to several potential Class Action Suits focusing on the Employee vs Independent Contractor status have done nothing other than destroy Contractor’s careers, to date.Karen Leser-Grenon, of SFMS and Monique Oliver of DPLO were the two I have, thus far, spoken to. While Olivier has been somewhat assistive in the past, it struck me that the information released was to bolster the potential for new litigation — quid quo pro. Lessor-Grenon made no attempt at even being human and simply wanted me to basically dump my intelligence with specificity to which lawyers I worked with and a basic Fuck You when I refused. Fuck them; fuck them and their holier than thou feminine liberal agenda.I am far more upset with SFMS and DPLO than I am at Bada and his nimwit son-in-law. Bada & Co. are Offender Members of the notorious National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS) Regime, so people expect them to be in the courtrooms and newspapers defending against horrendous actions; people expect the same with respect to US Bank as the tallies for Bank Settlements now have crossed just north of TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY BILLION DOLLARS. Lawyers, even ambulance chasing vultures like SFMS and DPLO —they are such as they make their money off the backs of Plaintiffs whom have been fucked — should have had the couth to protect their Client. In this case; when I finally lay out the entirety of it and connect the dots like the $200 Million Dollar US Bank Settlement which occurred around the time that the US Attorney General’s Office in New York and New Jersey requested and then forwarded over a redacted copy of the Sealed Complaint — are you listening to that last statement?! This is like telling a rapist, here is the Grand Jury testimony and we will wait to indict — to US Bank.
The Introduction to the Sealed Complaint gives a true sense of how gargantuan this problem is. In fact, I ran it by a veteran of the Foreclosure Litigation Wars and he said, “Well written…the facts are just so clear….” Think he’s wrong? Here, be the judge yourself,This is an action for treble damages and civil penalties arising from Defendants’ concerted use of the nationwide housing market collapse and resulting foreclosures to defraud the United States federal government (the “Government” or “United States”) of well over $100 million by engaging in unlawful and fraudulent bidding practices, including deliberate bid rigging, in connection with the performance of preservation services for properties insured by the Federal Housing Administration (“FHA”) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (“VA”), as well as for properties with mortgages that are owned or guaranteed by government-sponsored and/or related entities, including the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae’), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”), the Government National Mortgage Association (“Ginnie Mae”) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”)(collectively, the “GSEs”).And whom did Five Brothers allegedly seek to fuck to get the filthy lucre, you ask? US Bank, Bank of America, Ocwen Financial Corporation, Sterling Bank, Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, Towne Mortgage Company and of course Wells Fargo & Company.
All of those banks, in turn, are alleged to have presented, “…Five Brothers’ fraudulent bids to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development “HUD”) and/or other Government entities, as well as the GSEs, for reimbursement.” Wait, though, it gets even better,
By paragraph three we read,
Five Brothers systematically and routinely manipulated contractor bids before submitting them for approval through US Bank and other banking services, fabricated bids to present the illusion of a competitive bidding environment, and consistently decreased payments to its contractors while falsely claiming that such adjustments were made directly by HUD, the GSEs or other Government entities. Five Brothers undertook these fraudulent bidding practices to extract the maximum reimbursement amount from HUD, the GSEs and other Government entities based on the submission of false claims.
This contention is additionally backed up by a recent statement from a Source which I received yesterday,I don’t know if you have been hearing anything significant about SG or not but something has changed. I have worked for them since I retired from the Army in [redacted], I can tell you the rules have changed since the red headed idiot took over. They have gotten out of control with charge backs and having us do work for free. There is a new Facebook group of SG contractors which was started. I am seeing post after post from contractors detailing charge backs in the 10 of thousands of dollars. Many of these charge backs are from seasoned contractors who have worked for SG for over 10 years. I am reading and talking to contractors who have worked for them longer then I have that are leaving because of SGs new attitude and measures of screwing the contractors.
We are just a small mom and pop company. It is no longer fiscally responsible to work for SG any longer. Paul I do quality work and take pride in the work I do. It pisses me off when I see the quality of work in the field from these Craigslist hacks. [redacted].
What I see happening in the trenches is all the seasoned contractors are jumping ship, leaving gaps in coverage. This has made SG resort to hiring Craigslist Hacks who come in thinking they are going to be millionaires in a year. Properties are getting freeze damage and flood damage because of these hacks. These hacks quickly see it is a losing proposition working for SG and they quit, or they submit fraudulent bids doubling and sometimes tripling sqf of their bids which get approved. I have proof of this type of fraud in the form of emails I sent to my regional, with supporting documents (tax records). How you can have a 2500 sqf roof bid for a house which according to tax records is only 800 sqf. Every time I saw a fraudulent bid or work I sent an email. My regional told me to stop sending him emails. OSG LLC, were the prime violators. Their standard operating procedure I noticed is every house they entered behind me they would cut the lockbox and install a new sump pump. I don’t understand how homes which an inspector had no access issues every month for years all of the sudden when OSG was sent the lock box code didn’t work. I supplied pictures to the regional showing water shooting out of the old sump pump that OSG replaced. They started getting smarter and not leaving the old sump pumps in the property because I kept proving they were working. OSG just got into trouble and were fired by SG. I was told they had registered with SG with three different vendor codes. So, SG thought they had three different Vendors but it was the same. I was talking to my new Regional about them and that I had been informing Patrick Barr (old regional) about the stuff I was seeing in the field and that he told me not to worry about it. She said, “Yeah we have been on to OSG for awhile but have let them stay on because we didn’t have any other Vendors to help cover your Zone.” I wonder if there was some kind of pay off from OSG to Patrick Barr? I could go on with insurance claims fraud.and …I’m the retired MP in NY who talked to you on the phone (with my wife also on the line)about a month ago about a HUD reconvey/Safeguard chargeback.
Anyway, [y]ou mentioned 5 Brothers on your last Podcast and it made me remember something you might find interesting or at least humorous. I used to work for 5 Brothers until I started seeing their unethical practices. I was actually at the 2012 SG Conference and got a call from my 5 Brothers NY regional (Forget her name now). I had submitted a bid on a property about a week earlier. She asked me if I could submit a “True Bid”? I was not familiar with that term and had been working in the industry for the past 5 years. I asked her to explain. She said can you make up a company name and address and submit a bid at a higher amount then your initial bid. The bank wants us to provide two bids and I don’t have anyone else in the area who can provide a bid. I was absolutely blown away. I wish I had recorded the conversation. Naturally I refused and told her I didn’t feel comfortable doing that.
It comes as no surprise that Valerie D Smith, the Assistant United States Attorney, is out of her comfort zone as well — either out of her comfort zone or simply not wanting to jeopardize the Campaign Funds for the next Democrat up for election to the Beltway Emperor’s Throne. I say this, as the Caption on PAGE ID 51 already has either a typo or purposefully leaves out both US Bank and/or the et al. All bullshit aside, the reality is that Smith was extremely recalcitrant to involve herself and the witnesses she summoned from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) truly define incompetence.
