US Assistant Attorney Valorie Smith, New Jersey, appeared to have an agenda when she stacked the deck against the Relator in Brown v Five Brothers, et al. As the Brown case became a thorn in the side of Smith; as we are told that US Bank requested full disclosure of what was in the pipeline and immunity from such, the wholesale sell out of Kelly Brown began long before the wheels of his plane ever touched down to discuss the case. The fact of the matter is that Smith appears to have been assisted in the sell out by Brown’s very own attorneys, Shepherd, Finkelman, Miller and Shah LLP (SFMS). Did I forget to mention that Assistant US Attorney Smith’s law firm formerly represented US Bank? Or that both Smith and SFMS knew intimate details which allowed for ongoing security compromising of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s computer data system referred to as the P260?
As early as 2014, Foreclosurepedia began to question the true motivations of Assistant US Attorney Smith and SFMS. You see, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had a settlement pending against US Bank. In fact, at the same time the $200 Million US Bank Settlement was coming down, the fix was in for Brown. I had a working theory back then and SFMS confirmed it early on. DoJ cut a deal with US Bank, plain and simple. At about the same time that Eric Holder, former US Attorney General, was posing for trophy photo ops to hang on his Covington & Burling 11th Floor office wall which was kept empty for his return, DoJ was spinning up the lies to ensure a smooth transition all around. Add to that the salient point that Lanny Breuer, who ran the Justice Department’s criminal division under Holder and is Covington’s Vice Chairman, was recently out pimping the firm to the financial sector as reported in the January, 2014, Special Report of American Lawyer. The only logical conclusion is that Brown’s lawyers knew that they were screwed and they did what any firm whom donates nearly $100 Million to charity does, they sold their client down the river. None of the lawyers had a clue about the Mortgage Field Services Industry — none except Smith her law firm formerly represented US Bank according to those close to the case. Smith was the only one whom knew that terms such as conduit of fraud would most assuredly get US Bank’s Banking Charter pulled in light of the atmosphere at the time.
During the Keystone Cops investigation that Smith ramped up, the Acting Director of both the Northern and Southern Field Contracting Operations, Office of the Chief Procurement Officer, US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) was never contacted. The Director, Office of Single Family Asset Management at HUD was never contacted. Why is it critical to point out that both Assistant US Attorney Smith and SFMS both screwed the pooch inadvertently or on purpose? Here, let the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) explain it,
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were originally chartered as government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to ensure a stable supply of credit for residential mortgages nationwide. They operate in the secondary (or resale) market where they buy mortgages from the financial institutions that make the loans (thus ensuring that those institutions have a source of funds to originate new mortgages). Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac then pool those loans to create mortgage-backed securities (MBSs), which they guarantee against defaults on principal and interest payments by borrowers and sell to investors.
Through its financial commitment to the two GSEs and its other mortgage programs, the federal government now directly or indirectly insures over 70 percent of all new residential mortgages. Loans guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac account for over two-thirds of those mortgages (about 50 percent of the total amount of mortgages), and loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) make up most of the remaining federal share. Such government dominance was not always the case—in the 20 years before the financial crisis that began in 2007, roughly half of all mortgages were financed without backing from the federal government or either of the GSEs.
So, to say that the GSEs, along with a half dozen firms such as Wells Fargo; Taylor, Bean and Whittaker, et al., DID NOT have a horse in the race to get the term conduit of fraud dropped, is like saying that President Obama is a card carrying member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Fact of the matter is that for years Melissa Shankin, Vendor and Operations Manager (depending upon which emails you read) for Five Brothers, is a convicted drug offender. She has a felony record for possessing under 25 grams of cocaine. With a tax lien for nearly EIGHTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS and multiple judgments against her, including one from JARZEMBOWSKI FUNERAL HOME INC, one has to wonder precisely where Eric Miller, Executive Director of the National Association of Mortgage Field Services (NAMFS), stands. I mean are we saying that Aspen Grove Background Checks for NAMFS Members are never to be conducted? Miller’s full scale assault upon Labor, with mark ups at seventy times the market rate for identical background checks, stands as a testament that it is business as usual on HUD Contracts. In fact, the HUD Departmental Security Policy which is horrifically failing, has not been updated since 1973. In a scathing 62 page HUD OIG report released in March of this year, it was revealed that, HUD could not ensure that acquisitions staff effectively implemented personnel security processes for contractor employees — a term used to describe firms like Five Brothers and other Third Party Service Providers including Prime Vendor Awardees.13th May, 2011
Dear Judge Brinkema,
I have known Lee Farkas for the last 10 years. Mr. Farkas has been my employer since 2000. He has also been my mentor and sounding board. During this time I have found Mr. Farkas to be a kind and generous person. I have seen him worked tirelessly on community projects for the town of Ocala. One such project is every year since working for TB&W he has personally stand on the street corner ringing the bell for the Salvation Army and has raised thousands of dollars. He also encouraged his employees and instilled them with the same generosity. Every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas, the employees would contribute tons of food to be distributed among the poor of Ocala. Mr. Farkas was also very concerned in regards to the treatment of TB&W customers. He always stressed the fact that the customers must be treated with respect at all times and would continuously send emails to employees to remind them of their customer service.
I mean what is the deal? Does Five Brothers offer bonuses for those implicated in multi billion dollar schemes? Where the hell is HUD or Eric Miller on this?
Fact of the matter is that both the Assistant US Attorney General and SFMS both concealed this information from HUD thus placing US Citizens in potentially grave danger. Let us not bullshit around about precisely where cocaine comes from and in all due candor the violence associated with it.
Neither Assistant US Attorney Valorie Smith nor anyone at SFMS Law Firm would comment at the time of publication — we waited nearly a year.
Stay tuned later this weekend as we roll out how Lesser-Grenon bucked when I refused to turn over my Intelligence Database and their friends over at Duckworth, Peters, Lebowitz, Olivier LLP, attempted to muddy the waters with respect to Assurant Field Asset Services.
Editor’s Note: Foreclosurepedia published that Assistant US Attorney had formerly worked for US Bank and that was incorrect. Her law firm has represented US Bank and still does to the best of our knowledge.
