Blogs
JP Morgan Chase Lies in 50,000 Bankruptcy Cases JP Morgan Chase today admitted they lied in 50,000 bankruptcy cases. Chase filed sworn statements in 50,000 bankruptcy cases, signed by people who had no idea what they were signing. Some were “signed” by people who no longer worked at Chase. Here’s the Justice Department announcement. Chase […]The post Biggest Bank in America Lies in Bankruptcy Cases by Robert Weed appeared first on Robert Weed.
Filing Bankruptcy Can be Good for Your Credit Score Last week, The Federal Reserve Bank of New York published a study of people who did, and didn’t, file bankruptcy. The results didn’t surprise me, but they might startle you. Comparing people in financial trouble who filed bankruptcy and people who kept struggling, these economists who […]The post Filing Bankruptcy Can be Good for Your Credit Score by Robert Weed appeared first on Robert Weed.
The Repo List It seems like in these tough economic times, there are more and more people driving around town worried about the repo man. After all, you don’t have to fall very far behind in your car payment to have the creditor calling you day and night about your payment. From there it’s only+ Read More
The post Don’t Fear The Repo Man (It’s Still Your Car) appeared first on David M. Siegel.
Did you recently abandon or move out of a property going through foreclosure in Walworth County? Are you a financial institution left with an abandoned property going through a Walworth County foreclosure? A recent Wisconsin Supreme Court decision could have interesting ramifications for both banks and homeowners. The decision states that mortgage lenders must sell foreclosed and abandoned property within a reasonable time after obtaining a foreclosure judgment. The “reasonable time” period will depend on the circumstances surrounding the foreclosure.
The Story Behind the New Walworth County Abandoned Foreclosure Law
The decision came after a Milwaukee home was abandoned following a bank foreclosure process. The homeowner walked away. The bank did nothing. The home was then burglarized and vandalized as well as never properly maintained. The property became invaluable and not worth the bank’s time and money to sell. The home then racked up fines due to violating city codes. The homeowner was held responsible. Despite the homeowner’s attempt to declare the property abandoned, it never happened. The Circuit Court declared it did not have the authority to label a home abandoned.
Fast forward to just last week: In Bank of New York Mellon v. Carson, 2015 WI 2015 (Feb. 17, 2015), a four-justice majority ruled that section 846.102 authorizes circuit courts to order mortgagee banks to sell abandoned foreclosures, and must order sales within a reasonable time. Now, it will be a requirement that foreclosed and abandoned property be sold by banks. You can expect a large amount of properties to be placed on the real estate market in Walworth County following this Wisconsin Supreme Court case.
Homeowners must be aware that, if you abandon your property, you are declaring that you no longer have an interest in retaining the property. Therefore, the bank can and must sell the property without any long delays which previously gave homeowners an opportunity to redeem or refinance.
The purpose of the decision is to help local communities deal with abandoned properties in a timely manner before the properties attract burglars, vandals, and other criminals. The new decision will also help homes be sold before they become decrepit and face city code violations. Vacant properties have a negative impact on our local communities when they are used for the wrong purposes.
Contact Our Walworth County Foreclosure Attorney
If you represent a bank tackling an abandoned foreclosure or if you are a homeowner facing a Walworth County foreclosure or a Kenosha County foreclosure, contact Wynn at Law, LLC. We help financial institutions and homeowners through the foreclosure process. Our Walworth County foreclosure attorney can answer all your foreclosure questions. Wynn at Law, LLC has offices in Lake Geneva, Salem, and Delavan, Wisconsin. You can reach our Walworth County foreclosure attorney by phone at 262-725-0175 or by email via our website’s contact page.
*The content and material on this web page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
Oregon student loan debtors breathed a sigh of relief this week when the Department of Education announced that it was finally firing five debt collection agencies that had been giving inaccurate information to student borrowers. I say finally firing these agencies because the department had been under fire for years for its partnership with these agencies and its insistence on paying them roughly a billion a year to harass student loan borrowers.
The Department of Education ultimately found that Pioneer Credit, one of their largest collection partners, and four others had been regularly doling out inaccurate information about the department’s loan forgiveness program. Due to incentive-pay structures, the debt collectors had little incentive to rout student loan debtors into loan forgiveness programs and often misinformed debtors to keep them outside the loan forgiveness programs.
The original post is titled Good News for Oregon Student Loan Debtors , and it came from Portland Bankruptcy Attorney | Northwest Debt Relief .
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that retirement funds rolled over from an Individual Retirement Account to purchase an annuity are exempt from the bankruptcy estate. In re Miller (No. 13-3682). Prior to filing bankruptcy, Joseph Miller, rolled over $267,319 from his IRA account to purchase an annuity contract from Minnesota Life Insurance Company. The annuity was to pay the debtor $40,497.95 for the next 8 years. Although it is clear that funds held in IRA accounts are exempt, the trustee argued that the funds lost that protected status when the annuity was purchased because the annuity did not meet the tax qualification rules of Internal Revenue Code Section 408.
Section 522(b)(3)(C) of the Bankruptcy Code provides that funds which are exempt from federal taxation are thereby made exempt from the claims of creditors. Such funds are not part of the “bankruptcy estate.”
The Chapter 7 Trustee in Miller argued that the rollover of funds from the IRA account exceeded the $6,000 annual premium limit imposed by IRC 408(b)(2)(A), and hence the fund were no longer exempt from taxation or protected in bankruptcy. The 8th Circuit rejected this argument by pointing out that there is a difference between a “rollover contribution” and a “premium payment.” The Court ruled that “a rollover contribution is distinct from a premium.”
In a similar case, the Massachusetts bankruptcy court also ruled that funds rolled over to an IRA annuity are exempt from the bankruptcy estate under 522(b)(3)(C). In re LeClair, 461 B.R. 86 (Bankr. D. Mass. 2011).
Important facts about IRA Accounts in Nebraska Bankruptcy Cases:
- In addition to the federal retirement exemption statute of 522(b)(3)(C), Nebraska has its own exemption statute protecting retirement funds. Neb. Rev. Stat. 25-1563.01. So, if the federal exemption does not apply it may be possible to protect the retirement account under Nebraska’s law.
- Inherited IRA accounts are not protected in bankruptcy.
- IRA accounts which allow the debtor to borrow against the account may be at risk in bankruptcy.
If in Doubt file Chapter 13:
Sometimes it is difficult to determine if an account is exempt from federal taxation and, as a result, whether the account is protected in bankruptcy. Debtors with sizable retirement savings simply cannot risk losing those funds in Chapter 7. Keep in mind, Chapter 7 trustees are paid on commission–they earn bonus income if they uncover unprotected assets worth selling. If there is any real doubt as to whether an retirement is account is protected in Chapter 7, the debtor is best advised to file for Chapter 13 and agree to pay back some of their debt over a 3 to 5 year payment plan. Chapter 13 trustees are not empowered to liquidate assets and payment plans are typically based on what a debtor can really afford to pay back. If in doubt, file 13.
Image courtesy of Flickr and 401kcalculator.org
United States District Court, District of Arizona
PLEA AGREEMENT BY RICHARD S. BERRY, WHY PAY A LAWYER
Case 2:14-cr-00322-SRB Document 47 Filed 01/27/15
BANKRUPTCY FRAUD
USA v Richard Sylvester Berry CR14-0322-PHX-SRB (SPL) 03/05/2014
Excerpt from Plea Agreement:
9. From April, 2010 through March, 2014, in the District of Arizona:
1. The defendant devised a scheme or plan to defraud
2. The defendant acted with the intent to defraud;
3. The defendant filed or caused to be filed a document in a proceeding under a Title 11 bankruptcy proceeding to carry out or attempt to carry out an essential part of the scheme.
4. The defendant’s act was material; that is, it had a natural tendency to influence, or was capable of influencing the acts of an identifiable person, entity, or group.
10. FACTUAL BASIS
a. The defendant admits that the following facts are true and that if this matter were to proceed to trial the United States could prove the following facts beyond a reasonable doubt:
I, Richard Sylvester B~, operated Why Pay A Lawyer? (WPAL), a document preparation service with offices in Tempe and Glendale, Arizona. From April 2010 through March 2014, I worked with an associate in Las Vegas, NY, to make money from distressed homeowners by defrauding the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, bankruptcy trustees, mortgage lenders, and other financial institutions. My associate in Las Vegas operated a company called Weimar Investments, which advertised a foreclosure rescue program. Once a homeowner paid an initial startup fee to Weimar Investments, worked with others to transfer a fractional Interest of the homeowner’s property into an unrelated bankruptcy case. To do this, I used bankruptcy: cases for some of my WP AL clients. Once Weimar Investments recorded a fractional interest transfer to one of my bankruptcy clients, I directed employees of WP AL to file a schedule of assets in the bankruptcy case listing the homeowner’s property in the unrelated bankruptcy case. The WP AL clients had no actual interest in the property, and often had no knowledge that I was listing the property in their bankruptcy case. The filing of the schedule of assets was material to the bankruptcy case and die foreclosure process, though because it fraudulently triggered the automatic stay provisions of the 11:S. bankruptcy code and temporarily stopped the foreclosure. I did it so that we could collect fees from the homeowners by delaying lawful foreclosures. Weimar Investments collected between $200,000 and $400,000 in fees, and I received more than $30,000 but less than $70,000.
When mortgage lenders and other financial institutions attempted to lift the automatic stay and proceed with the foreclosure, we 
transferred the fractional interest to a different WPAL client’s bankruptcy case, and I directed WP AL employees to file a schedule of assets in the new bankruptcy case listing the homeowner’s property. I did this to fraudulently trigger another automatic stay. I continued to do this until the homeowner stopped paying fees to Weimar Investments.
On June 29, 2010, in furtherance of the scheme, I directed WPAL employees to file a schedule of assets in a bankruptcy case for A.M., one of my WPAL clients. The schedule of assets listed a property on Emerald Springs Lane in Las Vegas, Nevada. A.M. knew nothing about the Emerald Springs property, and had no actual ownership in the property.
Signed, Richard Sylvester Berry
The post Richard S. Berry, Why Pay a Lawyer, Pleads Guilty to Bankruptcy Fraud appeared first on Diane L. Drain - Phoenix Bankruptcy & Foreclosure Attorney.
Trustee’s Meeting With Debtor Once your bankruptcy case is filed, the clerk of the United States Bankruptcy Court will send a notice of your upcoming 341 meeting of creditors. The notice will be sent to all creditors, the debtor and the debtor’s attorney. This meeting of creditors is an opportunity for the panel trustee to+ Read More
The post In Anticipation Of Your Meeting Before The Bankruptcy Trustee appeared first on David M. Siegel.
Powerful Collection Tool A very powerful collection tool is for a creditor to freeze a debtor’s bank account. Most large creditor law firms and other collection lawyers have the ability to find out where you work and where you bank. Once a creditor has obtained a judgment and has knowledge as to where you bank,+ Read More
The post How To Legally Unfreeze A Frozen Bank Account appeared first on David M. Siegel.
Credit Score Concerns Everybody is concerned with their credit score these days. Everybody wants to rebound as quickly as possible after a bankruptcy case. A better credit score will indicate that you are a better risk for future credit opportunities. The interest rate that you can garner will be better if your score is better+ Read More
The post Credit Bureaus Should Reflect Payments For Non-Reaffirmed Mortgage Debt appeared first on David M. Siegel.
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