Mortgage Auditor Blues
As a residential mortgage securitization auditor, I often feel like I’m on the longest roller coaster in the world. I put on my reading glasses and spend hour after hour researching mortgage-backed securities, all in an effort to collect increasingly ignored data. It seems it’s time to bury your head in the sand and let the rich get richer again. The big banks have shown that they are too big to fail and henceforth they will not only get away with seriously damaging the economy, covering their tracks with blatant fraud and continuing the practice of originate to distribute, but they will earn billions doing it. Oh, and let’s not forget, we own all of the real estate in the country.
If I had to specify the question that I am asked the most, it would be: “How is this happening?” Everyone I deal with seems to think I’m the best person to rant, vent, or yell at. Apparently, the person who spends his days for the last 4 years discovering robbery-signed assignments, credit default swaps, suspicious foreclosure signatures, postdated letters, intentionally lost paperwork, predatory crimes concealed by lenders that strip communities of their wealth, he’s also the only person they can find to listen when they need to vent. I have invented this system of punishment in my mind. Have you ever met someone who had to go to jail for the weekend? Maybe a friend who did something very bad, but is too important in society to have to spend the work week paying for his crime. I’m not saying it does, but I imagine a weekend bankers’ prison filled with Countrywide, BOA, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo executives (too many to list), and buses full of white-collar criminals show up every weekend super rich and are subject to mortgage fraud. seminars presented by fraud victims, fraud examiners, auditors, etc. Of course, everyone has to pay exorbitant prices for this weekend getaway (and the money actually helps aggrieved homeowners rather than the settlement funds they pay just to pay off their taxes). Okay, I admit I was daydreaming when I went through the mortgage documents.
One thing I hope never changes in this business is the people who continue to take off their band-aids. Hooray for the people who will never stop fighting the mountain! I like those people and am happy to listen when they need an ear.