More Observations On Proposed 50-State AG Foreclosure Fraud Settlement, The Booting Of NY AG From Probe Committee & The Buying Off Of Tom Miller

From a recent column in The Huffington Post:

• John O'Brien, Registry of Deeds for Southern Essex County in Massachusetts is asking that Tom Miller, Iowa Attorney General, step down. Miller is the lead AG in the controversial settlement with the big banks on mortgage servicing fraud.



• In his most recent obscene act Miller kicked Attorney General Eric Schneiderman off of the 50-state task force probing foreclosure abuses and negotiating a possible settlement agreement with the mortgage firms.

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• Schneidernan getting kicked off the committee should come as no surprise to anyone following the foreclosure negotiations and is sickeningly similar to Pam Bondi, Florida's Attorney General firing Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson, who were heading up investigations on a series of mortgage related crimes for over a year. While Bondi insists that the firings were a result of poor job performance, Miller points more towards attitude and that Schneiderman is somehow not a team player.

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• Schneiderman's removal will likely make it easier for state and federal officials to reach an accord with the five banks. However, the potential amount of money they'll be able to extract will likely decrease. American Banker posted the 27 term sheet of the negotiations presented to the banks with major servicing operations by the AGs and Federal Banking Regulators.



• The deal completely handcuffs state attorneys general whose constituents are suffering serious economic damage as a result of the foreclosure fiasco and fraud by the banks and servicers.



• When the investigation into robo-signing and fraud, Tom Miller had a brief moment of righteous advocacy until he received $261,445 in campaign contributions from out-of-state law firms and donors from the finance, insurance, and real estate sector shortly after he announced he was seeking criminal charges and retribution from the banks for mortgage fraud -- that's 88 times what he has received in the past decade.

For more, see John O'Brien MA Registry of Deeds: AG Tom Miller Should Step Down.