Andrew Spark' Letter

Assistant attorney general Andrew Spark wrote a letter accusing Pam Bondi's Attorney General's office of having conflicts of interests with the mortgage industry. Bondi has come under sharp criticism after assistant attorney generals Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson were forced to resign. Spark letters details how two attorney in Bondi's office left to work for the mortgage industry.

Andrew Bennett Spark Letter

More on Bondi Foreclosure Scandal

Florida state Rep. Darren Soto is requesting documents from Attorney General Pam Bondi pertaining to the terminations of assistant attorney generals Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson. Edwards publicly stated that she and Clarkson were fired for foreclosure mills too aggressively. Edwards is suggesting that Bondi places protecting banks and law firms illegally foreclosing on homeowners above protecting consumers.

Soto's letter to Bondi.

July 27, 2011

Pam Bondi, Attorney General

Office of Attorney General
State of Florida
The Capitol PL-01
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1050

Re – Public Records Request for Documents Related to Termination of Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson

Dear Madam General,

It has come to my attention that two assistant attorney generals, Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson, were recently terminated by your office for poor performance. However, public records indicate that these terminations occurred while they were in the midst of successful mortgage fraud litigation and in spite of prior successful reviews. As a member who represents an area ravaged by foreclosure fraud, these terminations present an overwhelming public concern.

REQUEST IS HEREBY MADE pursuant to Public Records Act, Chapter 119 of the Florida Statutes that your office provides me with any and all records related to job performance of Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson within the past 3 years. Please also provide a list of all case numbers for all currently active cases managed by Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson for your office as well as the amounts of any settlements occurring within the past 3 years in any cases managed by Theresa Edwards or June Clarkson along with corresponding case number.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact my office. Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Darren M. Soto

Progress Florida is running a petition asking for an investigation into the terminations of Edwards and Clarkson.

David Ramba: Class Act II

Attorney David Ramba was a supporter of David Rivera's 2010 campaign. Ramba published Rivera's Democratic opponent Joe Garcia's phone number in a campaign mailer. It was a pathetic political hit job.

Ramba is in the news again. Ramba is cold calling and sending direct mailers to troubled homeowners. The callers promise that Ramba's office can get loan modifications or mortgage settlements. Homeowners must pay $5,000 in advance for Ramba's legal services. Desperate homeowners have signed up.

"They told me they only had two more spaces," Davin Spring told the St. Petersburg Times. "They got me hook, line and sinker." Spring said he received a mailer from Ramba's office. Furthermore the Florida Bar bans cold calling. Mailers have to be approved by the Florida Bar which Ramba's office has not done.

Likewise, any direct-mail piece sent by a lawyer must be reviewed by the Florida Bar. Though Ramba said his mailer conforms with the group's advertising guidelines, a spokeswoman for the Bar said she does not have any record that he submitted it for review.

On Friday, Ramba said in an e-mail that no mailers have yet been sent by the Pinellas Park office. "The office manager down in your area informed me that they HAD NOT sent anything out with my information on it," he said.

He did not respond to an e-mail asking how Spring and Sandland would have known to call that office if they had not received mailers with the phone number on it.

Ramba attempted the make Times reporter Kris Hundley belived that the Florida Bar signed off on the mailers. Ramba claimed that he wasn't sending out mailers from his office. However, Ramba refused to answer questions about how Spring and Sandland got the mailers. The Florida Bar needs to investigate Ramba.

One thing Ramba is unapologetic about is his $5,000 up front fee.

"The legal system is available to folks, but it's not free," he said in a recent phone interview. "By coming together, homeowners will receive the same benefit someone with a lot of means could do on their own."

My question is how long is Ramba going to be allowed to practice law. The story has made Wall Street Journal Law Blog. This story has legs.

No Mortgage Principal Relief For Florida

The Florida law firm of David J. Stern was caught falsifying foreclosure documents to force homeowners out of their homes. The "rocket docket" foreclosure courts, set up by the Florida legislature, was found to have judges that did not review documents before evicting homeowners. Forbes reports that Florida has led the nation in reported cases of mortgage fraud two years running. Banks have been illegally kicking people out of their homes and are now trying to settle with the federal government.

Yet the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and FDIC have entered into a consent decree with the 14 largest mortgage lenders that illegally foreclosed on thousands of homeowners. The deal includes no fines or criminal penalties. Banks must hire outside consultants to review all foreclosures from 2009 and 2010 and identify those who lost homes or were denied loan modifications due to fraud by the banks or firms they hired to assist with the foreclosure process and repay them. Does the government seriously believe that consultants who rely on the banks for their paychecks will find any home­owners who were victims?

The answer is no. The defunct accounting firm Arthur Andersen signed off on Enron CFO Andrew Fastow's money laundering hedge funds. Andersen feared losing the highly profitable Enron account. Anderson changed its name to Accenture. Countless people have been made homeless because of the big banks illegal foreclosures. The Federal Reserve's and the Obama administration's response is to file no criminal charges. It is sickening.

A bipartisan group of state attorney generals are working to provide reduction in the mortgage principal owed by homeowners. This would provide relief to about 2 million Florida homeowners. CNBC reports that Florida has the seventh highest foreclosure rate in the country.

43 state attorney generals have reached bipartisan census on banks lowering mortgage principals. One of the seven against making banks comply to this agreement is Florida's Pam Bondi. Hysterically, Bondi claimed that lowering the mortgage principal would encourage homeowners to default. What Bondi doesn't add is that the agreement would allow states to be able to fine and have other penalties against banks.

Bondi's decision to not sue BP is proof she values protecting corporate interests above the people of Florida. Bondi could care less how many people are thrown out on the streets because of fraudulent mortgages practices by banks. Floridians have an Attorney General just as horrible as its Governor.

A Second Wave of the Housing Crisis

In a recent episode of NPR's Planet Money podcast, Jacob Goldstein explains why housing prices are set to spiral farther downwards. Goldstein used a figure that, until the broadcast, I hadn't heard of: a monthly statistic estimating the amount of time it would take to sell all the homes currently on the market.

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

Despite this months it would take to sell all homes figure being at historic lows, Goldstein says the housing market will see more glut because of a "huge, looming wave of foreclosures coming down the pipeline in the next year or two". But foreclosures of sub-prime mortgages which caused the housing crisis, and recession which followed, already happened, right? What else is there to worry about?

But there is a second wave of mortgage foreclosures coming. In December, 2008, 60 Minutes explained that mortgages riskier than sub-prime were made after the sub-prime ones. Many of these mortgages are referred to as "NINJA loans" -- no income, no job, no assests.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Well then, no wonder the only people who think stimulus worked are Obama's wimpy Democrat brown nosers -- whose noses are too occupied with other activities to sniff a whiff of reality.