Community Groups, Labor and Occupy Chicago Protest Mortgage Bankers Association, Seven Thousand Strong

Community Groups, Labor and Occupy Chicago Protest Mortgage Bankers Association, Seven Thousand Strong

Wednesday 12 October 2011

by: Yana Kunichoff, Truthout | Report

Protesters gather for the Occupy Chicago General Assembly. Click to view larger.(Photo: Mario Garcia-Baeza)

When the Mortgage Bankers Association decided to hold their annual conference in Chicago, they weren't counting on a welcome committee. What they got was more than 7,000 protesters taking over the road underneath their downtown rooftop reception at the city's Art Institute, chanting, "We are the 99 percent" and "How to fix the deficit? Tax, tax, tax the rich."

Take Back Chicago, a coalition of labor unions and community groups, were joined by Occupy Chicago in the first of a three-day series of demonstrations around the Mortgage Bankers Association meeting.

The protests aims to highlight the three main pillars of the city's hurting communities - jobs, housing and education - and change policies in these areas that favor corporate giveaways.

The education arm of the Take Back Chicago march. (Photo: Mario Garcia-Baeza)

"What we're seeing here is another sign that average working Americans have joined forces to regain the economic opportunities that were stripped from them when big banks and corporate Americans ran the economy into the ground," said Elizabeth Parisian, spokesperson for Stand Up! Chicago, the organizing coalition.

Illinois' unemployment rate in August 2011 was 9.9 percent, compared to a 9.1 percent national rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Chicago, 10.5 percent are jobless, and this rate jumps to 27 percent for youth, according to Stand Up! Chicago.

Action Now community group marches. (Photo: Mario Garcia-Baeza)

Ramiro Lopez, 21, is one of the employed youth, but says that his job brings him into contact with the issues faced by low-income workers. 

Lopez, carrying a sign at the march saying: "Capitalism sucks," works for the environmental justice group Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and said that what he sees daily is "the bosses want way more money for themselves, and to let the workers keep on working for the lowest wage they can."

Mortgage bankers on roof, with protest sign. (Photo: Mario Garcia-Baeza)

It's many of these same low-wage workers that have been caught in Chicago's housing bubble, the second arm of Take Back Chicago's troika of issues.

In August 2011, the Chicago area saw a dramatic increase in home foreclosures - a 30 percent increase since July 2011 and, despite Illinois receiving a chunk of stimulus money, one-third of the homes in the city have underwater mortgages.

Shelly Ruzicka, director of operations at the ARISE Chicago Worker's Center, says that in the experience of the center's members, after a worker loses their job, the next domino to fall is often the security of their housing.

Protesters surround the Art Institute. (Photo: Mario Garcia-Baeza)

Along with the worker-members that could make it out on Monday to make their voices heard, there were "hundreds affected by these issues who couldn't make it out today," Ruzicka told Truthout.

Chicago's education landscape has seen rising tensions among the new mayor, Rahm Emanuel, his appointed Board of Education and the Chicago Teacher's Union (CTU). The attacks on the third-largest teachers' union in the country have included a bill passed by the state that will restrict teachers union's right to strike, a rejection of inflation raises for Chicago teachers by the school board and widespread pressure for Chicago teachers to work a longer school day at a minimal pay raise.

Kati Gilson, a pre-K teacher who says that her public school is starved of resources, told Truthout that education is often where the poorest individuals first experience institutional neglect, long before they get jobs or attempt to own houses.

"Our kids are getting shafted," said Gilson, who has taught on Chicago's low-income West side for 17 years and says that her students are starved of resources. "They don't have a certified librarian so they can't check out books, and our science teacher just came back this year."

Kristine Mayle, the CTU's financial secretary, said the march "shows that the people of Chicago do support teachers."

The three marches all began in different parts of the city and marched to the central rally, where ARISE Chicago says 20 people were arrested.

The significance of the protests falling on Columbus Day also didn't get past some of the protesters: the No Name Group, a Chicago-area immigrant rights group, carried a sign saying: "1492: The First Corporate Takeover. Happy Fucking Columbus Day."

As police threatened arrest to disperse the protesters from below the Mortgage Bankers Association rooftop party and the sun went down, many of the protesters headed to the Occupy Chicago general assembly.

Eschewing its usual discussion on tactics and solidarity messages, the general assembly decided instead to open the people's mike for the demonstrators to tell their plans and inspirations to the assembled crowd of nearly 200.

An African-American woman, the third person to speak after the mike was opened up to the audience, said that she was heading home because her nine-year-old daughter was tired, but first wanted to give a message to the assembled protesters:

"They told Martin Luther King that he would not make a difference," she said. "Do not stop, do not give up. Continue the fight. It matters."

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

From Rep. John Conyers: Easing Homeowners’ Debt

To the Editor:

Re “Homeowners Need Help” (editorial, Aug. 22):

You are right that the federal government could do much more to help homeowners climb out from underwater mortgages, and that banks have done far less than they can for homeowners seeking relief.

John Conyers, Jr.

The key to unlocking the mortgage foreclosure crisis is the passage of a federal law allowing homeowners to reduce their mortgage debt to no more than the current value of their property.

Homeowners and the federal government have not had much leverage to get banks to stop the mortgage crisis. Current law discourages banks from voluntarily making loan adjustments that homeowners need. Giving homeowners the right to reduce their debt through recognized legal processes would no doubt provide additional incentives for lenders to work with borrowers.

This is neither a new nor a radical proposal. In 1986, Congress passed a law that allowed family farmers to modify their mortgages in response to a similar foreclosure crisis. It was so successful that in 2005, with bipartisan support, it was made permanent law. If only we could do for struggling homeowners today what we did for family farmers 25 years ago.

Last Congress, legislation that would have provided such a remedy to homeowners passed the House but died in the Senate. The bill was reintroduced, and it is my hope that Congress will take up this essential legislation soon.

JOHN CONYERS Jr.
Washington, Aug. 29, 2011

The writer is the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

FBI Busts $2.9 Billion Mortgage Fraud Scheme

Former TBW CEO Sentenced to 40 Months in Prison for Fraud Scheme 

WASHINGTON—The former chief executive officer (CEO) of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker (TBW) was sentenced today to 40 months in prison for his role in a more than $2.9 billion fraud scheme that contributed to the failure of TBW. At one time, TBW was one of the largest privately held mortgage lending companies in the United States.

Paul Allen was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia. The sentence was announced by Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride for the Eastern District of Virginia; Acting Special Inspector General Christy Romero for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP); Assistant Director in Charge James W. McJunkin of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; Michael P. Stephens, Deputy Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD-OIG); Jon T. Rymer, Inspector General of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC-OIG); Steve A. Linick, Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA-OIG); and Victor S. O. Song, Chief of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). Allen, 55, of Oakton, Va., pleaded guilty in April 2011 to one count of making false statements and one count of conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud. Co-conspirator Sean Ragland, a former senior financial analyst at TBW who reported to Allen, was also sentenced today by Judge Brinkema to three months in prison. Ragland, 37, of San Antonio, pleaded guilty in March 2011 to one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud. Allen and Ragland both admitted to conspiring with Lee Bentley Farkas, the former chairman of TBW, and others, to defraud financial institutions that had invested in Ocala Funding LLC, a facility wholly-owned by TBW. Farkas was convicted on April 19, 2011, on 14 counts of fraud for his role in masterminding the scheme, which was one of the largest bank frauds in the country. Farkas is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27, 2011. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has a civil action pending against Farkas in the Eastern District of Virginia. Co-conspirators Catherine Kissick, a former senior vice president of Colonial Bank and head of its Mortgage Warehouse Lending Division (MWLD); Teresa Kelly, a former operations supervisor in Colonial Bank’s MWLD; Raymond Bowman, the former president of TBW; and Desiree Brown, the former treasurer of TBW, have also pleaded guilty for their participation in the scheme. Earlier this month, Kissick was sentenced to eight years in prison, Brown was sentenced to six years in prison, Bowman was sentenced 30 months in prison and Kelly was sentenced to 3 months in prison.

“As TBW’s chief executive officer, Mr. Allen served as an accomplice to Lee Farkas and his massive fraud scheme,” said Assistant Attorney General Breuer. “He concealed TBW’s staggering deficits through false financial reports, which ultimately caused investors to lose more than $1.5 billion. Today’s sentence sends a strong message that corporate fraud by senior executives will not be tolerated. At the same time, it demonstrates that substantial assistance in the government’s investigation and prosecution of corporate fraud will be taken into account at sentencing.”

“Paul Allen was a well-respected mortgage executive hired by Lee Farkas to be TBW’s chief executive officer. Working from Oakton, Va., Mr. Allen led Ocala Funding, a TBW multi-billion dollar lending facility that was used to defraud investors of more than $1 billion,” said U.S. Attorney MacBride. “Mr. Allen’s sentence reflects his ultimate cooperation with this investigation, but also sends the message that unless executives expose and stop fraud when they first learn of it, they will be punished.”

According to court documents and information presented at trial, Allen and Ragland participated in the scheme from early 2005 through August 2009 by distributing materially false documents to investors in Ocala Funding that misrepresented the financial condition of the facility. The fraud scheme ultimately caused investors in Ocala Funding to lose more than $1.5 billion and Colonial Bank to lose $900 million. According to court documents and information presented at trial, TBW began running overdrafts in its master bank account at Colonial Bank because of TBW’s inability to meet its operating expenses, which included payroll, servicing payments owed to third-party purchasers of loans and/or mortgage-backed securities and other obligations. In or about 2002, Farkas and other co-conspirators engaged in a series of fraudulent actions to cover up the overdrafts, first by sweeping overnight money from one TBW account with excess funds into another, and later through the fictitious “sales” of mortgage loans to Colonial Bank, a fraud scheme the conspirators dubbed “Plan B.” The conspirators accomplished Plan B by selling Colonial Bank mortgage loans that did not exist or that TBW had already committed or sold to other third-party investors. As Plan B evolved, co-conspirators at TBW also caused TBW to engage in sham sales of groups of mortgage loans, known as “pools,” that other entities already owned to Colonial Bank. As a result, false information was entered on Colonial Bank’s books and records, giving the appearance that the bank owned interests in legitimate pools of mortgage loans, when in fact the pools had no value and could not be securitized or sold. Neither Allen nor Ragland participated in the effort to cover up TBW’s overdrafts or Plan B. Additionally, the co-conspirators at TBW caused TBW to misappropriate more than $1.5 billion in collateral from Ocala Funding. According to court documents, both Allen and Ragland played significant roles in the Ocala Funding misappropriation. The misappropriation caused Colonial Bank and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) to falsely believe that they each had an undivided ownership interest in thousands of the same loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars. According to court documents, the fraud scheme also included an effort by certain conspirators in the fall of 2008 to obtain $570 million in taxpayer funding through the Capital Purchase Program, a sub-program of the U.S. Treasury Department’s TARP. In connection with the application, Colonial BancGroup submitted financial data and filings that included materially false information related to mortgage loan and securities assets held by Colonial Bank as a result of the fraudulent activity at TBW. Colonial BancGroup never received the TARP funding. According to court documents, Allen played a key role in causing materially false information to be submitted to and received by the government in connection with Colonial Bank’s TARP application. Ragland was not aware of this aspect of the fraud scheme. In August 2009, the Alabama State Banking Department, Colonial Bank’s regulator, seized the bank and appointed the FDIC as receiver. Colonial BancGroup also filed for bankruptcy in August 2009.

“Instead of upholding his position of power and trust as CEO of TBW, Paul Allen chose the path of fraud and deception in helping facilitate the long-running fraud carried out by TBW and Colonial Bank. Fortunately, the scheme came to a halt when an attempt was made to steal more than a half billion dollars from the TARP,” said Acting Special Inspector General for the TARP Romero. “Today’s sentence appropriately recognizes the severity of Allen’s participation in the fraud along with his cooperation in the Government’s investigation.”

“As a result of this complex fraud scheme, these defendants cost investors and our financial markets billions of dollars,” said Assistant Director in Charge McJunkin. “Today’s sentence shows that those who take advantage of investors and our banking and mortgage systems will be held accountable. The FBI will continue to work with our law enforcement partners and remain vigilant in investigating these illegal transactions.”

“Today’s sentencing marks the culmination of a large effort on the part of this agency and of the law enforcement and regulatory community,” said Deputy Inspector General Stephens of HUD-OIG. “More importantly, however, it shows our nation that is slowly recovering from a damaged housing market that we are committed to bringing to justice those whose pernicious behavior contributed to this condition.”

“The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Office of Inspector General is pleased to join our law enforcement colleagues in announcing this sentencing,” said Inspector General Rymer of FDIC. “We are particularly concerned in cases like this one where fraudulent activities involving employees of Colonial Bank in association with officials of Taylor, Bean and Whitaker contributed to the failure of Colonial Bank, resulting in a $3.8 billion loss to the Deposit Insurance Fund. We are committed to continuing our investigations of such criminal misconduct to help ensure the integrity of the financial services industry and maintain the safety and soundness of the nation’s financial institutions and the viability of the fund.”

“Paul Allen used his extensive experience gained from employment with the government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) to assist Lee Farkas in his massive fraud scheme,” said Inspector General Linick of FHFA-OIG. “This sentence sends a strong message to individuals who would try to defraud Freddie Mac and American taxpayers, who have invested over $163 billion in the GSEs to date.”

The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Chief Patrick Stokes and Trial Attorney Robert Zink of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles Connolly and Paul Nathanson of the Eastern District of Virginia. This case was investigated by SIGTARP, FBI’s Washington Field Office, FDIC-OIG, HUD-OIG, FHFA-OIG and the IRS-CI. The department recognizes the substantial assistance of the SEC. The department also recognizes the assistance of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) of the Department of the Treasury.

This prosecution was brought in coordination with President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. For more information about the task force visit: www.StopFraud.gov.

###

Justice Department Reaches Settlement with Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc. and Citizens Bank Regarding Alleged Lending Discrimination in Detroit

Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Justice Department Reaches Settlement with Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc. and Citizens Bank Regarding Alleged Lending Discrimination in Detroit

Settlement Provides $3.6 Million to Ensure Equal Lending Services to African-American Community

WASHINGTON – Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc. (CRBC) and Citizens Bank of Flint, Mich., will open a loan production office in an African-American neighborhood in Detroit, invest approximately $3.6 million in Wayne County, Mich., and take other steps as part of a settlement to resolve allegations that they engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination on the basis of race and color, the Justice Department announced today.

The settlement, which remains subject to court approval, was filed in conjunction with the Justice Department’s complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.   The complaint alleges that CRBC, as the successor to Republic Bank, and Citizens Bank violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, which prohibit financial institutions from discriminating on the basis of race and color in their mortgage lending practices.   The lawsuit alleges that Citizens Bank, and Republic Bank before it, have served the credit needs of the residents of predominantly white neighborhoods in the Detroit metropolitan area to a significantly greater extent than they have served the credit needs of majority African-American neighborhoods.   Those neighborhoods are easily recognized because t he Detroit metropolitan area has long had highly-segregated residential housing patterns, especially for African-Americans.  

“Discrimination in the provision of lending services based on race deprives communities of access to credit and leaves the residents of minority neighborhoods vulnerable to predatory lenders.   This type of discrimination is part of the web of intolerable practices that stripped vast amounts of wealth from communities of color in the last decade,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.  “We are pleased that Citizens Bank will partner with the Detroit community to invest in an area that was long neglected, particularly by the former Republic Bank.”

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade added:   “Today’s settlement will bring badly needed resources to Detroit and surrounding areas in Wayne County to assist in neighborhood stabilization.   It will also broaden opportunities for home ownership for families who have been unlawfully denied credit.  We applaud the bank’s cooperation and commitment to community development.”

“Racial or other illegal discrimination has no place in our credit markets,” said Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin.   “We are pleased that this settlement is designed to increase fair access to credit.”

Under the settlement, CRBC and Citizens Bank will invest $1.625 million in a partnership with the city of Detroit to aid in neighborhood stabilization by providing existing homeowners with matching grants of up to $5,000 to fund exterior improvements, $1.5 million in a special financing program to increase the amount of credit the banks extend to majority African-American areas in Wayne County, and spend $500,000 for outreach to potential customers, promotion of their products and services, and consumer financial education.   Citizens Bank also will open a loan production office in a majority African-American area in Detroit and conduct fair lending training for its employees.  The agreement also prohibits CRBC and Citizens Bank from discriminating on the basis of race or color in any aspect of a residential real estate-related or credit transaction.  

The lawsuit originated from a 2010 referral by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.  Citizens Bank is a member of the Federal Reserve System.  

The Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System are members of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.   President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.   The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources.   The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes.   For more information on the task force, visit www.StopFraud.gov .

A copy of the complaint, as well as additional information about fair lending enforcement by the Justice Department, can be obtained from the Justice Department’s website at www.justice.gov/fairhousing .

Reps. Conyers, Gutierrez, Capuano and Sens. Franken, Menendez Release GAO Report Investigating Foreclosure “Robo-signing”

**Follow us on Twitter @HouseJudDems**

Contacts: Nicole Triplett, 202-226-5543                                                                                             Date: Thursday, May 5, 2011                   

Ed Shelleby (Franken) (202)-224-1868
Menendez Press Office (202) 224-4744
Nicole Triplett (Conyers) (202) 226-5543
Douglas Rivlin (Gutierrez): (202) 225-8203
Alison Mills (Capuano) (617) 621-6208

Reps. Conyers, Gutierrez, Capuano and Sens. Franken, Menendez Release GAO Report Investigating Foreclosure “Robo-signing”

Legislators Push for Nat’l Standards to Avoid Unfair Treatment and Wrongful Foreclosure on Homeowners

(Washington)—Today, Reps. John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) and Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) released a GAO report confirming reports that mortgage servicers had been fraudulently signing or notarizing affidavits allowing the completion of foreclosures without any personal knowledge of the cases, a process more commonly referred to as "robo-signing." 

The legislators commissioned the report, entitled Mortgage Foreclosures: Documentation Problems Reveal Need for Ongoing Regulatory Oversight, to investigate news accounts that homeowners were being improperly foreclosed on.  In an effort to prevent future wrongdoings by mortgage servicers, the legislators today pressed banking regulators to implement safeguards recommended by the report that would ensure homeowners do not wrongfully lose their homes.

“We write today to urge you to develop a coordinated plan to ensure comprehensive oversight of federally regulated mortgage servicers and to reiterate our calls for national servicing standards that specifically address the foreclosure process,” the legislators wrote in a letter to banking regulators. “We have seen countless examples of servicers giving borrowers the run-around and continuing the foreclosure process when a loan modification has already been obtained.  Perhaps the most egregious cases of servicer wrongdoing have been violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act by wrongly foreclosing on active-duty servicemembers.  Correcting these problems and ensuring they do not reoccur should be a priority for all of your agencies."

The GAO report concluded that:

• Despite various federal agencies’ having the authority to oversee mortgage servicers, past oversight of mortgage servicers’ foreclosure activities has been limited and fragmented;
• It remains unclear how regulators and the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will share the responsibility of overseeing servicers, continuing the potential for poor and inconsistent oversight; and
• National standards for mortgage servicers that address expectations for the foreclosure process could improve the ways servicers do business.

GAO recommends that banking regulators and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau:

·         Develop plans for overseeing mortgage servicers; and

·         Include foreclosure practices in any servicing standards that are developed.

The letter from the legislators to Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System; John G. Walsh, Acting Comptroller of the Currency Office of the Comptroller of the Currency; Sheila C. Bair, Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; John E. Bowman, Acting Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, and Elizabeth Warren, Special Advisor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau can be read here.

GAO Letter Banking Regulators

GAO Mortgage Foreclosure Report

Judge fines anti-foreclosure lawyer

Judge fines anti-foreclosure lawyer Attorneys Jerry Goldberg and Vanessa Fluker on their way to court in the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center Court sanctions attorney for linking foreclosure to Charter One discrimination caseBy Eric T. CampbellThe Michigan Citizen DETROIT — Third District Court Judge Robert J. Colombo recently received three home loan modifications from Charter One Bank. Colombo ruled, however, he did not need to recuse himself from a mortgage foreclosure case involving the same bank. Nor did it stop him from levying a $12,000 fine on the attorney and client fighting the bank’s foreclosure when the attorney attempted to link the foreclosure case to a discrimination lawsuit now pending against Charter One. Attorney Vanessa Fluker has devoted her legal career to defending victims of foreclosure and predatory lending in Detroit. On March 1, Fluker’s colleague, Jerry Goldberg, defended her against a court sanction handed down by Colombo. Colombo’s decision included the $12,000 judgment against Fluker and foreclosure victim Asha Tyson. “She’s a tireless and committed advocate on behalf of people that have been victimized by the banking interests — she deserves the respect of the legal community,” Abayomi Azikiwe said. Azikiwe, a member of Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI), was one of Fluker’s many supporters who filled the courtroom to capacity. Colombo’s legal reprimand stems from Fluker’s effort to stop eviction proceedings on Tyson. Tyson’s home mortgage was held through the Charter One Bank, subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and CCO Mortgage. In November 2008, Judge Colombo denied a stay of eviction, only to have the case sent back to him by the 36th district court in March 2010. Fluker then filed an appeal seeking an indefinite stay in Tyson’s case, pending a federal lawsuit initiated against RBS/CCO by the Center for Community Justice and Advocacy in November 2009. That suit alleges Charter One violated the Federal Housing Amendments Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Civil Rights Act (see Michigan Citizen Newspaper, 2/27/11) by treating African American mortgage holders inside Detroit differently than their white suburban counterparts. Fluker argued that Tyson’s case would be affected by the outcome of the suit. “He was angry that the case came back to him,” Goldberg says. In the courtroom, Colombo rebuked every effort by Goldberg to dismiss the sanction hearing. In sanctioning Fluker, Colombo delivered a lengthy rant for what he called a poorly written brief and a procedural error in filing the appeal. He also admonished her for attempting to introduce the Federal Housing Act to Tyson’s eviction defense. Colombo based the amount of the judgment against Fluker and Tyson on hours billed by the bank’s lawyers, at $235 an hour, to fight the appeal. Attorney Goldberg told the Michigan Citizen that in his opinion, Colombo failed to make the necessary case that Fluker’s filing was frivolous and the judges actions were, in effect, retaliatory. He says Colombo was displeased with Fluker’s desire to incorporate the federal lawsuit into the Tyson case and that he implied he would sanction her if she did. “I thought she effectively argued that because the federal case wasn’t brought up in the first case, she had a legal basis. It was a decent brief with a cogent argument. For a sanction to be carried out, it has to be against a very high standard. The court has to prove that what she did was frivolous,” Goldberg said. An appeal will be filed in the matter of Fluker’s sanction, Goldberg said. He suggested during his final statements that Judge Colombo recuse himself from any further involvement in the case, citing Colombo’s receipt of three recent home loan modifications by Charter One Bank. During opening statements, Goldberg emphasized the effects of unfairly sanctioning one of the few attorneys who defend homeowners victimized by predatory lending and subsequent evictions. “To put a damper on attorneys to even raise these issues has a negative impact on society,” Goldberg said. Azikiwe agrees the ruling, if allowed to stand, could have great political consequences for Detroiters faced with eviction proceedings. “It jeopardizes the rights of the people that have been victimized by the banking industry,” Azikiwe said.