Chase's "Unmitigated Disaster" Continues; Add 'Accidental' Issuance Of 400 Long Island Loan Satisfactions To Bankster's 'Egg-On-Face' Mortgage Mess

In Suffolk County, New York, the New York Post reports:

• Just when you think you've heard every possible way a bank's mortgage department can mess things up, the moneylenders come up with a new way to amaze.



• For example, one of the country's largest mortgage lenders, JPMorgan Chase, was in a Long Island courtroom yesterday trying to get the OK to put liens back on about 400 homes it accidentally classified as having satisfied mortgages after the homeowners refinanced their mortgages. The mistake happened four years ago, according to court papers.



• Since 2007, the 400 Suffolk County families could have stopped paying their mortgages, and it appears that Chase wouldn't have had the right to foreclose. It was an innocent bank error, Chase's lawyers said.



• While not a single homeowner nor Chase appears to have been financially harmed because of the mistake, it highlights the tricky and sticky situation banks find themselves in. Every time a bank executive says he has his arms wrapped around the mortgage morass, new evidence pops up to prove him wrong. Meanwhile, these same bank executives want investors to believe the worst has passed.



• "It's fairly incredible to me that an error of this magnitude would happen," said Mark Goldsmith, a lawyer at Jakubowski, Robertson, representing one of the Suffolk County homeowners. Said another lawyer, David Shaev, who is not involved in the Long Island case, "I've never seen anything like this as far as this many accidental [mortgage] satisfactions."

***

• The law firm handling Chase's Suffolk case is Steven J. Baum PC, which is reportedly being investigated by federal and state authorities for its alleged shoddy case work. [...] JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon(1) recently described the mortgage mess as "an unmitigated disaster."(2)

For the story, see Farce of habit at JPM (Another mind-blowing mortgage mess for bank).

(1) A hard copy of the New York Post edition that ran this story showed a photo of the 'respected' Chase CEO Jamie Dimon with egg on his face. Regrettably, the photo apparently never made the online edition. In lieu thereof, this photo will have to suffice.

(2) Among the other recent messes that are integral parts of Chase's 'unmitigated disaster,' as reported by the Post:

• Chase, together with Bank of America, Citigroup, Ally Financial, Wells Fargo, is facing as much as $25 billion in penalties and fines related to the robo-signing and lost-document fiasco that has slammed the nation's housing market;
• Chase recently admitted that it foreclosed on active-duty servicemen in violation of foreclosure rules. The bank agreed to pay tens of millions in cash to thousands of active-duty military personnel who were mistakenly overcharged on their mortgages or were wrongfully kicked out of their homes.