Citigroup Calls "Foreclosure-Gate" Implications Just Tip Of The Iceberg

10-12-2010 • ZeroHedge.com

Issues Concerning Affidavits When the aforementioned paperwork is lost, an agent of the mortgage servicer can sign an affidavit swearing that he or she has personal knowledge that, although now lost, the trustee was once in possession of the necessary documents. The affidavit is considered to have the same weight as sworn testimony in a court of law. Two problems have emerged with regards to affidavits. First, several news stories have reported that the people signing these affidavits had no knowledge of the matters in question despite the fact that there were legally testifying that they did. Many of these people have since been labeled “robo-signers” given the tremendous volumes of affidavits which they signed in relatively short periods of time. Second, the affidavits may be irrelevant because the issue is not that the mortgage documents were lost but they were never properly transferred at each step of the aforementioned securitization process. Issues Concerning Tax and Trust Laws Beyond the affidavit issues, our speaker highlighted potential problems concerning the trusts which hold the securitized mortgages. Most mortgage trusts were set up as REMICs (Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits) which are special purpose vehicles used to pool mortgages. Under the IRS code, REMIC confers a special tax status in which the cash flows to the trust are not taxed. Investors in the trust pay taxes. The tax exempt nature is important. If the trusts were in fact to be taxed, the taxes would distort the yields required by investors. To qualify as a REMIC under the IRS code and enjoy the beneficial tax treatment, the trust (1) must be passive and (2) cannot acquire any new assets 90 days following the trust’s creation. If, as described above, mortgage documents were never correctly passed through to the trust when it was established, then the trust may not actually own the underlying mortgages it purports to own. Although it is possible that this issue could be remedied by some legal maneuvering, doing so could violate the REMIC status since the trust would be acquiring assets long after the aforementioned 90 day period has expired. Such a violation in turn could trigger a sizeable tax burden for investors. Our speaker indicated that there are a handful of open questions on this front and that this is a legal gray area.