Gmac Joinder

1 Mitchell J.
Stein SBN # 121750

MITCHELL J. STEIN & ASSOCIATES
2
2950 Buskirk Avenue, Third Floor
3
Walnut Creek, CA 94597
Tel: (914) 843-7957
4 Fax: (914) 652-2431
Email: oceibod@gmail.com
5
Theodore R. Maloney SBN #125094
6 FINANCE LAW GROUP
5023 North Parkway Calabasas
7 Calabasas, CA 91302
Tel: (424) 234-5446
8 Fax: (424) 238-2162
Email: trm@financelawgroup.com
9
Attorneys for Plaintiffs
10
11 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

12
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES
13
JAMES W. LOCKER, an individual; ) Case No. BC452263
14
DOUGLAS LIZARDI, an individual; )
DEBBIE LIZARDI, an individual; ) [Assigned to Judge Rex Heeseman,
15 JOSE ALFREDO SEGOVIA, an individual; ) Department 19]
LISA M. ROSA, an individual; )
16 RAYMOND TRAN, an individual; ) COMPLAINT FOR:
ROBERT ROSS, an individual; )
17 ESME ROSS, an individual; ) 1. FRAUDULENT
TONY TRUJILLO, an individual; ) CONCEALMENT
18 DONNA TRUJILLO, an individual; ) [VIOLATION OF CAL. CIV.
JAMES SHIPMAN, an individual; )
19 CHRISTINE SHIPMAN, an individual; ) CODE §§ 1572, 1709 AND
and others similarly situated named herein as ) 1710] (INCLUDING
20 ROES 1 through 10,000, inclusive, ) DECLARATORY AND
) INJUNCTIVE RELIEF TO
21 Plaintiffs, ) VOID MORTGAGE);
) 2. INTENTIONAL
22
vs. ) MISREPRESENTATION
23
)
ALLY BANK, N.A., a Utah corporation, in ) [VIOLATION OF CAL. CIV.
24 its own capacity and as an acquirer of certain ) CODE §§ 1572, 1709 AND
assets and liabilities of GMAC; GMAC, a ) 1710] (INCLUDING
25 national banking association; WESTERN ) DECLARATORY AND
NATIONAL APPRAISALS, a business ) INJUNCTIVE RELIEF TO
26 entity; CALIFORNIA RECONVEYANCE ) VOID MORTGAGE);
COMPANY, a California corporation; )
CASAS & HIPOTECAS, a California ) 3. NEGLIGENT
27
corporation; and DOES 1 through 1000, ) MISREPRESENTATION
28 inclusive, ) [VIOLATION OF CAL. CIV.
) CODE §§ 1572, 1709 AND
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COMPLAINT
Defendants ) 1710] (INCLUDING
1 ) DECLARATORY AND
) INJUNCTIVE RELIEF TO
2
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) VOID MORTGAGE);
3 4. VIOLATION OF CAL. CIVIL
)
4 ) CODE § 2923.5;
) 5. UNFAIR COMPETITION
5 ) [VIOLATIONS OF CAL. BUS.
) & PROF. CODE § 17200 ET
6 ) SEQ.] (INCLUDING
)
7 ) INJUNCTIVE RELIEF TO
) VOID MORTGAGE)
8 ) 6. BREACH OF CONTRACT
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9 ) [JURY TRIAL DEMANDED]
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___________________________________________________________________________________
COMPLAINT
1 Plaintiffs, and each of them, hereby demand a jury trial and allege as follows:
2 INTRODUCTION
3 1. This lawsuit arises from, among other things: (i) the deception in inducing
4 Plaintiffs to enter into loans and mortgages1 from approximately 2003 through 2007 and which
5 were acquired or are serviced by Defendants; (ii) the fraudulent and illegal use of MERS in
6 connection with those loans and mortgages; (iii) Defendants’ failure to perform their obligations
7 required pursuant to accepting TARP funds; (iv) Defendants’ breach of Plaintiffs’ statutorily
8 protected rights; (v) Defendants’ breach and willful violation of numerous consumer and
9 homeowner protection statutes, and willful violations of unfair business practices statues, by,
10 among other things, processing money from unknown sources, in contravention of the Patriot
11 Act; (vi) accepting money, transferring alleged assets and foreclosing upon alleged assets in
12 instances where the alleged assets do not exist, and which these Defendants have no right, title, or
13 interest upon which they can act; and (vii) Defendants’ continuing tortuous conduct intended to
14 deprive Plaintiffs of their rights and remedies for the foregoing acts, described below.
15 2. Defendants, among other things, violated laws, breached contracts, and repeatedly
16 and intentionally failed to honor its agreements with borrowers.
17 3. Moreover, Defendants, and each of them, wrongfuly acted and continue to act as if
18 they are either the owner, beneficiary, successor, assignee, servicer, or have some right, title, or
19 interest in Plaintiffs’notes, mortgages, or deeds of trust. In reality, the Defendants, and each of
20 them, are commiting and continuing a fraud, by utilizing and foreclosing upon assets that do not
21 exist.
22 4. This action seeks remedies for the foregoing improper activities, including a
23 massive fraud perpetrated upon Plaintiffs and other borrowers by the Defendants’ business that
24 devastated the values of their residences, in most cases resulting in Plaintiffs’ loss of all or
25 substantially all of their net worths.
26
27 1
This Complaint uses ―mortgage‖ and ―deed of trust‖ interchangeably. Depending upon the state
28 and other factors, a loan may be secured by either form of security instrument, the deed of trust
being the customary instrument in California.
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COMPLAINT
1 PARTIES
2 5. Plaintiff JAMES W. LOCKER is an individual residing in the State of
3 California, who borrowed money from Defendants or its subsidiaries or affiliates between
4 January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on his California real
5 estate. At all times material hereto, Defendants has acted as Servicer or some other control
6 capacity over processing the loan.
7 6. Plaintiff DOUGLAS LIZARDI is an individual residing in the State of
8 Maryland, who borrowed money from Defendants or its subsidiaries or affiliates between
9 January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on his real estate. At all
10 times material hereto, Defendants has acted as Servicer or some other control capacity over
11 processing the loan.
12 7. Plaintiff DEBBIE LIZARDI is an individual residing in the State of Maryland,
13 who borrowed money from Defendants or its subsidiaries or affiliates between January 1, 2003
14 and December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on her real estate. At all times material
15 hereto, Defendants has acted as Servicer or some other control capacity over processing the
16 loan.
17 8. Plaintiff JOSE ALFREDO SEGOVIA is an individual residing in the State of
18 Texas, who borrowed money from Defendants or its subsidiaries or affiliates between January
19 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on his real estate. At all times
20 material hereto, Defendants has acted as Servicer or some other control capacity over
22 9. Plaintiff LISA M. ROSS is an individual residing in the State of Texas, who
23 borrowed money from Defendants or its subsidiaries or affiliates between January 1, 2003 and
24 December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on her real estate. At all times material hereto,
25 Defendants has acted as Servicer or some other control capacity over processing the loan.
26 10. Plaintiff RAYMOND TRAN is an individual residing in the State of California,
28 and December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on his California real estate. At all times
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COMPLAINT
3 11. Plaintiff IRVING PHAN is an individual residing in the State of California, who
5 December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on his California real estate. At all times
8 12. Plaintiff ROBERT ROSS is an individual residing in the State of California, who
10 December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on his California real estate. At all times
13 13. Plaintiff ESME ROSS is an individual residing in the State of California, who
15 December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on her California real estate. At all times
18 14. Plaintiff TONY TRUJILLO is an individual residing in the State of New
19 Mexico, who borrowed money from Defendants or its subsidiaries or affiliates between January
20 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on his real estate. At all times
23 15. Plaintiff DONNA TRUJILLO is an individual residing in the State of New
24 Mexico, who borrowed money from Defendants or its subsidiaries or affiliates between January
25 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on her real estate. At all times
28 16. Plaintiff JAMES SHIPMAN is an individual residing in the State of California,
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COMPLAINT
2 and December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on his California real estate. At all times
5 17. Plaintiff CHRISTINE SHIPMAN is an individual residing in the State of
6 California, who borrowed money from Defendants or its subsidiaries or affiliates between
7 January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007, secured by a deed of trust on her California real
8 estate. At all times material hereto, Defendants has acted as Servicer or some other control
9 capacity over processing the loan.
10 18. The other Plaintiffs, named as ROES 1 through 10,000, are similarly situated to
11 Plaintiffs identified above in that they too borrowed money from the Defendants (as defined
12 below) between the dates beginning on January 1, 2003 and ending on December 31, 2007,
13 secured by deeds of trust on their California realty. Further, at all times material hereto,
14 Defendants have acted as servicer or in another capacity with respect to loan processing. All of
15 the foregoing secured real estate loans made to Plaintiffs were wrongfully and fraudulently
16 handled and processed by Defendants, resulting in damages.
17 19. Plaintiffs’ counsel is aware of and has provided services to unnamed Roe
18 plaintiffs, each of whom has sustained actual injury. The unnamed Roes sue under their names
19 fictitiously because they either wish to maintain their privacy or because Plaintiffs’ counsel
20 have not completed the due diligence necessary to properly plead their claims as of the filing of
21 this Complaint.
22 20. From time-to-time, upon conducting the due diligence and learning the
23 information sufficient to add remaining Roe Plaintiffs to this action, Plaintiffs shall seek leave
24 of Court to amend this Complaint to name these additional Roe Plaintiffs, or will follow such
25 other process as is prescribed by the Court.
26 21. An additional large number of persons have contacted counsel or their staffs
27 pertaining to the matters complained of herein. In the event Plaintiffs believe it is in
28 furtherance of judicial economy and justice to add all or any of these additional persons to this
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COMPLAINT
1 Complaint, Plaintiffs shall bring a noticed motion to add such parties to this action.
2 22. In the event Plaintiffs file a separate lawsuit appertaining to all or any of these
3 unnamed persons, or such further number as may exist in view of future developments,
4 Plaintiffs shall file all appropriate Notices of Related Cases in accordance with California law,
5 or as otherwise directed by the Court.
6 23. Defendant ALLY BANK, N.A. (―ALLY‖), a Utah corporation, is, among other
7 things, a mortgage lender doing business in the State of California, County of Los Angeles. It
8 is the successor to GMAC
9 24. Defendant GMAC (―GMAC‖) is a national banking association.
10 25. It is axiomatic that the ALLY Defendants have no greater rights in the assets of
11 this business than their original owner. And, no transfer of mortgages or notes and no
12 intervening party can make a mortgage out of paper that was not in the first place a mortgage.
13 26. The Defendants’ mortgage lending business grew to the point where it had
14 become one of the largest savings association and one of the largest servicer of mortgages in
15 the Unites States. Growth was due largely to an aggressive growth strategy that was
16 relentlessly pursued. The business operated in all fifty States in the United States of America.
17 27. Defendant WESTERN NATIONAL APPRAISALS is a business entity, with its
18 principal place of business in the State of California, in the County of Los Angeles.
19 28. Defendant CALIFORNIA RECONVEYANCE COMPANY is a business entity,
20 with its principal place of business in the State of California, in the County of Los Angeles.
21 29. Defendant CASAS & HIPOTECAS is a business entity operating in the State of
22 California, County of Los Angeles.
23 30. At all times material hereto, the business of Defendants was operated through a
24 common plan and scheme designed to conceal the material facts set forth below from Plaintiffs,
25 from the California public and from regulators, either directly or as successors-in-interest to the
26 business acquired from others. The concealment was completed, ratified and/or confirmed by
27 each Defendant herein directly or as a successor-in-interest as the acquirer of an entire
28 business, and each Defendant performed or has sought to benefit from the tortious acts set forth
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COMPLAINT
1 herein for its own monetary gain and as a part of a common plan developed and carried out
2 with the other Defendants or as a successor-in-interest to the business that did the foregoing.
3 31. The true names and capacities of the Defendants listed herein as DOES 1
4 through 1,000 are unknown to Plaintiffs who therefore sue these Defendants by such fictitious
5 names. Each of the DOE Defendants was the agent of each of the other Defendants herein,
6 named or unnamed, and thereby participated in all of the wrongdoing set forth herein. On
7 information and belief, each such Defendant is responsible for the acts, events and concealment
8 set forth herein and is sued for that reason. Upon learning the true names and capacities of the
9 DOE Defendants, Plaintiffs shall amend this Complaint accordingly.
10 32. Plaintiffs believe and thereon allege that the agents and co-conspirators through
11 which the named Defendants operated included, without limitation, financial institutions and
12 other firms that originated loans on behalf of the enterprise acquired by the ALLY Defendants
13 and the ALLY Defendants. These institutions acted at the behest and direction of the enterprise
14 and the ALLY Defendants, or agreed to participate — knowingly or unknowingly - in the
15 fraudulent scheme described in this Complaint.
16 33. Those firms originating loans that knowingly participated in the scheme are
17 jointly and severally liable with the Defendants for their acts in devising, directing, knowingly
18 benefitting from and ratifying the wrongful acts of the knowing participants. Upon learning the
19 true name of such knowing participants, Plaintiffs shall amend this Complaint to identify such
20 knowing participants as Doe Defendants.
21 34. For avoidance of doubt, such knowing participants include, without limitation,
22 legal and natural persons owned in whole or in part by the enterprise or Defendants or affiliates
23 thereof legal and natural persons owning directly or through affiliates financial interests in the
24 enterprise or Defendants; legal and natural persons directly or through affiliates acting pursuant
25 to contracts to share in the benefits of the wrongdoing alleged in this Complaint and knowing
26 to at least some degree committing acts and omissions in support thereof; and legal and natural
27 persons knowing to at least some degree acting in concert with the enterprise of the
28 Defendants.
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COMPLAINT
1 35. As to those legal and natural persons acting in concert without an express legal
2 relationship with Defendants or their affiliates, on information and belief, the Defendants
3 knowingly induced and encouraged the parallel acts, created circumstances permitting and
4 authorizing the parallel acts and omissions, benefited therefrom and ratified the improper
5 behavior, becoming jointly and severally liable therefor.
6 36. As to those legal and natural persons whose acts in support of the loan scheme
7 were unwitting, Plaintiffs will consider whether and on what basis such persons might be liable
8 for their acts; however, on information and belief, the Defendants knowingly induced and
9 encouraged the acts and omissions, created circumstances permitting and authorizing the
10 parallel acts and omissions, benefited therefrom and ratified the improper behavior, becoming
11 liable therefor.
12 37. Defendants’ own public disclosures make clear that ALLY is a common
13 enterprise operating as a greater whole and that ALLY is the successor-in-interest to the tainted
14 mortgage lending business formerly operated by GMAC.
15 38. Indeed, ALLY acquired or asumed assets for the specific purpose of succeeding
16 to this mortgage lending business and the assets comprising that business, including the loans
17 made to Plaintiffs.
18 39. Plaintiffs are informed and believe, and thereon allege, that: (i) ALLY GROUP,
19 and its wholly-owned and controlled subsidiaries are liable (to the extent provided in this
20 Complaint) for all wrongful acts relating to their acquired business prior to the date thereof as
21 the successor-in-interest to the mortgage lending business of GMAC, (ii) Defendants directly
22 and through its subsidiaries and other agents sued herein as Does have continued the unlawful
23 mortgage lending and collection practices, including, without limitation thereof, writing
24 fraudulent mortgages as set forth above and concealing wrongful acts that occurred in whole or
25 in part prior thereto, and (iii) Defendants and their subsidiaries are jointly and severally liable
26 as alter egos and as a single, greater unified whole.
27 40. Hand-in-hand with its fraudulently-obtained mortgages, the Defendants’
28 mortgage lending business implemented a plan to ―pool‖ the foregoing mortgages and sell the
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COMPLAINT
1 pools for inflated value.
2 41. Rapidly, these two intertwined schemes grew into a brazen plan to disregard
3 underwriting standards and fraudulently inflate property values – county-by-county, city-by-
4 city, person-by-person – in order to take business from legitimate mortgage-providers, and
5 moved on to massive securities fraud hand-in-hand with concealment from, and deception of,
6 Plaintiffs and other mortgagees on an unprecedented scale.
7 42. From as early as 2004, the senior management of Defendants’ mortgage lending
8 business knew the scheme would cause a liquidity crisis that would devastate Plaintiffs’ home
9 values and net worths. But, they didn’t care, because their plan was based on insider trading –
10 pumping for as long as they could and then dumping before the truth came out and Plaintiffs’
11 losses were locked in.
12 43. At the very least, at the time of entering into the notes and deeds of trust
13 referenced herein with respect to each Plaintiff, the Defendants’ business, each Defendant
14 originating or participating in the origination of a mortgage, each Defendant in the chain of title
15 of the foregoing mortgages and each Defendant servicing the foregoing mortgages and the
16 successors to each of the foregoing (collectively, the ―Defendants‖) was bound and obligated to
17 fully and accurately disclose to each borrower, including each Plaintiff herein, that the
18 mortgage being offered to the Plaintiff was, in fact, part of a massive fraud that Defendants or
19 their business principals knew would result in the loss of the equity invested by Plaintiff in
20 their homes and in severe impairment to Plaintiffs’ credit ratings.
21 44. It is now all too clear that this was the ultimate high-stakes fraudulent
22 investment scheme of the last decade. Couched in banking and securities jargon, the deceptive
23 gamble with consumers’ primary assets – their homes – was nothing more than a financial
24 fraud perpetrated by Defendants’ mortgage lending enterprise and others on a scale never
25 before seen. This scheme led directly to a mortgage meltdown in California that was
26 substantially worse than any economic problems facing the rest of the United States.
27 45. From 2008 to the present, Californians’ home values decreased by considerably
28 more than most other areas in the United States as a direct and proximate result of the
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COMPLAINT
1 Defendants’ enterprise scheme set forth herein. Defendants’ enterprise systematically
2 destroyed California home values county-by-county, then State-wide, and ultimately across the
3 entire Country.
4 46. The business premise of the enterprise the ALLY Defendants’ acquired was to
5 leave the borrowers, including Plaintiffs, holding the bag once Defendants and their executives
6 had cashed in reaping huge salaries and bonuses and selling securities based on their inside
7 information, while investors were still buying the increasingly overpriced mortgage pools and
8 before the inevitable dénouement. This massive fraudulent scheme was a disaster both
9 foreseen by Defendants’ business and waiting to happen. The operators of Defendants’
10 business knew it, and yet still induced the Plaintiffs into their scheme without telling them.
11 47. Almost to add further insult to injury, ALLY, knowing of this massive fraud, like
12 Civil War carpetbaggers, sought to swoop in and profiteer from the carnage that had been
13 wreaked on Plaintiffs. The ALLY Defendants sought to ignore the responsibility for the results
14 of the massive fraud in the mortgage assets and tainted business they were acquiring by
15 aggressively enforcing the mortgages purchased or serviced.
16 48. The ALLY Defendants did this with calculation and deliberation after over nine
17 months had elapsed from the failure of the business and in full recognition of the patent frauds
18 that had been perpetrated on Plaintiffs in connection with the mortgages.
19 49. As a result of all of these actions of Defendants, Plaintiffs lost their equity in
20 their homes, their credit ratings and histories were damaged or destroyed, and Plaintiffs
21 incurred material other costs and expenses, described herein. At the same time, Defendants
22 took from Plaintiffs and other borrowers billions of dollars in interest payments and fees and
23 generated billions of dollars in profits by selling their loans at inflated values.
24 50. With government loss-protection in their hip pocket, the ALLY Defendants, with
25 a voraciousness that has been chastised by numerous courts, sought to obliterate the last
26 vestiges of value held by Plaintiffs, lock in government fill-up money and flip distressed assets
27 for a profit. On the heels of an already bad disaster, Defendants piled on after March 2009 to
28 systematically continue the destruction of California home values.
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COMPLAINT
1 51. Defendants’ improper acts are numerous, including, inter alia: (i) issuing Notices
2 of Default in violation of Cal. Civil Code §2923.5; (ii) misrepresenting their intention to
3 arrange loan modifications for Plaintiffs, while in fact creating abusive roadblocks to deprive
4 Plaintiffs of their legal rights; and (iii) and by refusing to respond, in any way, to Plaintiffs’
5 communications.
6 52. These acts continue to this day with hardball tactics and deception that continue
7 to threaten Plaintiffs’ rights and financial security, as well as the economic future of the State of
8 California and the entire United States of America.
9 53. The carpetbagger business plan of the ALLY Defendants is no mystery. It is
10 evident in their very formation to acquire the mortgage assets to which this action relates.
11 What the Defendants had hoped was that helpless homeowners would not be able to stand up to
12 the Defendants as they eviscerated the Plaintiffs’ life’s savings, chasing a hoped-for gold rush
13 of government bail-out money to make the Defendants rich in the process, while at the same
14 time positioning the Defendants as vultures to pick on the government-paid-for carcass that
15 would be left over.
16 54. Though they were careful not to reveal overtly the piranha-like nature of their
17 business plan, the Defendants’ formation for the sole purpose seeking to obtain an enormous
18 portfolio of tainted mortgages, enforce them as if they were not tainted, crush the homeowners
19 in the process to profit from government money, and then flipping the ―cleansed‖ portfolio is
20 patently evident. In this action, Plaintiffs seek to stop this behavior and obtain the redress they
21 are due.
22
23 GENERAL FACTS
24 55. The common facts herein include those facts set forth above in the prior sections
25 of this Complaint.
26 56. There has been considerable press attention, litigation and pending governmental
27 investigations establishing, among other things, that in many instances the Defendants herein
28 do not have in their possession, custody or control the original or an authentic copy of the
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COMPLAINT
1 promissory notes or other indicia of realty rights regarding Plaintiffs. Based thereon, on
2 information and belief, Plaintiffs hereby allege that Defendants have made demand for payment
3 on the Plaintiffs with respect to Plaintiffs’ properties at a time when Defendants are incapable
4 of establishing (and do not have any credible knowledge regarding) who owns the promissory
5 notes Defendants are purportedly servicing.
6 57. Many of the promissory notes referenced above are secured or controlled by a
7 beneficiary known as Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (MERS). MERS is
8 sometimes named as the ―nominee‖ or ―beneficiary‖ for unknown lenders representing
9 unsourced money advanced by persons in violation of law. When a loan is transferred among
10 MERS members, MERS purports to simplify the process by avoiding the requirement to re-
11 record the liens and pay county recorder fees.
12 58. For the substantial majority of the Plaintiffs herein, MERS claims to be the
13 owner of the security interest indicated by the mortgages transferred by lenders, investors and
14 their loan servicers in the county land records. MERS claims its process eliminates the need to
15 file assignments in the county land records which lowers costs for lenders and consumers by
16 reducing county recording costs from real estate transfers and provides a central source of
17 information and tracking for mortgage loans.
18 59. Based upon published reports, including the MERS website as of the date of this
19 Complaint, on information and belief, MERS does not: (1) take applications for, underwrite or
20 negotiate mortgage loans; (2) make or originate mortgage loans to consumers; (3) extend credit
21 to consumers; (4) service mortgage loans; or (5) invest in mortgage loans.
22 60. MERS has been, and continues to be, used to facilitate the unlawful transfers of
23 mortgages, unlawful pooling of mortgages and the injection into the United States banking
24 industry of unsourced (i.e., unknown) funds, including, without limitation, improper off-shore
25 funds. Plaintiffs are informed and believe and thereon allege that MERS has been listed as
26 beneficial owner of more than half the mortgages in the United States.
27 61. In 2001, Congress found that ―money laundering, and the defects in financial
28 transparency on which money launderers rely, are critical to the financing of global terrorism
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COMPLAINT
1 and the provision of funds for terrorist attacks.‖ Congress specifically found that ―money
2 launderers subvert legitimate financial mechanisms and banking relationships by using them as
3 protective covering for the movement of criminal proceeds and the financing of crime and
4 terrorism . . .‖
5 62. On information and belief, during periods relevant to the other acts complained
6 of herein, Defendants and each of them did not and persist in failing to (1) establish due
7 diligence policies, procedures and controls reasonably designed to detect and report instances
8 of money laundering, (2) establish procedures to take reasonable and practicable measures to
9 verify the identity of those applying for an account with the institution and maintain records of
10 the information used to verify a person’s identity, including name, address, and other
11 identifying information, (3) determine and report the sources of funds used for the mortgages
12 they originate and service, as well as the sources of funds used to acquire any mortgages, or (4)
13 disclose to Plaintiffs the identities, address and telephone numbers of transferees of their
14 mortgages.
15 63. Upon completion of suffcient discovery, Plaintiffs will seek leave to amend the
16 complaint to supplement the foregoing allegations with respect to additional violations
17 pertaining to the Plaintiffs and additional patterns supporting Plaintiffs’ claims herein including
18 its claim of Unfair Competition, infra.
19 64. Under California Civil Code § 1709 it is unlawful to willfully deceive another
20 ―with intent to induce him to alter his position to his injury or risk.‖
21 65. Under California Civil Code § 1710, it a ―deceit‖ to do any one or more of the
22 following: (1) the suggestion, as a fact, of that which is not true, by one who does not believe it
23 to be true; (2) the assertion, as a fact, of that which is not true, by one who has no reasonable
24 ground for believing it to be true; (3) the suppression of a fact, by one who is bound to disclose
25 it, or who gives information of other facts which are likely to mislead for want of
26 communication of that fact; or, (4) a promise, made without any intention of performing it.
27 66. Under California Civil Code § 1572, the party to a contract further engages in
28 fraud by committing ―any other act fitted to deceive.‖
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COMPLAINT
1 67. At the time of entering into the notes and deeds of trust referenced herein with
2 respect to each Plaintiff, the enterprise acquired by the ALLY Defendants, was bound and
3 obligated to fully and accurately disclose:
4 a. Who the true lender and mortgagee were.
5 b. That to induce a Plaintiff to enter into the mortgage, the enterprise caused the
6 appraised value of Plaintiff’s home to be overstated.
7 c. That to disguise the inflated value of Plaintiff’s home, the enterprise was
8 orchestrating the over-valuation of homes throughout Plaintiff’s community.
9 d. That to induce a Plaintiff to enter into a mortgage, the enterprise disregarded its
10 underwriting requirements, thereby causing Plaintiff to falsely believe that
11 Plaintiff was financially capable of performing Plaintiff’s obligations under the
12 mortgage, when the enterprise knew that was untrue.
13 e. That the enterprise not only had the right to securitize and sell Plaintiff’s
14 mortgage to third-party investors, but that it specifically planned and intended to
15 do so as to virtually all mortgages at highly-inflated and unsustainable values.
16 f. That as to the intended sales:
17 i. The sales would include sales to nominees who were not authorized
18 under law at the time to own a mortgage, including, among others,
19 Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., a/k/a MERSCORP, Inc.
20 (―MERS‖), which according to its website was created by mortgage
21 banking industry participants to be only a front or nominee to
22 ―streamline‖ the mortgage re-sale and securitization process;
23 ii. Plaintiff’s true financial condition and the true value of Plaintiff’s home
24 and mortgage would not be disclosed to investors to whom the mortgage
25 would be sold;
26 iii. The enterprise intended to sell the mortgage together with other
27 mortgages as to which it also intended not to disclose the true financial
28 condition of the borrowers or the true value of their homes or mortgages;
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COMPLAINT
1 iv. The consideration to be sought from investors would be greater than the
2 actual value of the said notes and deeds of trust; and
3 v. The consideration to be sought from investors would be greater than the
4 income stream that could be generated from the instruments even
5 assuming a 0% default rate thereon;
6 g. That the mortgage would thereby be used as part of a scheme by which the
7 enterprise would bilk investors by selling collateralized mortgage pools at an
8 inflated value.
9 h. That, at the time they did the foregoing, the enterprise knew the foregoing
10 would lead to a liquidity crisis and the likely collapse of the enterprise;
11 i. That the enterprise also knew the foregoing would lead to grave damage to each
12 Plaintiff’s property value and thereby result in the Plaintiff’s loss of the equity
13 Plaintiff invested in the Plaintiffs’ house, as well as damaging the Plaintiff’s
14 credit rating, thereby causing the Plaintiff additional severe financial damage;
15 and
16 j. That the enterprise knew at the time of making each loan, but did not disclose to
17 Plaintiffs, that entire communities would become ―ghost-town-foreclosure-
18 communities‖ after a domino effect of foreclosures hit them.
19 68. When property values started falling – just as the enterprise knew would occur –
20 the enterprise could no longer continue the pretense, concealment and affirmative
21 misrepresentations. Plaintiffs through their losses, and then also the ultimate banker, the U.S.
22 taxpayer, have footed the bill through TARP and other programs.
23 69. The ALLY Defendants not only continue to ratify the scheme, but they
24 aggressively seek to profiteer from it.
25 70. With specific aim, ALLY, knowing of the massive fraud perpetrated by the
26 enterprise they sought to acquire, swooped in to profiteer. Like Civil War carpetbaggers, the
27 ALLY Defendants sought to conceal the fraud of which they were aware and which gave
28 legitimate defenses to borrowers and to ramrod through foreclosures.
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COMPLAINT
1 71. This was all done while the ALLY Defendants have put window dressing on
2 their business strategy, seeking to obfuscate their actions by press releases of diametrically
3 opposite actions. This conspiracy has all been to further crush values, realize losses and collect
4 government bail-out money, and then to take their foot off the neck of the California
5 homeowner market and profiteer from rises in portfolio asset values.
6 72. However, the ALLY Defendants can not improve their position in the mortgages
7 and must stand in the shoes of their predecessor.
8 73. As a result, they are subject to the shortcomings of the assets they purchased,
9 and not only those the ALLY Defendants can control for their profit. They are also subject to
10 all defenses to the mortgages. The ALLY Defendants’ high-pressure and aggressive foreclosure
11 tactics have been designed to push this fraud through and avoid these defenses by sheer weight
12 of a well-financed financial group against individual homeowners. However, they must accept
13 the burdens as well as the benefits of the mortgage assets contained in the tainted business they
14 acquired.
15 74. The ALLY Defendants have hatched their scheme with calm deliberation,
16 including carefully investigating the assets they were acquiring, interviewing executives of the
17 enterprise, and forming their own vehicles to execute the plan. After over nine months had
18 elapsed from the failure of the enterprise, after the emergence of government bail-outs and
19 support, including privately negotiated help and TARP assistance, and in full recognition of the
20 patent frauds that had been perpetrated on Plaintiffs in connection with the mortgages, the
21 ALLY Defendants stepped into those dirty shoes.
22 75. As a result of all of these actions of Defendants, Plaintiffs lost their equity in
23 their homes, their credit ratings and histories were damaged or destroyed, and Plaintiffs
24 incurred material other costs and expenses, described herein. At the same time, Defendants
25 took from Plaintiffs and other borrowers billions of dollars in interest payments and fees and
26 generated billions of dollars in profits by selling their loans at inflated values.
27
28 76. With government loss-protection in their hip pocket, the ALLY Defendants, with
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COMPLAINT
1 a voraciousness that has been chastised by numerous courts, have sought to obliterate the last
2 vestiges of value held by Plaintiffs, lock in government fill-up money and flip distressed assets
3 for a profit. On the heels of an already bad disaster, Defendants piled on after March 2009 to
4 systematically continue the destruction of California home values.
5 77. Defendants cannot aver that the market would have worked its way out of the
6 fraud, because they knew of the liquidity crisis and devastation that the fraud had already
7 created. Notwithstanding this knowledge, the ALLY Defendants embarked on a massive
8 campaign to crush the values of homes to feed their profiteering scheme.
9 78. The ALLY Defendants knew through their investigation that, in violation of their
10 own underwriting guidelines, the enterprise had covertly offered Plaintiffs and others loans at a
11 loan-to-value ratio that was unsustainable and without income verification. The ALLY
12 Defendants knew that the enterprise knew this, but concealed from Plaintiffs that they knew,
13 Plaintiffs would soon be unable to afford the loans once introductory discount interest rates
14 ended, and variable interest and balloon payments kicked in. Indeed, the ALLY Defendants
15 saw this fraud and the disjoint it had created in the market, and their ability to act fast and
16 profiteer from the U.S. taxpayer, as key to their own scheme.
17 79. As had their enterprise, the ALLY Defendants knew that when interest payments
18 increased and balloon payments became due, if not before, Plaintiffs and others would begin
19 defaulting on their mortgages and would suffer grievous losses from mortgages for which they
20 were not qualified. Indeed, at the time of their acquisition of the tainted assets, this was going
21 on. It was a pivotal confluence of events that the ALLY Defendants sought to exploit for gain.
22 Given the inflated appraised values of their residences, even without a decline in property
23 values, few Plaintiffs would be able to refinance or sell their homes without suffering a
24 significant loss.
25 80. The Defendants knew that the scale of the lending – based on inflated property
26 values, without income verification and in violation of numerous underwriting guidelines –
27 would lead to widespread declines in property values, thereby putting Plaintiffs and others into
28 extremis through which they would lose the equity invested in their homes and have no means
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COMPLAINT
1 of refinancing or selling, other than at a complete loss. That is precisely what happened to
2 Plaintiffs herein.
3 81. The enterprise did not just make misrepresentations and conceal material facts
4 from investors. First, each of the foregoing misrepresentations was made in public documents
5 or forums given wide communication to the public, including Plaintiffs herein. Second, the
6 identical affirmative misrepresentations and concealment pertained to the Plaintiffs, and other
7 borrowers.
8 82. The enterprise had perpetuated its lies by affirmative misrepresentations and by
9 concealing the truth from Plaintiffs and other borrowers because to do otherwise would mean:
10 (a) immediate wash-back into their investor fraud since Plaintiffs and other borrowers are part
11 of the investor public receiving all other investor communications, and (b) decapitation of the
12 source of the supply of mortgages needed for the scheme. The ALLY Defendants knew this
13 when they acquired the tainted assets.
14 83. The concealment of the scheme from borrowers was absolutely essential because
15 the enterprise knew it would soon be delivering Plaintiffs’ notes and deeds of trust to investors
16 and their representatives at intentionally inflated values as collateral for Defendants’ fraudulent
17 securitized pools. The ALLY Defendants knew this when they acquired the tainted assets.
18 84. By not disclosing the truth of the inflated appraisals, lax lending standards,
19 deficient loan portfolio, shaky secondary market collateralized securities, and overall scheme to
20 its borrowers, as set forth above, the enterprise not only made them unwitting accomplices, but
21 put them into a no win situation in which the price of taking a mortgage from the enterprise
22 would be – and has been – cascading defaults and foreclosures that have wiped out billions of
23 dollars in equity value, including the equity invested in their homes by Plaintiffs.
24 85. The ALLY Defendants knew this when they acquired the tainted assets.
25 86. The ALLY Defendants exacerbated this situation by setting off cascading
26 foreclosures in entire cities and counties in California, leading to unemployment and economic
27 turmoil. All Plaintiffs have been damaged by the foregoing.
28 87. Despite billions of dollars of taxpayer-funded relief programs, property values
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COMPLAINT
1 continue to fall and unemployment and underemployment remain terribly high. However, this
2 is all key to the ALLY Defendants’ profiteering scheme. The bigger the carnage now, the more
3 government relief they get, and the more upside that remains in the assets they have confiscated
4 from homeowners.
5 88. As defaults increased, the Defendants used it as an opportunity to increase their
6 fees and to punish Plaintiffs and other borrowers.
7 89. The enterprise first and later the ALLY Defendants concealed and did not
8 accurately or fully disclose to any Plaintiff herein any of the foregoing facts. Further, neither
9 the enterprise nor Defendants disclosed or explained their schemes to Plaintiffs at any time.
10 90. They did the foregoing with the intent to deceive Plaintiffs, the investing public
11 and the U.S. taxpayer. Plaintiffs did not know the massive scheme the enterprise had started
12 and that the ALLY Defendants diabolically enhanced and accelerated.
13 91. To the contrary, the enterprise affirmatively misrepresented its underwriting
14 processes, the value of its mortgages and the fundamental nature of its business model in its
15 press releases, annual report and securities filings, all of which were widely distributed to the
16 public, including Plaintiffs. The ALLY Defendants knew this as they hatched their own new
17 chapter to the scheme.
18 92. The enterprise intended the public, including Plaintiffs, to rely upon its
19 misrepresentations and made those misrepresentations to create false confidence in the
20 enterprise and to further its fraud on borrowers and investors. The ALLY Defendants are now
21 playing on this same theme, but they are getting caught in their own creation.
22 93. Plaintiffs would never have done business with the enterprise or entered into the
23 mortgages if the scheme had been disclosed to them.
24 94. Had the Plaintiffs known the facts concealed from them, Plaintiffs would have
25 never entered into bogus and predatory transactions creating the tainted assets acquired by the
26 ALLY Defendants, designed only to line the pockets of the lenders and their executives and not
27 to actually and justifiably create value and generate capital from the Plaintiffs’ equity
28 investments in their primary residences, and now designed to line the pockets of the ALLY
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COMPLAINT
1 Defendants directly through their carpetbagging and through their sucking at the TARP and
2 other government money troughs.
3 95. If the Plaintiffs had later learned the truth, each Plaintiff would have either (a)
4 rescinded the loan transaction under applicable law and/or (b) refinanced the loan transaction
5 with a reputable institution prior to the decline in mortgage values in late 2008.
6 96. Instead, each Plaintiff reasonably relied on the deceptions of the enterprise in
7 originating their loans and forbearing from exercising their rights to rescind or refinance their
8 loans. The ALLY Defendants knew of this massive fraud and step into all the infirmities of
9 these mortgages.
10 97. After entering into the transactions with each Plaintiff herein as alleged herein,
11 the enterprise sold in securities transactions the notes and deeds of trust pertaining to Plaintiffs’
12 properties. The sales:
13 a. Included sales to nominees who were not authorized under law at the time to
14 own a mortgage, including, among others, MERS;
15 b. Involved misrepresentations by the enterprise to investors and concealment from
16 investors of Plaintiff’s true financial condition and the true value of Plaintiff’s
17 home and mortgage;
18 c. Involved misrepresentations by the enterprise to investors and concealment from
19 investors of the true financial condition of other borrowers and the true value of
20 their homes and mortgages also included in the pools;
21 d. Were for consideration greater than the actual value of the said notes and deeds
22 of trust;
23 e. Were for consideration greater than the income stream that could be generated
24 from the instruments even assuming a 0% default rate thereon; and
25 f. Were part of a scheme by which the enterprise bilked investors by selling
26 collateralized mortgage pools at an inflated value.
27 g. The ALLY Defendants knew all of this when they acquired the tainted assets.
28 98. The enterprise hid from Plaintiffs that Defendants were engaged in an effort to
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COMPLAINT
1 increase market share and sustain revenue generation through unprecedented expansions of its
2 underwriting guidelines, taking on ever-increasing credit risk. The ALLY Defendants knew all
3 of this when they acquired the tainted assets, as it was a critical component of their own
4 scheme to further victimize the Plaintiffs.
5 99. When first the enterprise induced Plaintiffs to enter into mortgages, the
6 enterprise knew their scheme would lead to a liquidity crisis and grave damage to each
7 Plaintiff’s property value and thereby result in each Plaintiff’s loss of the equity such Plaintiff
8 invested in his house, as well as damaging the Plaintiff’s credit rating, thereby causing the
9 Plaintiff additional severe financial damage consisting of the foregoing damages and damages
10 described elsewhere in this Complaint.
11 100. The enterprise concealed the foregoing from, among others, Plaintiffs, California
12 consumers and regulators. The ALLY Defendants’ tainted assets have all the imperfections
13 resulting from these fraudulent actions, and the ALLY Defendants knew this when they
14 embarked on their campaign to profiteer off of the mortgage carnage and government bail-out
15 money.
16 101. Based upon the enterprise’s position as a leading financial institution and the
17 public statements made by representatives of the enterprise, including in its securities filings,
18 the Plaintiffs reasonably relied upon the statements made by the foregoing and reasonably
19 relied that no material information necessary to their decisions would be withheld or
20 incompletely, inaccurately or otherwise improperly disclosed. In so relying, the Plaintiffs were
21 gravely damaged as described herein.
22 102. The enterprise initially acted willfully with the intention to conceal and deceive
23 in order to benefit therefrom at the expense of the Plaintiffs.
24 103. The ALLY Defendants thereafter acted deliberately in a massive scheme to crush
25 the last vestiges of wealth from the Plaintiffs, all in a mission to profiteer from the fraud the
26 ALLY Defendants had purchased.
27 104. The other Defendants followed each other’s direction because they are either
28 subsidiaries of each other, directly or indirectly owned, controlled and dominated by each
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COMPLAINT
1 other, or because they are in an unequal economic and/or legal relationship with each other by
2 which they are beholden to each other and are thereby controlled and dominated by each other.
3 105. As a proximate and foreseeable result of the sale of the notes and deeds of trust
4 regarding Plaintiffs’ properties and others similarly situated for more than the actual value of
5 such instruments, securitization pools lacked the cash flow necessary to maintain the
6 securitization pools in accordance with their indentures.
7 106. The unraveling of the fraudulent scheme has materially depressed the price of
8 real estate throughout California, and the entire Country, including the real estate owned by
9 Plaintiffs, resulting in the losses to Plaintiffs described herein.
10 107. It is precisely this loss of value on which the ALLY Defendants now seek to
11 capitalize. They would transfer a material portion of that wealth to themselves or those in
12 collusion with them. This scheme includes acquiring the real property at reduced values,
13 collecting U.S. government money for paper losses, and harvesting the future increase on the
14 value of these artificially depressed homes.
15 108. There has been considerable press attention and litigation in the United States
16 Bankruptcy Courts and state courts establishing, inter alia, that in many instances the
17 Defendants herein do not have in their possession the original or an authentic copy of the
18 promissory notes with respect to the loans they originated and/or purport to service.
19 109. Based thereon, based on other litigation of which counsel to Plaintiffs are aware,
20 and based upon Plaintiffs interactions with Defendants, on information and belief, Plaintiffs
21 hereby allege that Defendants have made demand for payment on the Plaintiffs with respect to
22 Plaintiffs’ properties at a time when Defendants are incapable of establishing (and do not have
23 any credible knowledge regarding) who owns the promissory notes Defendants are purportedly
24 servicing.
25 110. MERS operates an electronic registry designed to track servicing rights and the
26 20 ownership of mortgages. MERS is sometimes named as the ―nominee‖ for lenders, and at
27 other times MERS is named as the ―beneficiary‖ of the deed of trust on behalf of unknown
28 persons. When a loan is transferred among MERS members, MERS purports to simplify the
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COMPLAINT
1 process by avoiding the requirement to re-record liens and pay county recorder filing fees.
2 111. For the substantial majority of the Plaintiffs herein, MERS claims to be the
3 owner of the security interest indicated by the mortgages transferred by lenders, investors and
4 their loan servicers in the county land records.
5 112. MERS claims its process eliminates the need to file assignments in the county
6 land records which lowers costs for lenders and consumers by reducing county recording
7 revenues from real estate transfers and provides a central source of information and tracking for
8 mortgage loans.
9 113. Based upon published reports, including the MERS website, on information and
10 belief, MERS does not: (1) take applications for, underwrite or negotiate mortgage loans; (2)
11 make or originate mortgage loans to consumers; (3) extend credit to consumers; (4) service
12 mortgage loans; or (5) invest in mortgage loans.
13 114. MERS has been used to facilitate the unlawful transfers of mortgages, unlawful
14 pooling of mortgages and the injection into the United States banking industry of un-sourced
15 (i.e., unknown) funds, including, without limitation, improper off-shore funds.
16 115. Plaintiffs are informed and thereon believe that MERS has been listed as
17 beneficial owner of more than half the mortgages in the United States.
18 116. In 2001, Congress found that ―money laundering, and the defects in financial
19 transparency on which money launderers rely, are critical to the financing of global terrorism
20 and the provision of funds for terrorist attacks.‖ Congress specifically found that ―money
21 launderers subvert legitimate financial mechanisms and banking relationships by using them as
22 protective covering for the movement of criminal proceeds and the financing of crime and
23 terrorism...‖
24 117. On information and belief, during periods relevant to the other acts complained
25 of in this Complaint, Defendants did not: (1) establish due diligence policies, procedures and
26 controls reasonably designed to detect and report instances of money laundering, (2) establish
27 procedures to take reasonable and practicable measures to verify the identity of those applying
28 for an account with the institution and maintain records of the information used to verify a
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COMPLAINT
1 person’s identity, including name, address, and other identifying information, (3) determine and
2 report the sources of funds used for the mortgages they originate and service, as well as the
3 source of funds used to acquire any mortgages, or (4) disclose to Plaintiffs the identities,
4 address and telephone numbers of transferees of their mortgages.
5 118. At the same time, Defendants continue to issue notices of default in violation of
6 Cal. Civil Code § 2923.5 and despite assurances that the failures will be remedied, corrective
7 action is dilatory, at best.
8 119. The foregoing is indicative of the Defendants’ bad acts. Those bad acts include,
9 but are not limited to:
10 a. The intentional efforts to frustrate Plaintiffs and other borrowers seeking
11 information about their mortgages and loan modifications.
12 b. Wanton violations of laws regarding the investigationof the source of financing..
13 c. Intentional violation of Cal. Civil Code § 2923.5 and dilatory steps to remedy
14 those failures, even when notified thereof.
15 120. By the foregoing acts, Defendants are intentionally making it difficult or
16 impossible for victims of Defendants’ massive mortgage fraud and statutory violations to
17 enforce their rights.
18 121. This is all in furtherance of Defendants’ scheme to profit from the misery of the
19 Plaintiffs. In addition to the foregoing allegations, venue is proper in this County in
20 accordance with Section 395(a) of the California Code of Civil Procedure because, on
21 information and belief, some or all of the Defendants working in California to achieve the
22 unlawful and tortuous objectives set forth herein, reside in and/or do business in this County
23 and committed the torts and unlawful acts alleged herein in this County. This Court has
24 jurisdiction over this action under the California Constitution, Article V, Section 10, because
25 this case is not a cause given by statute to other trial courts. This Court has jurisdiction over
26 the defendants because a substantial portion of the wrongdoing alleged in this Complaint took
27 place in California, the Defendants are authorized to do business here, the Defendants have
28 sufficient minimum contacts with California and/or otherwise intentionally avail themselves of
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COMPLAINT
1 the markets in California through the promotion, marketing, sale, maintenance . . . and now
2 wrongful exercise of real property rights and foreclosure rights – with respect to realty in
3 California, to render the exercise of jurisdiction by California courts permissible under
4 traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.
5 FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION
6 (By All Plaintiffs – Fraudulent Concealment – Against the ALLY Defendants)
7 122. Paragraphs 1 through 121 are hereby incorporated by reference as though fully
8 set forth herein.
9 123. The enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants had exclusive knowledge not
10 accessible to Plaintiffs of material facts pertaining to its mortgage lending activities that it did
11 not disclose to Plaintiffs at the time it was entering into contracts with Plaintiffs. As more fully
12 alleged herein, these facts included false appraisals, violation of underwriting guidelines, the
13 intent to sell Plaintiffs’ mortgages above their actual values to bilk investors and knowledge
14 that the scheme would result in a liquidity crisis that would gravely damage Plaintiffs.
15 124. Further, in connection with entering into contracts with Plaintiffs, the enterprise
16 purchased by the ALLY Defendants made partial (though materially misleading) statements and
17 other disclosures as to their prominence and underwriting standards in the public releases, on
18 their web site, in their literature and at their branch offices. However, the enterprise purchased
19 by the ALLY Defendants suppressed material facts relating thereto as set forth above. The
20 enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants knew that the mortgages would be ―pooled,‖ and
21 ―securitized sale.‖
22 125. The enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants also knew that within a
23 foreseeable period, its investors would discover that the enterprise’s mortgagors could not
24 afford their loans and the result would be foreclosures and economic devastation. It was the
25 movie The Sting in real life, with real lives and with people whose homes were often times
26 their only asset.
27 126. The enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants was more dependent than
28 many of their competitors on selling loans it originated into the secondary mortgage market, an
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COMPLAINT
1 important fact it disclosed to investors.
2 127. The enterprise expected that the deteriorating quality of the loans that the
3 enterprise was writing, and the poor performance over time of those loans, would ultimately
4 curtail the enterprise’s ability to sell those loans in the secondary mortgage market.
5 128. The enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants misled borrowers, potential
6 borrowers and investors by failing to disclose substantial negative information regarding the
7 enterprise’s loan products, including:
8 a. The increasingly lax underwriting guidelines used by the enterprise in
9 originating loans;
10 b. The enterprise’s pursuit of a ―matching strategy‖ in which it matched the terms
11 of any loan being offered in the market, even loans offered by primarily
12 subprime originators;
13 c. The high percentage of loans it originated that were outside its own already
14 widened underwriting guidelines due to loans made as exceptions to guidelines;
15 d. The enterprise’s definition of ―prime‖ loans included loans made to borrowers
16 with FICO scores well below any industry standard definition of prime credit
17 quality;
18 e. The high percentage of the enterprise’s subprime originations that had a loan to
19 value ratio of 100%; and
20 f. The enterprise’s subprime loans had significant additional risk factors, beyond
21 the subprime credit history of the borrower, associated with increased default
22 rates, including reduced documentation, stated income, piggyback second liens,
23 and LTVs in excess of 95%.
24 129. The enterprise knew this negative information from numerous reports they
25 regularly received and from emails and presentations prepared by the enterprise’s chief credit
26 risk officer. The enterprise nevertheless hid this negative information from the public,
27 including Plaintiffs.
28 130. Plaintiffs did not know the concealed facts.
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COMPLAINT
1
2 131. The enterprise intended to deceive Plaintiffs. As described herein, that deception
3 was essential to their overall plan to bilk investors, trade on inside information and otherwise
4 pump the value of the enterprise’s stock.
5 132. The enterprise was one of the nation’s leading providers of mortgages. It was
6 highly regarded and by dint of its campaign of deception through securities filings, press
7 releases, web site and branch offices, the enterprise had acquired a reputation for performance
8 and quality underwriting. As a result, Plaintiffs reasonably relied upon the deception of the
9 enterprise
10 133. As a proximate result of the foregoing concealment by the enterprise, California
11 property values have precipitously declined and continue to decline, gravely damaging
12 Plaintiffs by materially reducing the value of their primary residences, depriving them of access
13 to equity lines, second mortgages and other financings previously available based upon
14 ownership of a primary residence in California, in numerous instances leading to payments in
15 excess of the value of their properties, thereby resulting in payments with no consideration and
16 often subjecting them to reduced credit scores (increasing credit card and other borrowing
17 costs) and reduced credit availability.
18 134. In fact, property values across the United States of America precipitously
19 declined prior to the ALLY Defendants acquiring the tainted mortgage assets and the property
20 values continue to decline, gravely damaging Plaintiffs by materially reducing the value of
21 their primary residences, depriving them of access to equity lines, second mortgages and other
22 financings previously available based upon ownership of their primary residences, in numerous
23 instances leading to payments in excess of the value of their properties, thereby resulting in
24 payments with no consideration and often subjecting them to reduced credit scores (increasing
25 credit card and other borrowing costs) and reduced credit availability
26 135. The ALLY Defendants acquired the mortgages or rights related thereto with
27 knowledge of the fraudulent operations of the enterprise.
28 136. The ALLY Defendants can have no more rights in the mortgage assets than their
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COMPLAINT
1 predecessors.
2 137. Without limiting the damages as described elsewhere in this Complaint,
3 Plaintiffs damages arising from this Cause of Action also include loss of equity in their houses,
4 costs and expenses related to protecting themselves, reduced credit scores, unavailability of
5 credit, increased costs of credit, reduced availability of goods and services tied to credit ratings,
6 increased costs of those services, as well as fees and costs, including, without limitation,
7 attorneys’ fees and costs.
8 138. To this day, the ALLY Defendants profess willingness to modify Plaintiffs’ loans
9 in accordance with law, but nonetheless they persist to this day in their secret plan to deprive
10 Plaintiffs of their rights.
11 139. As a result of the foregoing, Plaintiffs’ damages herein are exacerbated by a
12 continuing decline in residential property values and further erosion of their credit records.
13 140. First the enterprise’s concealments as to the pervasive mortgage fraud, and then
14 the ALLY Defendants’ concealments, both as to the their scheme to profiteer from the
15 mortgage melt-down and as to their purported efforts to resolve loan modifications with
16 Plaintiffs, are substantial factors in causing the harm to Plaintiffs described in this Complaint.
17 141. Defendants acted outrageously and persistently with actual malice in performing
18 the acts alleged herein and continue to do so.
19 142. Accordingly, Plaintiffs are entitled to exemplary and punitive damages in a sum
20 according to proof and to such other relief as is set forth below in the section captioned Prayer
21 for Relief which is by this reference incorporated herein.
22 143. Inclusive of all compensatory, special and punitive damages, as well as all costs
23 and attorneys’ fees, Plaintiffs herein were each damaged and each seek a sum of money not in
24 excess of $70,000 as well as the declaratory relief identified in the prayer hereto.
25
26 SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION

27 (By All Plaintiffs –Intentional Misrepresentation – Against the ALLY Defendants)
28
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COMPLAINT
2 set forth herein.
3 145. From 2005 through 2007, the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants
4 misled the public, including Plaintiffs, by falsely assuring them that the enterprise was
5 primarily a prime quality mortgage lender which had avoided the excesses of its competitors.
6 As described herein with specific examples, affirmative misrepresentations and material
7 omissions permeated the enterprise’s website, customer and investor materials, required
8 securities filings and presentations.
9 146. The enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants underwent unprecedented
10 expansion by, among other things, aggressively making loans which were unsupported by
11 documents, pushed through impotent loan committees, and taken by unworthy borrowers who
12 were destined to be unable to repay the loans at the time the loans were made.
13 147. The enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants never disclosed or explained
14 their aggressive business model which was built on making these loans which were destined to
15 become non-performing assets.
16 148. The enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants never made any disclosures
17 in its Forms 10-Q or 10-K for 2005, 2006, or 2007 about the unprecedented expansion of its
18 underwriting guidelines. Instead, the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants made
19 public statements from 2005 through 2007 that were intended to mislead Plaintiffs about the
20 increasingly aggressive underwriting at the enterprise and the financial consequences of those
21 widened underwriting guidelines.
22 149. Nothing disclosed or provided by the enterprise purchased by the ALLY
23 Defendants informed Plaintiffs that the enterprise included in its prime category loans with
24 FICO scores below 620. Nor did the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants inform
25 Plaintiffs that the ―prime non-conforming‖ category included loan products with increasing
26 amounts of credit risk, such as (1) reduced and/or no documentation loans; (2) stated income
27 loans; or (3) loans with loan to value or combined loan to value ratios of 95% and higher.
28 Finally, the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants did not disclose that enterprise’s
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COMPLAINT
1 riskiest loan product, the Pay-Option ARM, was classified as a ―prime loan.‖
2 150. The enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants made affirmative misleading
3 public statements in addition to those in the periodic filings that were designed to falsely
4 reassure Plaintiffs about the nature and quality of the enterprise’s underwriting.
5 151. Specifically, the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants repeatedly
6 emphasized the enterprise’s underwriting quality in public statements from 2005 through 2007.
7 152. The growing network of branches, loan offices, and outside originators
8 (―Network‖) feeding the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants participated in making
9 the loans and knowingly and intentionally assisted in drafting the false and misleading
10 statements delivered to the public, including Plaintiffs herein.
11 153. The foregoing misrepresentations were made with the intention that Plaintiffs
12 rely thereon. It was important to the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants that
13 Plaintiffs rely on its misrepresentations so that Plaintiffs would come to a false understanding
14 as to the nature of the enterprise.
15 154. The foregoing misrepresentations were specifically intended to convince
16 Plaintiffs to take mortgages from the enterprise.
17 155. The campaign of misinformation succeeded. Plaintiffs relied upon the
18 misrepresentations and entered into mortgages with the enterprise purchased by the ALLY
19 Defendants.
20 156. By reason of the prominence of the enterprise purchased by the ALLY
21 Defendants, the campaign of deception as to its business plans and the relationship of trust
22 developed between the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants and Plaintiffs, Plaintiffs
23 were justified in relying upon the enterprise’s representations.
24 157. The aforementioned Network supporting the enterprise purchased by the ALLY
25 Defendants and other representatives of the enterprise cooperated with each other to plan and
26 implement the scheme described herein. The Network participated in developing the
27 misrepresentations to borrowers, including Plaintiffs herein and to investors.
28
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COMPLAINT
1
2 158. They shared in the financial benefits of the scheme and ratified and approved of
3 the material steps therefore taken by the other Defendants. Conversely, the Defendants other
4 than the ALLY Defendants approved of, ratified and shared in the fees and other revenue
5 received by the Network arising from its participation in the scheme. The ALLY Defendants in
6 2009 approved of, ratified and are now seeking to profit from this same scheme through the
7 acquisition at a discount of tainted mortgages that it is seeking to enforce as if they were not
8 tainted.
9 159. As a result of relying upon the foregoing misrepresentations, each Plaintiff
10 entered into a mortgage contract with the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants.
11 160. In fact, the appraisals were inflated. The enterprise purchased by the ALLY
12 Defendants did not utilize quality underwriting processes. The enterprise’s financial condition
13 was not sound, but was a house of cards ready to collapse, as the enterprise well knew, but
14 Plaintiffs did not. Further, Plaintiffs’ mortgages were not refinanced with fixed rate mortgages
15 and neither the enterprise nor any of the Defendants ever intended that they would be.
16 161. As a result of the scheme described herein, Plaintiffs could not afford the
17 mortgages when the variable rate features and/or balloon payments kicked in.
18 162. Further, as a result of the scheme, Plaintiffs could not refinance or sell their
19 residence without suffering a loss of their equity investments.
20 163. As a result of the foregoing, Plaintiffs have lost all or a substantial portion of the
21 equity invested in their houses and suffered reduced credit ratings and increased borrowing
22 costs, among other damages described herein.
23 164. The ALLY Defendants seek to enforce the mortgages irrespective of this massive
24 fraud.
28 predecessors.
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COMPLAINT
1 167. Plaintiffs’ reliance on the misrepresentations of the enterprise purchased by the
2 ALLY Defendants, appraisers and the other Defendants, all ratified by the Defendants, and was
3 a substantial factor in causing Plaintiffs’ harm.
4 168. The ALLY Defendants represented to multiple Plaintiffs that they would be
5 assisted by the ALLY Defendants in a loan modification. As described herein, that
6 representation was false. Defendants knew that representation was false when they made it.
7 169. Because of new laws pertaining to loan modifications and the ALLY
8 Defendants’ insistence that they had a genuine interest in complying therewith and in keeping
9 borrowers in their homes, Plaintiffs reasonably relied on the representations.
10 170. By delaying Plaintiffs from pursuing their rights and by increasing Plaintiffs’
11 costs and the continuing erosion of each Plaintiff’s credit rating, each Plaintiff’s reliance
12 harmed that Plaintiff, further eroding values in furtherance of the ALLY Defendants’ scheme.
14 Plaintiffs damages arising from the matters complained of in this Cause of Action also include
15 loss of equity in their houses, costs and expenses related to protecting themselves, reduced
16 credit scores, unavailability of credit, increased costs of credit, reduced availability of goods
17 and services tied to credit ratings, increased costs of those services, as well as fees and costs,
18 including, without limitation, attorneys’ fees and costs.
19 172. Plaintiffs’ reliance on the representations made by the enterprise purchased by
20 the ALLY Defendants and then by the ALLY Defendants was a substantial factor in causing
21 Plaintiffs’ harm.
22 173. Plaintiffs are entitled to such relief as is set forth in this Cause of Action and
23 such further relief as is set forth below in the section captioned Prayer for Relief which is by
24 this reference is incorporated herein as though fully set forth at length. Inclusive of all
25 damages and attorneys fees recoverable by Plaintiffs herein, each Plaintiff seeks damages in a
26 sum not greater than $70,000 as well as declaratory relief set forth in the prayer hereto.
27
28
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COMPLAINT
1 THIRD CAUSE OF ACTION
2 (By All Plaintiffs – Negligent Misrepresentation – Against All ALLY Defendants)
4 set forth herein.
5 175. Although the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants and other members
6 of the Network may have reasonably believed some or all of the representations they made,
7 described in this Complaint, were true, none of them had reasonable grounds for believing such
8 representations to be true at the time: (a) the representations were instructed to be made, as to
9 those Defendants instructing others to make representations, or (b) at the time the
10 representations were made, as to those Defendants making representations and those
11 Defendants instructing others to make the representations, or (c) at the time the representations
12 were otherwise ratified by the Defendants.
13 176. Such representations, fully set forth in the First and Second Causes of Action
14 and previous sections of this Complaint, were not true.
15 177. The enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants, including the Defendants
16 making representations, intended that Plaintiffs rely upon those misrepresentations.
17 178. As described herein, Plaintiffs reasonably relied on those representations.
18 179. By reason of the prominence of the enterprise purchased by the ALLY
19 Defendants and the campaign of deception as to its business plans and the relationship of trust
20 developed between the enterprise and Plaintiffs, Plaintiffs were justified in relying upon the
21 enterprise’s and Defendants’ representations.
22 180. As a result of relying upon the foregoing misrepresentations, each Plaintiff
23 entered into a mortgage contract with the enterprise purchased by the ALLY Defendants.
24 181. As a result of scheme described herein, Plaintiffs could not afford his or her
25 mortgage when its variable rate features and/or balloon payments kicked in. Further, as a result
26 of the Defendants continuing scheme, Plaintiffs could not refinance or sell his or her residence
27 without suffering a loss of Plaintiff’s equity.
28 182. The ALLY Defendants seek to enforce the mortgages irrespective of this massive
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COMPLAINT
1 fraud.
5 predecessors.
7 Plaintiffs damages as a result of the foregoing also include loss of equity in their houses, costs
8 and expenses related to protecting themselves, reduced credit scores, unavailability of credit,
9 increased costs of credit, reduced availability of goods and services tied to credit ratings,
10 increased costs of those services, as well as fees and costs, including, without limitation,
11 attorneys’ fees and costs.
14 this reference incorporated herein. Inclusive of all compensatory damages and other awardable
15 costs and attorneys’ fees hereunder, each Plaintiff to this cause of action seeks recover of a sum
16 not greater than $70,000.
17
18 FOURTH CAUSE OF ACTION

19 (Injunctive Relief for Violation of Cal. Civil Code § 2923.5 – By Plaintiffs – Against All
20 ALLY Defendants)
21 187. Paragraphs 1 through 181 are incorporated by reference as though fully set forth
22 herein.
23 188. Pursuant to California Civil Code, § 2923.5, the Defendants – and each of them
24 – are prohibited by statute from recording a Notice of Default against the primary residential
25 property of any Californian without first making contact with that person as required under §
26 2923.5 and then interacting with that person in the manner set forth in detail under § 2923.5.
27 An exception to this rule of law exists in the event the Defendants are unable with due
28 diligence to contact the property owner.
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COMPLAINT
1 189. Pursuant to laws and ordinances in jurisdictions other than California, which
2 laws or ordinances are similar to California Civil Code, § 2923.5, whereby certain protections
3 are afforded homeowner borrowers, the Defendants – and each of them – are prohibited by
4 statute from recording a Notice of Default and/or proceeding to institute or initiate foreclosure
5 proceedings against the primary residential property of any homeowner without first making
6 contact with that person as required, and then interacting with that person in the manner set
7 forth in the specific statute or ordinance.
8 190. With respect to all Plaintiffs in this cause of action, the realty that is the subject
9 hereof was and is their primary residential dwelling.
10 191. The Defendants, and each of them, caused Notices of Default to be recorded
11 against the primary residential properties of the California Plaintiffs named in this cause of
12 action absent compliance with California Civil Code, § 2923.5. Included in the
13 noncompliance, Defendants, and each of them, caused declarations to be recorded in the public
14 records that were – each of them – false.
15 192. This act also violates § 2923.5 and other California laws precluding the filing of
16 false statements.
17 193. The Defendants, and each of them, caused Notices of Default to be recorded
18 and/or initiated foreclosure proceedings against the primary residential properties of the Non-
19 California Plaintiffs named in this cause of action absent compliance with State specific laws,
20 statutes, or ordinances. Included in the noncompliance, Defendants, and each of them, caused
21 declarations to be recorded in the public records that were – each of them – false. This act also
22 violates other laws precluding the filing of false statements
25 this reference is incorporated herein as though fully set forth at length.
26
27
28
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COMPLAINT
1 FIFTH CAUSE OF ACTION
2 (By All Plaintiffs – Unfair Competition – Against All ALLY Defendants)
3 195. Paragraphs 1 through194 are incorporated by reference as though fully set forth
4 herein.
5 196. Defendants’ actions in implementing, perpetrating and then extending their
6 fraudulent scheme of inducing Plaintiffs to accept mortgages for which they were not qualified
7 based on inflated property valuations and undisclosed disregard of their own underwriting
8 standards and the sale of overpriced collateralized mortgage pools, all the while knowing that
9 the plan would crash and burn, taking the Plaintiffs down and costing them the equity in their
10 homes and other damages, violates numerous federal and state statutes and common law
11 protections enacted for consumer protection, privacy, trade disclosure, and fair trade and
12 commerce.
13 197. The enterprise first perpetrated this fraudulent scheme of selling off overpriced
14 loans by making willful and inaccurate credit disclosures regarding borrowers, including
15 Plaintiffs, to third parties. This false credit disclosure was critical to the success of Defendants’
16 continued sales of the massive pools of mortgage loans necessary to perpetuate the scheme.
17 198. The ALLY Defendants extended this fraud in connection with their scheme to
18 acquire these assets at deflated values, knowing the fraud that had been committed, but with the
19 specific intent to seek to attempt to enforce the mortgages as sound and legitimate instruments.
20 199. The enterprise was first aware that if the true credit profiles of the borrowers and
21 the values of their real estate were accurately disclosed, the massive fraudulent scheme would
22 end. As a result, the enterprise repeated, reinforced and embellished their false disclosures.
23 200. The ALLY Defendants were aware of the fraudulent scheme that had been
24 perpetrated by the enterprise whose assets and operations it was acquiring.
25 201. The enterprise knew the borrowers’ credit was inadequate to support continued
26 loan payments, absent unsustainable inflation of property values. These pervasive false credit
27 disclosures to third parties (including purchasers of bundled mortgage pools created by the
28 Defendants) constituted false credit reports in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15
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COMPLAINT
1 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq. and these pervasive false disclosures permitted the Defendants to
2 continue their scheme and victimize the Plaintiffs.
3 202. These pervasive false disclosures also caused the bubble to burst. Once it
4 became known that some of the information provided by the enterprise was false, the market
5 for the sale of bundled loans dried up.
6 203. Notwithstanding their knowledge of the fraudulent nature of the assets they were
7 seeking to enforce, the ALLY Defendants began to issue foreclosure notices, property values
8 continued to drop, and then, under the weight of deflation in a market that requires inflation,
9 the equity investments made by Plaintiffs and others in their homes was lost. . . . and then
10 Plaintiffs were lost in the greatest economic recession since the 1930s.
11 204. The foregoing violations were in furtherance of the fraud perpetrated on
12 Plaintiffs. In fact, the enterprise could not have told the truth in their public filings without that
13 truth becoming known to Plaintiffs. Conversely, the false filings gave additional credence and
14 support to omissions, concealment, promises and inducements. The ALLY Defendants knew of
15 all of these violations of law in acquiring the tainted assets and operations and then in seeking
16 to enforce these mortgage obligations, when the ALLY Defendants knew of these meritorious
17 defenses.
18 205. The forgoing fraudulent concealment, material misstatements, and the
19 intentional violations of state and federal statutes cited herein constitute unlawful, unfair and
20 fraudulent business acts or practices and so constitute unfair business practices within the
21 meaning of the California Unfair Practices Act. Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §§ 17200, 17500.
22 Sections 17200 et seq. of the California Business & Professions Code provides, in the
23 disjunctive, for liability in the event of any such ―unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business act or
24 practice.‖
25 206. The actions described herein are unfair and patently fraudulent in that they were
26 conducted for the specific purposes of first perpetuating an unlawful and unsustainable
27 investment scheme and then perpetrating a fraudulent foreclosure and confiscatory scheme.
28
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COMPLAINT
1 207. As a result of the actions, concealment and deceit described herein, each of the
2 Plaintiffs has suffered material financial injury in fact, including as described elsewhere in this
3 Complaint, loss of equity in their houses, costs and expenses related to protecting themselves,
4 reduced credit scores, unavailability of credit, increased costs of credit, reduced availability of
5 goods and services tied to credit ratings, increased costs of those services, as well as fees and
6 costs, including, without limitation, attorneys’ fees and costs.
7 208. As a further result of the actions, concealment and deceit described herein, each
8 of the Plaintiffs has lost money or property as a result of such unfair competition.
9 209. California Civil Code § 2923.5 requires that each mortgagee, trustee,
10 beneficiary, or authorized agent may not file a notice of default pursuant to California Civil
11 Code § 2924 until 30 days after initial contact is made as required therein, or 30 days after
12 satisfying the due diligence requirements to contact the mortgage described therein.
13 210. Defendants violated the foregoing law by causing a notice of default to be filed
14 against Plaintiffs without the mandatory notice.
15 211. Defendants did not diligently endeavor to contact the Plaintiffs as required by
16 § 2923.5(g) and Defendants thereby also violated California Civil Code §§ 2923.5 and 2924.
17 212. As a result of the foregoing unlawful conduct, Plaintiffs suffered further injury
18 in fact by the filing of notices of default and as such the Plaintiffs suffered monetary and
19 property loss. Such injuries and loss included diminished credit scores with a concomitant
20 increase in borrowing costs and diminished access to credit, fees and costs, including, without
21 limitation, attorneys’ fees and costs with respect to wrongful notices of default and loss of some
22 or all of the benefits appurtenant to the ownership and possession of real property.
23 213. The foregoing unlawful activities were pervasive and violate Business and
24 Professions Code §§ 17200 et seq.
25 214. As a result of Defendants’ unfair competition, Plaintiffs are entitled to restitution
26 for all sums received by Defendants with respect to Defendants’ unlawful and/or unfair and/or
27 fraudulent conduct, including, without limitation, interest payments made by Plaintiffs, fees
28 paid to Defendants, including, without limitation, the excessive fees paid at Defendants’
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COMPLAINT
1 direction, premiums received upon selling the mortgages at an inflated value and moneys
2 received from government agencies for ―losses‖ incurred by Defendants.
3 215. Plaintiffs are also entitled to the issuance of a temporary restraining order, a
4 preliminary injunction, and a permanent injunction restraining and enjoining Defendants from
5 any further concealment with respect to the sale of notes and mortgages, any further violation
6 of § 2923.5, and declaratory relief as set forth in the prayer to this Complaint.
7 216. Each of the enterprise whose assets ALLY purchased has an affirmative burden
8 to ascertain verify and prove, among other things, the identity, source, character, origin, and
9 legitimacy of the funds which they controlled, handled, and/or facilitated in its transactions.
10 217. Plaintiffs are informed and believe and hereon allege that none of the enterprise
11 whose assets ALLY purchased or can comply with these strict rules imposed by law and the
12 ALLY Defendants have acted in direct violation of law, and that the ALLY Defendants must
13 forfeit any and all claims, liens, encumbrances, debts, or obligations from others in accordance
14 with California’s Unfair Competition laws and in accordance with contract law.
17 this reference incorporated herein as though fully set forth at length. Inclusive of all damages,
18 restitution and other relief set forth herein, Plaintiffs herein each seek individually a sum of
19 money not in excess of $70,000.
20 SIXTH CAUSE OF ACTION
21 (By All Plaintiffs – Breach of Contract – Against All ALLY Defendants)
22 219. Paragraphs 1 through 218 are incorporated by reference as though fully set forth
23 herein.
24 220. Defendants’ acceptance of TARP money created an obligation to modify loans
25 outstanding on Plaintiffs’ real estate to the extent Defendants were pronouncing rights thereto,
26 to assist borrowers, and to otherwise use the TARP funds for the benefit of, among others, the
27 Plaintiffs herein.
28 221. In fact, the Plaintiffs are intended third party beneficiaries of the contracts
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COMPLAINT
1 between ther United States Government, certain intermediaries and the Defendants.
2 222. Defendants, and each of them, breached their contractual obligations to Plaintiffs
3 as set forth herein. Defendants further breached the contractual obligations owing to each
4 Plaintiff in the manners alleged hereinabove.
5 223. As a proximate and foreseeable result of said breaches of contract, Plaintiffs
6 have been damaged in a sum according to proof, which – inclusive of all damages, costs, and
7 attorneys’ fees – is equal to or less than $70,000 for each Plaintiff herein.
10 this reference incorporated herein as though fully set forth at length.
11 Defendants’ acceptance of TARP money created an obligation to modify loan, assit borrowers,
12 and otherwise use the TARP funds for the benefit of, among others, the Plaintiffs herein.
13 225. In fact, the Plaintiffs are intended third party beneficiaries of the contract
14 between ther United States Government, the intermediaries and the defendants.
15 226. Defendants, and each of them, breached their contractual obligations to Plaintiffs
16 as set forth herein.
17 227. Plaintiffs have been damaged, in an amount according to proof.
20 this reference incorporated herein as though fully set forth at length
21
22 PRAYER FOR RELIEF

23 WHEREFORE, Plaintiffs pray for judgment against Defendants and each of
24 them as follows:
25 1. General and special damages according to proof under the First, Second, Third
26 and Sixth Causes of Action, in the sums set forth hereinabove;
27 2. Declaratory relief voiding the notes and mortgages of Plaintiffs held or serviced
28 by the Defendants and temporary, preliminary, and permanent injunctive relief under the First,
_____________________________________________________________________________________
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COMPLAINT
1 Second, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Causes of Action.
2 3. Statutory relief according to proof under the Fifth Cause of Action;
3 4. Restitution according to proof under the Fifth Cause of Action;
4 5. Temporary, preliminary, and permanent injunctive forfeiture relief under all
5 causes of action;
6 6. On all causes of action, for costs of suit herein;
7 7. On all causes of action, for pre- and post-judgment interest;
8 8. On all causes of action for which attorney’s fees may be awarded pursuant to the
9 governing contract, by statute or otherwise, reasonable attorneys fees; and
10 9. On all causes of action, for such other and further relied as this Court may deem
11 just and proper so that each Plaintiff shall recover no more than $70,000 in restitutionary or
12 compensatory damages and so that each Plaintiff shall receive a judicial determination that the
13 mortgage lien alleged to exist against their particular property is null and void ab initio.
14 MITCHELL J. STEIN & ASSOCIATES
FINANCE LAW GROUP’
15 MITCHELL J. STEIN
THEODORE R. MALONEY
16
17
18
Dated: December __, 2010 By: _________________________________
MITCHELL J. STEIN
19 Attorneys for Plaintiffs
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
_____________________________________________________________________________________
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COMPLAINT

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Stein SBN # 121750

11 SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

26 SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION

18 FOURTH CAUSE OF ACTION

22 PRAYER FOR RELIEF

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