Chase CEO Has Left The Building: Homeowners Confront JP Morgan Bank Executive, CEO Finds Himself Looking For The Nearest Door

As Tea Party protests grabbed headlines last week, another angry group found itself fighting for attention. The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America (NACA) took its case to the Capitol, where some of its members disrupted a congressional committee hearing, surprised a bank executive, and dramatized the problems faced by many "underwater" homeowners.

At first, the April 13 meeting of the House Financial Services Committee seemed destined to be pretty run-of-the-mill. David Lowman, CEO of JPMorgan Chase's (JPM) home mortgage business presented 12 pages of testimony outlining his company's plans to help struggling mortgage borrowers to stay in their homes. But as Lowman began fielding questions from the congressmen, the meeting took an unexpected turn. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) asked the banker whom homeowners could turn to if they felt that JPMorgan's employees weren't helping them deal with their mortgage problems.

Lowman confidently replied "They can come to me."

Within minutes, they did: A stream of roughly 50 borrowers presented him with a six-page analysis of his company's failure to help homeowners.

In an article about the event, Reuters quoted organizer Bruce Marks, who described Lowman's hasty retreat: "He ran. He ran like a dog with its tail between his legs ... He was scared to death because he doesn't really want to talk to homeowners."Equal Parts Pied Piper, Protester and PranksterOver the past few months, Marks has emerged as a sort of a Pied Piper for angry homeowners. A former union activist, regulator for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and congressional liaison for the Department of Energy, Marks has combined middle class anger and 1960s-style street theater to create protests that are grabbing headlines -- and homeowner interest.

In December, Marks gathered an estimated 1,000 NACA members and stormed JPMorgan Chase's offices in New York's financial district. During the brief sit-in, the protesters occupied the main atrium of Chase plaza before being escorted off the premises by police. While not as dramatic as the building seizures of the Vietnam era, the action energized the group and garnered headlines. At the time, Marks told me that the confrontation "in the belly of the beast" was designed to draw attention to President Obama's critique of the "fat cats" in the banking industry.

A year ago, Marks borrowed a page from the playbook of Joey Skaggs.' In the late '60s, the famous prankster noticed that tour companies were running buses full of suburbanites through his hippie-laden neighborhood in New York's East Village. In response, he launched the "Cultural Exchange Tour," taking a Greyhound bus filled with hippie gawkers on a tour of suburban Queens.

Marks updated the prank by leading a collection of buses and minivans on a "Predator's Tour" of suburban Connecticut. Dropping in on Greenwich Finance CEO William Frey and Morgan Stanley (MS) CEO John Mack, the tour highlighted the social and economic gap between the bank execs who fueled the economic crisis and the struggling homeowners who were its victims. Commenting on its battle against the Wall Street execs -- which it referred to as "Loan Sharks," NACA's website stated that "We can't let them live quietly in a lap of luxury while they throw hard working Americans out on the street."Marks' theatrics have drawn protest and critics have levied numerous accusations against him. According to some, the "financial terrorist" is evasive when questioned about NACA's business practices, while others claim that his tactics often cross the line into abuse and bullying.

Yet, with an estimated 6 million homeowners behind on their mortgage payments and 1 in 4 mortgages currently underwater, it looks like Marks -- and his fellow protesters -- are going to be around for a while.

NACA's Bruce Marks: Quirky Populist Lights the Fuse of Homeowners' Rage By BRUCE WATSON 04/20/10

[ Thoughts from the Publishers of Lender Lies.info:

All Chase Borrowers with a bone to pick should contact the following individuals:

Dave Lowman (Chase Chief Executive) at: 636-735-2121
Jamie Dimon (Chase CEO & Chairman) at: 212-270-1111 ]

Foreclosure sales nearly DOUBLE from prior year

April 21, 2010

Foreclosure sales nearly double from prior year

Foreclosure sales increased 92.3 percent in March 2010 compared with March 2009 and 24.2 percent compared with February according to ForeclosureRadar’s March foreclosure report. Nearly 80 percent of foreclosure sales in February were for properties returning to lenders; the remaining properties were sold to third parties, primarily investors.

Notices of Default declined significantly in March compared with the prior year, when filings reached record levels as lenders caught up on a backlog of filings. Third-party purchases of foreclosure sales set a new record in March, surpassing 4,000 properties for the first time.

Bank Forecloses on Nicolas Cages Bel Air Home - Gets No Bidders

Nicolas Cage is leaving Bel-Air. And not by choice.

The fate of the sprawling Tudor mansion owned by the actor, who won an Oscar for his role in "Leaving Las Vegas," was decided Wednesday far from the baronial estate.

It was up for auction Wednesday morning -- along with a handful of other foreclosed properties -- on the steps of the county courthouse in Pomona.

After a rapid-fire spiel by the auctioneer, the bidding was opened at $10.4 million, far less than the $35 million that Cage had tried unsuccessfully to sell the house for.

To put it mildly, the house, though impressive, was not to everyone's taste. Real estate agent Bret Parsons, who toured it most recently in October, described the interiors as "fascinating and bizarre."

"The design was 'frat house bordello,' " Parsons said. "There must have been 300 comic book covers elaborately framed and hanging on the walls."

Model train sets on raised tracks a couple feet below the ceiling circled the inside of the breakfast room and two bedrooms.

There were also no takers in the courthouse sale, and in less than a minute the auction closed, with ownership reverting to the foreclosing lender -- just one of six holding a total of $18 million in loans on the property.

The pattern of repeated borrowing against equity is familiar to Bob Baker, sales manager of County Records Research, a Huntington Beach-based company that supplies information about foreclosure properties.

"This is a microcosm of what's going on in our state," Baker said. "We've seen as many as 13 loans on a house."

When people keep borrowing, he said, it has "a snowball effect." The final loans often are taken out to meet expenses, he said. "It's a survival tactic."

This is not the only property lost to foreclosure by Cage, who was ranked last year by Forbes as the fifth-highest-paid actor in the U.S. with earnings of $40 million.

Cage's publicist said the actor could not be reached for comment.

In October, Cage sued his former business manager, Samuel J. Levin.

The complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accused Levin of having "lined his pockets with several million dollars in business management fees while leading Cage down a path toward financial ruin."

Levin filed his own countersuit, describing Cage as setting off "on a spending binge of epic proportions" and states that by July 2008 Cage owned "15 palatial homes around the world," four yachts, an island in the Bahamas, a private Gulfstream jet and millions in art and jewelry.

LA Times, April 08, 2010By Lauren Beale