Accoring to a USTP press release, the U.S. Trustee Program has entered into a national settlement agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank which will require Chase to pay more than $50 million including cash payments, mortgage loan credits and loan forgiveness to over 25,000 homeowners who are or were in bankruptcy.
Chase has also agreed to change internal operations and submit to oversight by an independent compliance reviewer. Chase acknowledges that, in bankruptcy courts around the country, it filed more than 50,000 payment change notices that were improperly signed, under penalty of perjury, by persons who had not reviewed the accuracy of the notices.
Chase filed more than 25,000 notices signed in the names of former employees or of employees who had nothing to do with reviewing the accuracy of the filings. The rest of the notices were signed by individuals employed by a third-party vendor on matters unrelated to checking the accuracy of the filings.
Chase also acknowledges that it failed to file timely, accurate notices of mortgage payment changes and failed to provide timely, accurate escrow statements.
In addition to other relief Chase will:
Provide $22.4 million in credits and second lien forgiveness to about 400 homeowners who received inaccurate payment increase notices during their bankruptcy
cases.
Pay $10.8 million to more than 12,000 homeowners in bankruptcy through credits or refunds for payment increases or decreases that were not timely filed in bankruptcy court and noticed to the homeowners.
Pay $4.8 million to more than 18,000 homeowners who did not receive accurate and timely escrow statements. This includes credits for taxes and insurance owed by the homeowners and paid by Chase during periods covered by escrow statements that were not timely filed and transmitted to homeowners.
Pay $4.9 million, through payment of approximately $600 per loan, to more than 8,000 homeowners whose escrow payments Chase may have applied in a manner inconsistent with escrow statements it provided to the homeowners.
Contribute 7.5 million to the American Bankruptcy Institute’s endowment for financial education and support for the Credit Abuse Resistance Education Program.
“Top Gun CEO” Jamie Dimon oversaw the transfer of $25 billion in funds from the U.S. Treasury Department to the bank on October 28, 2008, under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) – W’s infamous “pork barrel” project to save institutions “TO BIG TO FAIL” and grease the skids of former Secretary of the Treaury Hank Paulson. Paulson is a member of the exclusvie group of “25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis.”