About Us
Who We Are
Free Services
Who We Are
Recovery Base is a mutual non-profit company set to begin operation on Friday, September 13, 2019 to assist victims of fraud, criminality and fraudulent concealment in foreclosure, bankruptcy, and property theft cases. Additional information related to the company, as well as its Board of Directors and management, will be announced next month.
Assistance
Free Services
Who We Are
The assistance provided by Recovery Base to its clients will include investigating financial predators, attorneys, banks, and municipal, county and state officials that clients allege have victimized them. We will work to repatriate the cash or assets that have been stolen from them. The extent of involvement will vary with the nature of the case.
Free Services
Free Services
Free Services
We will provide free services to distressed families and small businesses from any fees earned by Recovery Base from a current case involving the recovery of $5 billion in cash and assets. We intend to hire lawyers, investigators and firms specializing in Freedom of Information Act requests to assist us in reviewing and handling cases,
A Major Problem in Federal Court
A Question That We Ask In Each Case
A Question That We Ask In Each Case
A Question That We Ask In Each Case
A key question we will answer in assisting bankruptcy victims is;
Did the bankruptcy judge address
or fail to address the fraud and criminality alleged by bankruptcy debtors, including misconduct by state judicial officials?
If not, we need to know why.
Impediment in Lower Federal Courts
A Question That We Ask In Each Case
A Question That We Ask In Each Case
A significant number of bankruptcy court judges claim that they are barred from aiding foreclosure victims by the Rooker-Feldman Doctrine, a legal precedent that bars losers in state court from relitigating in lower federal courts.
As a result, injustices in state courts carry over to the federal courts.
The United States Supreme Court
A Question That We Ask In Each Case
The United States Supreme Court
SCOTUS has placed limits on the application of the Rooker-Feldman Doctrine in lower federal courts to avoid abuse of the precedent. They need to address certain problems that arise in bankruptcy court. Unfortunately, bankruptcy judges and trustees often ignore the right of pro se litigants to object to the size of claims attributable to errors, misconduct, or perjuries in state court.
A Conundrum
The Tragic Outcome
The United States Supreme Court
What happens when a final judgment in state court results entirely or substantially from fraudulent or criminal acts by one litigant against another and is aided and abetted by the misconduct of municipal, county, and state government officials, including judges?
Pro se litigants are often forced to seek protection in bankruptcy court.
For Example
The Tragic Outcome
The Tragic Outcome
Debtors in bankruptcy court often ask the judge and the trustee to investigate their objections to the size of claims attributable to fraud, misconduct, or perjuries by plaintiffs in state courts that were ignored or concealed by municipal, county, or state officials, including the judiciary.
This is a right afforded by the United States Congress that is often denied.
The Tragic Outcome
The Tragic Outcome
The Tragic Outcome
The lower federal courts often respond by citing the Rooker-Feldman Doctrine and rule that the debtor is attempting to relitigate a final judgment when in fact they are merely seeking to reduce the size of false or fraudulent claims.
The typical result is that lower court misconduct and criminality
gets swept under the federal rug.
Two Tragic Cases in New Jersey
17-29242-CMG Lori F. McEwan
Unbeknownst to Lori McEwan, she was sold a contaminated property in 2004. That was the start of what will be shortly seen as, literally, the dirtiest real estate deal in the history of the State of New Jersey - if, that is, bankruptcy judges in Trenton decide to do what is right in this matter. at a July 17, 2019 hearing. Otherwise, the litigation will drag on and on until the matter is heard by a judge or court not afraid to order an adversary hearing against a former Chancery Court judge and her husband.
Interesting.
This case has everything, including a Monmouth County Chancery Court judge that Ms. McEwan claims did not give her equal protection under the law.
Ms. McEwan maintains that Judge Patricia Del Bueno Cleary denied her civil, due process, and property rights knowing that she was sold the contaminated property a decade before by a nominee acting on behalf of her husband's law firm.
This case gets worse than that.
Ms. McEwan filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2017 and began presenting the facts of her case. Apparently, the bankruptcy court has known that this was a dirty case of corruption but did nothing for 20 months.
Finally, in April 2019 Ms. McEwan sent the bankruptcy judge a transcript of a recorded conversation with a representative of the creditor that proved that their lawyer had perjured himself in his statements and filings.
Since the judge never docketed this ex parte communication from Ms. McEwan, the lawyer was unaware that his perjuries had been exposed to the court. As a result, he continued to perjure in statements and filings.
The outcome?
The presiding judge turned the matter over to another judge on the same day as a May 14, 2019 hearing. The new judge had little or no knowledge of the case prior to the hearing. When Ms. McEwan complained of this injustice, the judge told her the first time that she would have the bailiff silence her. On the second occasion, it was a U.S. Marshall who would be brought in. The judge did leave the court for 20 minutes indicating that she would review the evidence, but when the hearing resumed, her statements indicate that she did not review the evidence necessary to make a proper ruling.
The judge proceeded to reward the creditor and their attorney by vacating the automatic stay.
Ms. McEwan complained in some devastating papers filed since that hearing and a hearing is scheduled for July 17, 2019.
In any other state, Ms. McEwan would have a massive award for damages at this point, but this is New Jersey and the public interest takes a back seat to politics and that which serves public officials, including judges.
In Sundquist v. Bank of America, 566 b.r. 563 (2017) Judge Christopher Kline awarded $46 million in damages against Bank of America.
The total award in this case for the sale of the contaminated property and all the downstream abuse suffered by Ms. McEwan and her family could very well exceed that amount.
The filings that led up to the July 17, 2019 hearing can be downloaded here.
17-15942-MBK Anthony Ottilio
Anthony Ottilio should have millions of dollars in the bank and $20 million in real estate.
Instead, he was closer to being out in the street homeless after Valley National Bank foreclosed on this highly-productive engineer- real estate developer and obtained a final judgment that Mr. Ottilio is contesting.
Many observers wonder why this matter was not resolved in Mr. Ottilio's favor years ago. One reason might be that Mr. Ottilio is has filed a malpractice complaint against the attorneys he initially retained to handle his case.
Micheal Ghabriel, an officer in charge of bank-owned real estate at Valley National, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for bribery in another case that did not serve the bank's reputation well. Mr. Ottilio is not a fan of Mr. Ghabriel.
The chairman of Valley National Bank is Gerald H. Lipkin who sits on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Perhaps Mr. Lipkin will have an answer to the allegations of fraud and criminality by Mr. Ottilio since the case is once again being litigated in federal court in an adversary hearing in bankruptcy court.
Those interested in bank corruption and how innocent mortgage borrowers can be abused or destroyed by banks, lawyers, as well as state and federal courts, this case is worth following,
The fact that the chairman of the bank sits on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York should add to the public interest in this mortgage fraud case.
Final Thoughts
Fraud, Misconduct or Corruption in State Chancery Court?
If it appears to a distressed pro se or ineptly represented litigant that their civil, due process, equal protection, and property rights are being violated by a Chancery Court judge, one solution that those Age 62+, with $100,000+ in home value and 50%+ in equity should consider is the following two-step process:
(1) filing for Bankruptcy Protection, and
(2) as soon as possible thereafter apply for and obtain a Reverse Mortgage commitment
Reverse Mortgages might not be the best solution in all cases but getting one can save one's home and provide homeowners with immediate relief from rapacious banks, unscrupulous or untrustworthy lawyers, trustees with a penchant for selling homes or property quickly, and judges who are not being protective of defendant's (state) or debtor's (federal) rights.
A Reverse Mortgage is not debt. Someone with a reverse mortgage can pay all court-related debt and receive a large infusion of cash. The most conservative approach would be to take the cash and place it into a safe debt instrument. such as a high-yield Single Premium Deferred Annuity or into a savings account.
If senior citizens have a reverse mortgage, they can remain in their homes until death. At that point, the heirs can repay the bank and claim 100% ownership of the home or can sell it and receive the proceeds less what is owed to the bank.
The following website provides general information on Reverse Mortgages:
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/housing/sfh/hecm/hecmhome
Laundering of Drug and Tax-Evasion Moneys
There is no shortage of persons, bloggers, or investigators claiming that the United States mortgage market is being used to launder drug money or facilitate tax evasion. The tax evasion could be domestic or foreign-based, i.e. repatriation of presumably trillions in offshore bank accounts.
We recently did a search on the topic and came up with this link to a website run by former or present officials connected to the United States Army War College:
https://warroom.armywarcollege.edu/articles/money-laundering-in-real-estate/
The search also came up with a recent article that discusses a recent survey of financial institutions:
This is all very interesting. However, Recovery Base is about assisting innocent victims recovering property that was stolen or lost during foreclosure or bankruptcy cases where their civil, due process or property rights were denied.
Unless there is direct evidence that money laundering, tax evasion, or related acts can be tied directly to a litigant a victim is fighting in court or has a direct bearing on a particular case, Recovery Base will continue to focus on what matters: the fraud, criminality and fraudulent concealment alleged by foreclosure defendants and bankruptcy debtors, including misconduct by state and federal judicial officials.
This approach does not preclude us from reviewing and filing for future use allegations or evidence of money laundering and tax evasion tied to mortgage fraud or mortgage securitization fraud.
In one interesting case in New Jersey, a man researched the particulars of his case through various public records after losing his home. He claims to have two separate title searches that were sworn to by attorneys. The first document listed his property location in the county where he lives. The second document listed his property location in a county on the other side of the state.
One of his many comments was that the counterfeiting was sloppy.
Again, where enigmas like this one can help a case, we will have no hesitation in using it to assist victims.
The final disturbing thought was that document like the one where a person's home is certified to be located on the other side of the state are sworn to by lawyers licensed by the state and practice within the state court system.
Contact Us
If you have been victimized in foreclosure and bankruptcy cases, let us know at the email addresses below.
We will respond to inquiries on or by September 13, 2019
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