Case in point: Loan # 0018068908

A home in Phoenix Arizona is for sale (short sale). The current mortgage holder is JP Morgan/ EMC Mortgage Corporation. There is a second lien holder. The price offered by a buyer was accepted by the Seller (subject to lender approval because each lender must approve the amounts to be paid to each lender). Both the first lien holder (JP Morgan "AKA EMC Mortgage Corp" – using Lane Roberts as Negotiator II) and the second lender (National City) accepted the terms and the payoff amounts (we have their letters) subject to the approval of the final HUD1. The final HUD is delivered showing the first getting a small amount more then they required and agreed upon. The second lender gets their agreed-upon amount also. Three days before the close of escrow the first mortgage holder’s representative, Lane Roberts, refuses to approve the sale because he wants half of the money the seller is paying to close the sale. The seller is a recently widowed mother of infants, who is providing $17, 000 in cash from her husband’s life insurance and what money she could borrow from family and friends to complete the sale. She is doing the right thing here. If she just walked away from the property she would in essence be $17, 000 ahead. Subsequent to agreeing to all of the terms and conditions of the offer, the JP Morgan / EMC Mortgage representative, Lane Roberts, has now stipulated that he wants half of the $17, 000 or he will not approve the previously reviewed and accepted HUD. This would require:
• stealing money from the second mortgage holder;
• the buyer paying more;
• the Seller getting $8500 from the agents commissions;
• or the deal fails and the bank gets the property back.

The reason given for the extortion by the JP Morgan representative – “The second would get nothing anyway if there was a foreclosure.” In truth the 1st stands to get significantly less if there is a foreclosure as the property values have continued to fall since the early November offer was submitted. I cannot for the life of me understand how ethics and integrity have vanished from the banking industry to such a degree that this situation would be allowed to happen without the oversight of somebody higher in the JP Morgan / EMC Mortgage Corporation organization. Has everybody in this industry abdicated their responsibility?? How does this person, Lane Roberts, sleep at night??
Here is a case where the bank bail-out is supposed to help people in dire situations and yet this is how the banks treat them. It is disgusting to say the least. Moreover, it is extortion on a criminal level. When banking processes, and their staff, respond so shabbily in a situation as outlined above, it becomes clear that the bail-out is a fraud on the American people!! The banks have shifted their predatory lending practices to predatory sales practices. It is very apparent that the banking industry JP Morgan-Chase and EMC Mortgage Corporation, specifically Lane Roberts, Negotiator II, have lost their collective moral center. The banking industry created this problem through greed and poor oversight and we the tax payers have been forced to give them absolution in the form of a $700 billion dollar cash award with no accountability or controls. It sends the wrong message.
“Without a sense of responsibility or accountability - ethics and integrity do not exist.”

This article is also being forwarded to:

JP Morgan – Chase CEO – Jamie Dimon
EMC CEO – Joe Tucci
Call 12 for Action (Arizona)
3 On Your Side (Arizona)
MSNBC – Rachel Maddow
Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT),
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,

Senator Sherrod Brown Member Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs,
Felecia Retelling, Superintendent, Arizona Department of Financial Institutions

Dallas Texas Branch of the BBB

Federal Deposit and Insurance Corporation

Federal Trade Commission


We are seeking:
Disciplinary action against the employee if they acted outside their authority.
Disciplinary action against the employee's supervisor if they directed the employee to commit this extortion.
Disciplinary action against the employer if they put this policy in place as a company policy.
Sanctions against EMC Mortgage / JP Morgan-Chase for conspiring to commit extortion.
An apology letter from EMC Mortgage / JP Morgan-Chase, and Lane Roberts for their despicable behavior during this matter.
Return the extorted $8750 to National City Mortgage.