FAILING TO OBEY EVEN COURT RULES WOULD NOT RESULT IN SANCTIONS IMPOSED BY COURT.
The United States Department of Justice has a history of settling claims against large financial institutions rather than trying them. Moreover, it is apparent that the DOJ also has a policy not to accuse individuals at large financial institutions of wrongdoing.
These strains of policy came together in a matter involving the U.S. Trustee Program and the Bankruptcy Courts of the United States. The inappropriate result in this case is the central focus of this article.
The Trustee Program took certain "actions ... in districts around the country concerning [J.P. Morgan] Chase's improper practices in bankruptcy cases, including robo-signing." This is the DOJ's description in a press release announcing that the DOJ has settled the U.S. Trustee Program's "actions." Press Release, Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs, Tuesday, March 3, 2015. These actions and the announced "robo-signing" deserve a little closer look.
First, the announced offense. Statutes and Court Rules require that affidavits and declarations under oath shall be submitted to Judges based on the declarant's personal knowledge, if they are supposed to be considered by the Courts as evidence. "Robosigning" means that the persons testifying to their personal knowledge actually did not have personal knowledge. It means that these same persons had no idea what was in the documents that they swore they knew all about.
"Robosigning" never involves what might be called schoolyard bragging. The robosigned affidavits and declarations -- so-called because they are signed so fast that the declarants swear and sign them like robots -- are always submitted as evidence. Otherwise there is no purpose to them.
Chase "acknowledged," i.e., admitted , according to the DOJ's press release, "that it filed in bankruptcy courts around the country 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." [Emphasis added.] Chase even outsourced some of the 'signings' to "individuals employed by a third party vender on matters unrelated to checking the accuracy of the filings."
So, the United States Department of Justice was presented with a case in which 50,000 persons allegedly committed perjury. These 50,000 people signed false or incomplete papers which falsely declared that persons in bankruptcy should be subjected to payments for mortgage debts, so-called "payment change notices."
Not one of the 50,000 people involved in this practice faces any sanctions, or at least the DOJ does not mention any in its press release. The only thing achieved in this perjury settlement is that Chase will pay some money.
That is not enough.
That is not sufficient to maintain the integrity of the Courts including the Bankruptcy Courts of the United States. No-one should ever be permitted to declare the truth of something under oath which they know not to be true. Declarants committing perjury should still suffer the consequences of their perjury for the sake of preserving the integrity of the judicial system -- and for preserving the willing obedience of every member of society to the rules and rulings of the Courts. This settlement does not even come close to serving that purpose.
The DOJ's settlement on behalf of the U.S. Trustee Program has reportedly been submitted for approval to the United States Bankruptcy Court in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan. The DOJ press release does not provide the case number. An Internet Search by the author does not reveal it either, although the author's search did turn up many places in which the terms of the DOJ's press release are either repeated or summarized.
Here is the contact information for the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees. These people should be able to provide that missing case number so that the Court Files can be accessed and objections can be filed:
NABT HEADQUARTERS
One Windsor Cove, Suite 305 Columbia, SC 29223
(803) 252-5646 • 800-445-8629 Fax (803) 765-0860
The readers of this column are invited to register their comments in accordance with the rules of the Court.
PRAYER FOR RELIEF. The Court in that case is respectfully requested to impose sanctions and require more than the payment of money in this settlement, which is all that the Department of Justice was content to require, if this settlement proceeds at all.
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