We'll have to wait and see whether it does well enough to go to a wider sample, but regardless, it's a huge milestone for SumOfUs -- and my everlasting gratitude to all my colleagues, friends, and family, without whom this moment wouldn't have been possible.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Daniel Mintz, MoveOn.org Civic Action <moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
Date: Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 1:33 PM
Subject: Mocking the homeless
From: Daniel Mintz, MoveOn.org Civic Action <moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
Date: Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 1:33 PM
Subject: Mocking the homeless
Dear MoveOn member,
Among the worst actors in the housing crisis are the "foreclosure mills" (assembly-line-style law firms) hired by the big banks to throw people out of their homes—often cutting legal corners in the process.
Photos have just surfaced from the Halloween party last year at one of the largest foreclosure mills in the country. Employees of the New York law firm Steven J. Baum dressed up in an appalling mockery of the people they were throwing out on the streets every day.1
Bank of America is the largest servicer of foreclosed-on properties in the country and one of Baum's big clients.2 Sign our petition and demand that Bank of America fire Baum immediately.
Here are two of the outrageous photos (turn on images if you can't see them):
It's not just the photos. Baum helped put more than 11,000 New York families out on the streets last year.3 According to theNew York Times columnist who published the photos, the firm treats homeowners "mercilessly."4 One bankruptcy attorney said that "Baum's work was beyond sloppiness—it was outright fraud."5 And a state judge called Baum's explanations in one case "incredible, outrageous, ludicrous and disingenuous."6
Meanwhile, banks like Bank of America pay firms like Baum a flat fee per foreclosure—which means that their main incentive is to foreclose on as many families as possible as quickly as possible.7 Baum's reprehensible behavior is all too typical of a broken system created very intentionally by corporations like Bank of America.
Corporations like Bank of America may be greedy, but they rely on us to be their customers—and together, we can force them to listen to the 99%. Just yesterday, Bank of America proved how vulnerable they are to public pressure right now when they dropped a proposed $5 per month debit card fee in response to a mass national petition.8 That's why we're partnering with SumOfUs, a grassroots consumer movement for corporate accountability, on this campaign.
Bank of America and Baum are only the tip of the iceberg in the housing crisis, but they have demonstrated the worst kind of greed and contempt for their fellow Americans. Let's make an example of Baum and put foreclosure mills and banks alike on notice: This kind of behavior is unacceptable—and bad for business. Sign the petition now calling on Bank of America, one of Baum's largest clients, to fire them:
Thanks for all that you do.
Daniel, Elena, Julia, Stephen, and the rest of the team
1. "What the Costumes Reveal," The New York Times, October 28, 2011
2. "J.P. Morgan, BofA, Wells Fargo Tops in Foreclosed Home Loans," The Wall Street Journal, October 12, 2010
3. "Feds went easy on NY's largest foreclosure mill: critics," New York Post, October 7, 2011
4. "What the Costumes Reveal," The New York Times, October 28, 2011
5. "Feds went easy on NY's largest foreclosure mill: critics," New York Post, October 7, 2011
6. "Judges Berate Bank Lawyers in Foreclosures," The New York Times, January 10, 2011
7. "Fannie and Freddie's Foreclosure Barons," Mother Jones, August 4, 2010
8. "Bank of America Cancels $5 Fee," ABC News, November 1, 2011
