Bank Of America Mortgage Fraud: Feds Sue For Over $1 Billion Alleging Multi-Year Scheme

by Ben Hallman
Source: Huffington Post
Posted: 10/24/2012 12:20 pm EDT
Updated: 10/24/2012 5:40 pm EDT

• U.S. sues Bank of America over “Hustle” mortgage fraud (finance.yahoo.com)
• U.S. sues Bank of America for $1 billion for mortgage fraud (triblive.com)

The BB☭’s Satanic Government-Media Pedophile Complex EXPOSED Live On Air!

Published on Oct 21, 2012 by EuropeanWatchman3

Entire Indian tribe threatens to commit mass suicide after Brazil court rules they must leave sacred burial land

• Community of 50 men, 50 women and 70 children from Guarani-kaiowa tribe are camped inside a ranch in Brazil’s southern state of Mato Grosso do Sul
• Indians claim land has been the graveyard of their ancestors for centuries
• Spokesman said they would rather die on the land than be made to leave

The Indians claim the land has been the graveyard of their ancestors for centuries, according to Brazil’s Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI).

Protest: An ethnic Guarani-Kaiowa Brazilian Indian from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul fixes a cross into the lawn at the Esplanade of Ministries in Brasilia yesterday. His entire tribe of 170 Indians have vowed to commit mass suicide after a court ruled they must leave what they believe is sacred land.

A Guarani Indian family ride a horse-drawn cart in southern Brazil in 2004. The Indians claim the disputed land has been the graveyard of their ancestors for centuries

But this week, Judge Henrique Bonachela upheld a petition made by the ranch’s owner to have the tribe evicted from the land.

He decreed a fine of £150 for every day the tribe remains on the land, on the banks of Brazil’s Joguico River.

A spokesman for the tribe today said they do not intend to fight the judge’s decision but would rather die on the land than be made to leave.

And in a letter the tribe called on the Brazilian government to respect their wishes to be buried there along with their ancestors.

It read: ‘Because of this historic fact, we would prefer to die and be buried together with our ancestors right here where we are now.

‘We ask, one time for all, for the government to decree our extinction as a tribe, and to send tractors to dig a big hole and there to throw our dead bodies.

‘We have all decided that we will not leave this place, neither alive nor dead.’

Battle: A spokesman for the tribe said they do not intend to fight the judge’s decision but would rather die on the land than be made to leave.

Remote: The tribe is camped inside a ranch in Brazil’s southern state of Mato Grosso do Sul

A spokesman for CIMI described the development as of ‘exceptional seriousness’.

And Federal Deputy Sarney Filho warned of the ‘extremely worrying’ situation.

In a letter to Brazil’s Justice Minsitry, he wrote: ‘This tribe has had its culture and lands attacked for centuries. They could now go down in history as being the tribe which wiped themselves out by committing collective suicide.

‘We must take the necessary measures to avert the worst.’

Indian tribes in southern Brazil have for years been fighting for the country to recognise their traditional lands, many of which now belong to farmers and rich landowners.

Ford to shut more plants as Europe losses grow

LONDON (AP) — Ford pressed ahead Thursday with its plan to slash production in Europe, announcing another plant closure and 1,500 more job cuts, as it warned that annual losses in the region will exceed $1.5 billion this year and next.

Ford Motor Co. is struggling in Europe, like many major carmakers, because labor costs are relatively high and there are too many plants given that demand for cars is sliding due to the economic crisis. Worries about its European business have dragged down Ford's stock price this year.

A day after announcing the closure of a major plant in Belgium, Ford said it also will close its Transit van plant in Southampton, Britain, and the stamping and tooling facility at its plant in Dagenham, east London.

The actions announced this week — along with a previously announced initiative to cut about 500 salaried and agency positions across Europe — affect a total of 6,200 Ford jobs, or about 13 percent of the company's European workforce.

Counting the indirect impact on suppliers that depend on doing business with Ford's factories, the plant closures will cause about 11,000 job losses.

"We recognize the impact our actions will have on many employees and their families in Europe, and we will work together with all stakeholders during this necessary transformation of our business," said Ford's president and CEO, Alan Mulally.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of Britain's Unite union, said workers would fight against the closures.

"This announcement has been handled disgracefully," McCluskey said "Only a few months ago Ford was promising staff a new Transit model for Southampton in 2014."

The company said it needs to cut costs in Europe, where it will try to refocus its operations on fuel-efficient motors and safety technologies. It expects the European business to return to profitability by mid-decade, thanks to the plant closures and the introduction of new models.

Despite the losses in Europe, Ford still expects a strong pretax profit this year for the company overall. Earnings will be better in the third quarter than in the second, excluding one-time costs and gains.

The Southampton plant, which employs 500 workers and will be shut in July, is Ford's last vehicle assembly plant in Britain. Production there has fallen from 66,000 vehicles in 2008 to 28,000 last year. Transit van production will be consolidated at the plant in Kocaeli, Turkey.

At the Dagenham plant, where it will close a stamping facility in 2013, Ford promised to invest in the production of a new series of 20-litre, four-cylinder, low-CO2 diesel engines. It will also invest at the Bridgend plant in Wales to support gasoline engine manufacturing.

Closing the Belgian and British plants reduces vehicle assembly capacity, excluding Russia, by 18 percent, or 355,000 units, yielding annual savings of at least $450 million, Ford said.

Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks said that with its proposed plant closures, the use of its European production capacity would jump from about 65 percent to more than 80 percent. He said the company expects to spend more than $100,000 (€77,000) per worker in separation payments.

Talks with Belgian unions will take four to six months by law. In the U.K., Ford aims to achieve employee reductions through voluntary means, employee separation programs and redeployment to other Ford locations.

Shares in Ford were up 2 percent to $10.39 in late afternoon trading Thursday, though they remain down for the year. The problems in Europe have weighed on the stock as investors worried about the drop in sales and the need to close unused plants.

Ford's sales were down nearly 15 percent in September compared with a year ago, worse than the 10.8 percent fall for all European vehicle brands, according to Acea, the European carmakers' association. Shanks said Ford lost market share because it wasn't discounting as aggressively as some rivals.

Ford is not the only company struggling with the car market in Europe. Big names like General Motors Co., which owns the Opel brand, as well as Fiat, which owns Chrysler, have said that production must be slashed in Europe.

France's PSA Peugeot-Citroen is currently in talks to take a €7 billion lifeline from the French government, which wants to avoid layoffs. Ford of Europe Chief Stephen Odell said the French government's aid might not comply with European laws. But more broadly, he said, it doesn't help Europe address its market issues.

"In the end, and this is my view, I don't think it's sustainable for support from government to keep companies competitive going forward."

Odell said it is likely European car sales could be even lower next year than this year.

"Frankly, we do need to see some signs of economic recovery, or at least stability," he said.

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Feds arrest NYC police officer, accuse him of failed plot to kidnap, torture and cook women

By Colleen Long,Tom Hays, The Associated Press | Associated Press – 1 hr 19 mins ago

NEW YORK, N.Y. - A city police officer was charged Thursday with leading a ghoulish double life by using a law enforcement database and fetish chat rooms to dream up a plot to torture women and then cook and eat their body parts.

Gilberto Valle left a trail of emails, instant messages and computer files detailing the bizarre cannibalism scheme, according to a criminal complaint, which identified two women as Victim 1 and Victim 2.

He catalogued at least 100 women on his computer, federal investigators said, but there was no information that anyone was harmed.

One document found on his computer was titled "Abducting and Cooking (Victim 1): A Blueprint," according to the complaint. The file also had the woman's birth date and other personal information and a list of "materials needed" — a car, chloroform and rope.

"I was thinking of tying her body onto some kind of apparatus ... cook her over low heat, keep her alive as long as possible," Valle allegedly wrote in one exchange in July, the complaint says.

In other online conversations, investigators said, Valle talked about the mechanics of fitting the woman's body into an oven (her legs would have to be bent), said he could make chloroform at home to knock a woman out and discussed how "tasty" one woman looked.

"Her days are numbered," he wrote, according to the complaint.

The woman told the FBI she knew Valle and met him for lunch in July, but that's as far as it went.

The officer's estranged wife had alerted New York authorities to his chilling online activity, triggering the investigation that led to his arrest by the FBI on Wednesday, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Valle, 28, was to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon to face charges of kidnapping conspiracy and unauthorized use of law enforcement records. The name of his attorney was not immediately available, and no one answered the door to his home in a quiet, middle-class Queens neighbourhood.

A search of Valle's computer found he had created records of at least 100 women with their names, addresses and photos, the complaint says. Some of the information came from his unauthorized use of a law enforcement database, authorities said. He claimed, according to the complaint, that he knew many of them.

"The allegations in the complaint really need no description from us," said Mary E. Galligan, acting head of the FBI's New York office. "They speak for themselves. It would be an understatement merely to say Valle's own words and actions were shocking."

There was no immediate response to a message left with the NYPD on Thursday.

The complaint alleges that in February, Valle negotiated to kidnap another woman — Victim 2 — for someone else, writing, "$5,000 and she's all yours."

He told the buyer he was aspiring to be a professional kidnapper, authorities said.

"I think I would rather not get involved in the rape," according to the complaint. "You paid for her. She is all yours, and I don't want to be tempted the next time I abduct a girl."

It says he added: "I will really get off on knocking her out, tying up her hands and bare feet and gagging her. Then she will be stuffed into a large piece of luggage and wheeled out to my van."

Cellphone data revealed that Valle made calls on the block where the woman lives, the complaint says. An FBI agent interviewed the woman, who told them that she didn't know him well and was never in her home.

Valle had been assigned to a Manhattan precinct before his suspension on Wednesday.

His Facebook page cultivated the image of a very different man. Postings were filled with photos of a smiling wife, a baby girl and an English bulldog puppy named Dudley. A Yankees fan, Valle had more than 600 Facebook friends, including dozens of young women.

Valle respected his colleagues on the force, took the sergeant's exam and spoke out against Occupy Wall Street, cop killers and others who broke the law, according to the page. His current photo was a blue line, a sign of mourning for when an officer is killed, and expressed condolences for the family of a Nassau County officer who was shot to death this week.

"Keep Nassau County police in your prayers what a brutal week," he wrote earlier this week.

The page was taken down Thursday afternoon.

Valle lived in a six-story apartment building with white pillars on a quiet residential street in Queens with a playground on the corner. No one answered his door Thursday.

Raphael Castillo, the superintendent of the building, said he was surprised by the arrest.

"I think it's a normal person and a very good person," he said. "When I talk to him, I never see nothing wrong. I don't think this is the person that I know."

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Associated Press writer Meghan Barr in New York and researcher Barbara Sambriski contributed to this report.