CPAC Chief Is Partner In Law Firm Defending Foreclosure Mill, Served On Board Of Fannie Mae

WASHINGTON -- The new head of the American Conservative Union, the group which hosts the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, has ties to the ongoing controversy surrounding fraud in the foreclosure process.

New ACU leader Al Cardenas is a partner in the law firm of Tew Cardenas LLP, which is currently defending "foreclosure king" David Stern, whose own law office is at the center of a major Florida investigation into foreclosure fraud. Mortgage companies hire the Law Offices of David J. Stern, frequently referred to as a "foreclosure mill," to handle their foreclosure paperwork for them. Stern's employees have testified that the office was a hotbed for illegally robo-signed foreclosure documents, with some employees churning out 1,000 improperly signed documents every day.

Although Stern has long been reviled by Florida anti-foreclosure attorneys, his business practices were brought to national attention by a major Mother Jones profile last August. The Florida Attorney General's office released a presentation on foreclosure fraud late last year, including testimony from a Stern employee. Stern's attorney is Jeffrey Tew, another partner in the Tew Cardenas law firm.

Both Cardenas and Stern have longstanding connections with mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Cardenas served on Fannie's board of directors from 1985 to 1990, then worked as a lobbyist for the firm well into the presidency of George W. Bush. Fannie Mae named Stern to its exclusive attorney network in 1998 -- a lucrative position that helped Stern land an enormous amount of foreclosure processing business. Fannie named Stern "Attorney of the Year" in both 1998 and 1999. Calls to the ACU to determine what work, if any, Cardenas did for Stern, were not returned.

Comments

[hopeisalive]

08:31 AM on 02/11/2011

Why should anyone be surprised? The function of attorneys is to make money for their firm. These guys are good at it so their firm is taken on by firms that have money. Ethics, morality or any other considerations don't really apply.

[TWOMANY]

03:26 PM on 02/11/2011

And Stern used to give foreclosed houses away to employees as bonuses for the fastest processors... Strangely, the "alleged" lenders cannot reduce the principle making the property affordable for these families but they can foreclose - cash-in the mortgage insurance - sell that 300k foreclosed property for 3-5k to Stearn - who then offers it as a bonus... Ethics - Morality - nor LAW even apply...

Once these families finally figure out their families were deliberately sold mortgages with self-destruct concealed within - then illegally foreclosed and repeatedly "gang-raped" throughout the process - charging these families erroneous fees - relentlessly abused and taken advantage by every debt collecting lawyer along the way - even GOD will have a hard time stopping the comming revenge & outrage "RIGHT" taken against the likes of these pukes. No Mercy - for these foreclosure mills & debt collection agencies - no mercy for them, their families, or their employees...

These rabid-dogs should be put-down no-differently than Osama Bin Laden & alQaeda... these lenders & foreclosure mills are WORSE than terrorist insurgents and should be treated same...

But hey, maybe that's just me...

[BeckyJustice]

08:40 PM on 02/10/2011

How long would it take to work up a protest the size of the one in Egypt?

[speakingout]

12:07 AM on 02/11/2011

Abolish the Patriot Act and most Americans will gladly drag the crooks out. It's time Americans stood up and did something about the corruption, because the wimps in DC won't as they are just paying themselves off with OUR money. We need to start issuing money from the State level and break away from The "federal" government that does nothing but suck up all our money and pass it out to their friends. Why are we sending money to DC anyway? To wait for them to water it down and send us some back? Crazy aystem that needs to be brought into the 21st century. We don't need them. They've never been there for the people anyway. Ask the folks in New Orleans. Washington is just a big black hole in our pockets. Everyone read the Declaration of Independence. That document is OUR rights, Constitution limits government powers and is the protection of our rights from an abusive government. Last 2 paragraphs of Declaration gives us the rights to do everything we need.

[BeckyJustice]

05:24 PM on 02/11/2011

Actually, The Federal Reserve is NOT a Government agency.
http://video.yahoo.com/watch/2874999/8258171
They just named themselves that to fool us into thinking they were.

We have had Presidents in our history that did away with them in all their various incarnations, but then they weren' getting millions from Wall Street for their run for the Presidency. Obama got nearly a million dollars from Goldman Sachs in 2008. Any wonder why he isn't the guy we all thought we were voting for?

Trouble is, the Banks buy them all, so it doesn't really matter who you vote for. What needs to happen is the Fed needs to lose the right to print our currency, and return that right to the Government where it belongs. Then all the regulations that started being stripped from our laws, starting with reagan, need to be reinstated. Finally, the top 2% in this country must go back to being taxed at the rate they were before Reagan started lowering their tax rate.

[Annette Papaccio]

06:09 PM on 02/10/2011

the republicans have been in the news lately - and it has not been good news about them either.

[jubes]

05:30 PM on 02/10/2011

CPAC chief tied to Fannie Mae? Well, well, well - imagine that! Corruption abounds allbeit buried in the deep dark recesses of corporate greed.

[cats530]

03:31 PM on 02/11/2011

I'm wondering what "ties" the COO at Freddie, the CFO at Wells and RK Arnold at MERS had. They all quit before it was discovered where the ties lead. They've all recently quit in the last 30 days; two of them effectively immediately and without termination benefits. Hmmmm.

[jubes]

05:33 PM on 02/12/2011

It does make me wonder too. Interesting.

[sfbbmom]

05:30 PM on 02/10/2011

Again, just when you think they can go no lower, they do. this is taking down America as well.

[Dosadi]

05:26 PM on 02/10/2011

The plot thickens.

Have the republicans no shame?

[cats530]

03:32 PM on 02/11/2011

Shame is for po folk. Not the elite.

[JustJoy7]

05:22 PM on 02/10/2011

Corruption in America.

[firstcougar1]

05:11 PM on 02/10/2011

Not surprised at all.

[james rimes]

04:54 PM on 02/10/2011

M.E.R.S