CLEVELAND,Ohio-More than 14,000 Ohioans in Cuyahoga County who were illegally foreclosed on may be eligible for relief after this month’s deal requiring banks to pay $8.5 billion to 3.8 million homeowners nationwide who were hurt by the mortgage crisis, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown for Ohio has announced.

Cuyahoga County is the largest of 88 counties statewide and includes the majority Black city of Cleveland and its eastern suburbs.

The aforementioned settlement differs from a 1.5 billion settlement that also impacts Cuyahoga County homeowners undermined by illegal foreclosure activities and was negotiated by the attorneys general for 49 states, including Ohio. It involves the affiliated states as plaintiffs and the five top banks that issue mortgages as the defendants. Those banks are Bank of America and Ally/GMAC, Citi, Wells Fargo and J.P. Chase Morgan bank.

The Office of the Controller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve Board brokered the  $8.5 billion deal that includes 10 big banks including Bank of America and U.S. Bank, and J.P, Morgan Chase, Aurora, Wells Fargo and PNC banks.

A Democrat, Brown visited Cleveland last week to discuss the settlement and additional steps to address problems in the mortgage servicing industry. He was joined at Community Housing Solutions by Carla Martin, a Cuyahoga County homeowner whose home was in unlawful foreclosure.

The husband of popular Cleveland Plain Dealer Reporter Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer prize winning journalist, Sen. Brown also sent a letter to the federal banking regulators and the U.S. Department of Justice urging them to prevent financial companies from taking tax deductions as part of their legal settlements.

Under current law, companies are able to take advantage of tax rules to deduct from their federal taxes the full value of any settlement payouts.

“While the settlement reached can in no way make up for reckless actions taken by mortgage servicers that harmed families and our economic recovery, it is one step forward,” Brown said. “But it’s simply unacceptable that these Wall Street banks can write off these mortgage settlements, shifting the cost to taxpayers. Banks that take a family’s home because of errors or fraud should not get a tax deduction and a slap on the wrist. Breaking the law should not be a business expense.”

Foreclosures—which drag down housing prices and hurt borrowers, even ones who are current on their mortgages—have been responsible for the slow housing market recovery.

Two weeks ago, federal regulators and the 10 lenders at issue reached an agreement to address the large number of unlawful foreclosures that occurred when banks used illegal practices—such as “robo-signing”—to initiate foreclosure proceedings or failed to offer mortgage modifications or other measures that could keep Americans in their homes.

Nearly 96,000 Ohioans, including more than 14,000 people in Cuyahoga County, are eligible for payments and loan modifications averaging $2,125 per homeowner under the deal.

Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper

CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cleveland Channel 3-WKYC News Assignment Editor Danielle Fink (pictured), 48,  died in  a one car accident early yesterday morning when the car she was driving crashed into a tree near Bradley Road in North Olmsted, Oh. at the North Ridgeville border, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported today.

According to the Plain Dealer, Ohio's largest newspaper, Fink was found dead at the wheel of her car by police at 8:30 am on Sun. morning, Jan 20. The newspaper offered no further details.

Fink was known in prominent journalism circles in greater Cleveland. And as a news editor for one of Cleveland's most prominent local television stations, she decided what national, statewide and local news to report, assigning coverage of breaking news  events such as the Imperial Avenue Murders, a celebrated case of the rape and murders of 11 Black women on the majority Black east side of Cleveland at the home on Imperial Ave of since convicted serial killer Anthony Sowell.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, publisher and editor-n-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and The Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper

CLEVELAND,Ohio- Cuyahoga County current and former residents whose homes  were foreclosed on between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2011 by  Bank of America or Ally/GMAC, Citi, Wells Fargo or J.P. Morgan Chase banks had until Fri., Jan 18 to file a claim for part of a $1.5 billion national mortgage settlement. The money is all but guaranteed, the office of the Ohio attorney general said last month. And it still might not be too late to file a claim, data show.

The settlement deadline, though previously established, comes on the heels of the public firing two weeks ago of former Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid (pictured) by Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald (pictured).

County executive since 2011, FitzGerald, a former Lakewood, Oh. mayor and prior FBI agent who aspires to be governor, fired Reid, a former police chief in the corruption ridden city of Bedford, Oh., following claims of mortgage and foreclosure fraud by Reid himself, Chase Bank, and  Bricker and Eckler and Lerner, Sampson and Rothfuss law firms, among others.

Data show that several of the 34 general division judges and magistrates of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas are involved in the widespread foreclosure corruption scheme too. They basically  hear foreclosures, felony criminal cases, and civil lawsuits. And they often do as they please, the law sometimes meaning nothing to them.

As defendants the  aforementioned banks are parties to the settlement and court authorized consent decree along with the states attorneys general, who are acting on behalf of 49 states that are the plaintiffs, including Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a popular Republican and former U.S. senator, is helping to oversee the settlement process for Ohio, though the consent decree is under the jurisdiction of the federal district court.

For more information on the national mortgage settlement at issue contact nationalmortgagesettelment.com or call DeWine's office. While the deadline for filing a complaint was Jan 18, that date has not been set in stone, it appears.

The consent decree settles the claims for interested consumers that qualify who want to waive litigation in exchange for $850 to $1400 of the $1.5 billion total settlement set aside for the meager compensation for their stolen homes. And affected Ohioans and others still in their homes, though foreclosed on illegally, would be kicked out if they take such money, the consent degree suggests.

Though neither side to the settlement has admitted any guilt, the alleged malfeasance includes claims that Chase and the other four banks received transferred mortgages without a notary public as required by law, denied homeowners requested loan modification programs, and charged excessive fees, among other alleged illegalities.

The consent decree denotes in relevant part that J.P. Morgan Chase Bank and the other defendants to the case are accused of violating state mortgage and foreclosure laws, federal bankruptcy laws, the False Claims Act, and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989.

The $1.5 billion settlement is part of a $25 billion larger settlement, part of which goes to the respective states that are parties to the settlement, an obvious impetus for the attorneys general that agreed to participate.

Oklahoma would not join the other 49 states, saying in part that homeowners impacted by the illegal foreclosure activities deserve more of the settlement, and that they could seek redress independently, and even fight to remain in their homes rather than agreeing to settle for little or nothing.

Data suggests that Cuyahoga County officials and some county judges such as common pleas judges John O'Donnell (pictured in red tie) and Carolyn Friedland, and Chief Foreclosure Magistrate Stephen Bucha, must have seen the settlement coming where some homeowners that qualify due to alleged illegalities by at least Chase Bank were improperly ousted from their homes in cases before them. And some were literally harassed and interrogated by O'Donnell, data also show, who used former convicted sheriff Gerald McFaul and his judicial friends to jail those that fought back in court, particularly Blacks and women