Wood TV8-

The former president of a mortgage document processing company has been sentenced for racketeering.

Lorraine Brown was sentenced to 40 months to 20 years in a Michigan state prison. That will be served concurrently with any sentence received for federal crimes.

[WOOD TV8]

Contact:  Joy Yearout 517-373-8060

February 11,  2013

         LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced Lorraine Brown, former president of mortgage document processor DocX, pleaded guilty to racketeering for her alleged role in authorizing the fraudulent signing of mortgage documents filed in Michigan.  Brown pleaded guilty today to one count of Conducting Criminal Enterprises (Racketeering), a 20-year felony, before Kent County Circuit Court Judge Mark Trusock.  She will return for sentencing on May 2, 1:30 PM.  The guilty plea follows an Attorney General investigation into questionable mortgage documentation filed with Michigan’s Register of Deeds offices during the foreclosure crisis. 

 “Shortcuts like robo-signing are just one part of the mortgage foreclosure crisis,” said Schuette.  “The message here is clear – if you break the law, there are consequences.  We will continue to prosecute criminals who target and exploit Michigan homeowners.”

In April 2011, Schuette launched an investigation after county officials across the state reported that they suspected Assignment of Mortgage documents filed in their offices may have been forged.  A “60 Minutes” news broadcast had shown that the name “Linda Green” was signed to thousands of mortgage-related documents nationwide, but with many different variations in handwriting.  County officials in Michigan reviewed their files and found similar documents, thus raising questions about the authenticity of the documents filed.

As part of his investigation, Schuette reviewed documents filed in Michigan and prepared by DocX, a document processing company located in Georgia.  DocX processed mortgage assignments and lien releases for residential lenders and servicers nationwide.  Schuette’s investigation revealed that former DocX president Lorraine Brown, 51, of Alpharetta, Georgia, allegedly established and orchestrated a widespread scheme of “robo-signing,” a practice in which employees were directed to fraudulently sign another authorized person’s name on mortgage documents in order to execute these documents as quickly as possible.

Internally, DocX identified this practice as “facsimile signing” or “surrogate signing.”  Schuette alleges that from 2006 through 2009, these improperly executed documents were created and recorded at Brown’s direction.  Schuette’s investigation revealed that more than 1,000 unauthorized and improperly executed documents were filed with county registers of deeds throughout Michigan. 

In addition to the criminal charge brought against Brown, Schuette announced on January 31, 2013 that he had reached a $2.5 million civil settlement with Lender Processing Services, Inc., the parent company of the now defunct DocX.  The settlement funds will go to the State of Michigan, and the legislature will decide how they will be spent.  Affected consumers will have their documents corrected by LPS. 

Earlier this year, Schuette joined 48 other state attorneys general in entering into a settlement with the five leading bank mortgage servicers. The settlement addresses allegations of faulty foreclosure processes and poor servicing of mortgages that harmed Michigan homeowners. The settlement also requires comprehensive reforms of mortgage loan servicing to improve customer service for Michigan borrowers.  More information on the 2012 Mortgage Settlement is available on the Attorney General’s Website at www.michigan.gov/mortgagesettlement.

-30-

Source: http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,4534,7-164-46849-294807–,00.html

Contact: Joy Yearout 517-373-8060

November 26, 2012

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced he charged Lorraine Brown, former president of mortgage document processor DocX, with racketeering for her alleged role in authorizing the fraudulent signing of mortgage documents filed in Michigan. The felony charge comes as the result of an ongoing Attorney General investigation into questionable mortgage documentation filed with Michigan’s Register of Deeds offices during the foreclosure crisis.

“Shortcuts like robo-signing are just one piece of the mortgage foreclosure crisis,” said Schuette. “Our investigation remains ongoing, and we will bring to justice every lawbreaker we find.”

In April 2011, Schuette launched an investigation after county officials across the state reported that they suspected Assignment of Mortgage documents filed in their offices may have been forged. A “60 Minutes” news broadcast had shown that the name “Linda Green” was signed to thousands of mortgage-related documents nationwide, but with many different variations in handwriting. County officials in Michigan reviewed their files and found similar documents, thus raising questions about the authenticity of the documents filed.

As part of his investigation, Schuette reviewed documents filed in Michigan and prepared by DocX, a document processing company located in Georgia. DocX processed mortgage assignments and lien releases for residential lenders and servicers nationwide. Schuette’s investigation revealed that former DocX president Lorraine Brown, 51, of Alpharetta, Georgia, allegedly established and orchestrated a widespread scheme of “robo-signing,” a practice in which employees were directed to fraudulently sign another authorized person’s name on mortgage documents in order to execute these documents as quickly as possible.

Internally, DocX identified this practice as “facsimile signing” or “surrogate signing.” Schuette alleges that from 2006 through 2009, these improperly executed documents were created and recorded at Brown’s direction. Schuette’s investigation revealed that more than 1,000 unauthorized and improperly executed documents were filed with county registers of deeds throughout Michigan.

Lorraine Brown has been charged with one count of Conducting Criminal Enterprises (Racketeering), a 20-year felony, in Kent County’s 61st District Court. Arrangements are being made for Brown to surrender to Michigan authorities, and arraignment will be scheduled at a later date.

In 2010, DocX suspended operations, halting its work as a mortgage document processor. Schuette noted that while the criminal charges against Brown address her role in the scheme, his office’s overall investigation into robo-signing remains ongoing and is not yet complete.

A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

[MICHIGAN.GOV]

UPDATE: From the press conference this am– This is about DocX criminal charges and Lorraine Brown, former Founder-President of DocX faces up to 20 years. AG Schuette’s office is still working on the arraignments. 

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is holding a press conference Monday at 11 am to announce criminal charges in a significant case involving the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

H/T Click on Detroit

Recap:

FLORIDA: INDICTMENT & PLEA AGREEMENT | Lorraine Brown, Former Founder-President of DOCX Pleads Guilty

MISSOURI: Attorney General Koster announces plea agreement with Lorraine Brown – Former President of DocX to plead guilty for national mortgage document robo-signing practices

Few follow ups:

How exactly did they correct over 1 million documents?

What a bout the forgeries coming out of LPS in Minnesota?

What will happen to all the investor lawsuits/investigations against LPS?

What will happen to former LPS CEO’s who knew this was going on back in 2009 but did not alert anyone, especially their investors?

What happens to all the people who were damaged by these documents?

What happens to the two ousted former FL Assistant AG’s from Florida, June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards, who were fired for investigating LPS?

NYT-

The founder and former president of DocX, once one of the nation’s largest foreclosure-processing companies, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to fraud in one of the few criminal cases to have arisen out of the housing crisis.

The executive, Lorraine O. Brown, 56, entered a guilty plea in federal court in Florida and a plea agreement in state court in Missouri related to DocX’s preparation of improper documents used to evict troubled borrowers from their homes. Ms. Brown’s guilty pleas will lead to a prison term of at least two years, the Missouri attorney general said.

[NEW YORK TIMES]

Via MO AG-

Attorney General Chris Koster today announced that the state of Missouri and Lorraine Brown, former President of DocX, LLC, have reached a plea agreement. Under the agreement, Ms. Brown will plead guilty to one felony count of forgery, one felony count of perjury, and one misdemeanor count of making a false declaration.

Brown will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than two years and not to exceed three years in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

Ms. Brown is the former President of the company DocX, LLC. During the period of March to October 2009, DocX, at the direction of Brown, instituted a surrogate signing policy whereby employees signed, not their name, but the names of other employees on thousands of mortgage documents that were notarized and filed across the country. Prior to 2009, similar signing practices were also employed at DocX. Brown concealed these practices from her clients, the national mortgage servicers, and the parent company of DocX. The practices of DocX were brought to national attention by a “60 Minutes” report and resulted in several major lenders temporarily suspending foreclosures in 2010.

“DocX’s robo-signing practices were the worst in the county. Surrogate-signing crosses the threshold into criminal activity,” Koster said. “This agreement brings to justice the person most responsible for these activities and upholds the principle that when you sign your name to a legal document, it matters.”

Brown’s plea of guilty to forgery and making a false declaration will be entered in Boone County where a criminal prosecution is ongoing by the Missouri Attorney General and the Boone County Prosecutor. Brown’s plea of perjury will be entered in Jackson County where a criminal prosecution is also ongoing by the Missouri Attorney General and the Jackson County Prosecutor.

The Attorney General’s Office worked in coordination with the Boone County Prosecutor, the Jackson County Prosecutor, the Boone County Recorder of Deeds, and the Jackson County Recorder of Deeds.

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
JACKSONVILLE DIVISION

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

vs

LORRAINE BROWN

EXCERPT:

LORRAINE BROWN,
the defendant herein , did knowingly and willfully combine, conspire, confederate
and agree with others to commit certain offenses, to wit:

a. execute and attempt to execute a scheme and artifice to
defraud, and to obtain money and property by means of material false and
fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, by utilizing the United
States mail and private and commercial interstate carriers, for the purpose of
executing such scheme and artifice, in violation of Title 18, United States Code,
Section 1341 ; and,

b. execute and attempt to execute a scheme and artifice to
defraud, and to obtain money and property by means of material false and
fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, by transmitting and causing
to be transmitted by means of wire communications in interstate and foreign
commerce, writings, signs, visual pictures, and sounds, for the purpose of
executing such scheme and artifice, in violation of Title 18, United States Code,
Section 1343.

Manner and Means of the Conspiracy and Scheme and Artifice

8. The manner and means by which Brown, co-conspirators, and
others sought to accomplish the purposes and objectives of the conspiracy
include, but are not limited to, the following :

a. Beginning in or about 2005, employees of DocX, at the
direction of Brown and others, began forging and falsifying signatures on the
mortgage-related documents that they had been hired to prepare and file with
property recorders’ offices throughout the United States.

b. Unbeknownst to DocX’s clients, the Authorized Signers were
instructed by Brown and other DocX employees to allow other, unauthorized,
DocX employees to sign, and to have the document notarized as if the actual
Authorized Singer had executed the document.

c. Brown also hired temporary workers to sign as Authorized
Signers. These temporary employees worked for much lower costs and without
the quality control represented by Brown to DocX’s cl ients. In fact, some of
these temporary workers were able to sign thousands of documents a day.
These mortgage-related documents were fraudulently notarized by DocX
employees even though the Authorized Signer did not actually sign the
document.

d. These unauthorized signing and notarization practices
allowed DocX, Brown, and others to generate greater profit and make more money.

e. After these false documents were signed and notarized,
DocX filed them through the mails or by electronic methods with local county
property records offices. Many of these documents, particularly mortgage
assignments and lost note or assignment affidavits, were later relied upon in
court proceedings, including property foreclosures and in federal bankruptcy
court. Brown knew that these property recorders, as well as those who received
the documents such as courts, title insurers, and homeowners, relied on these
documents as genuine.

f. Brown and others also took various steps to conceal their
actions from detection from clients, LPS corporate headquarters, law
enforcement authorities, and others.

[…]

9. Factual Basis

Defendant is pleading guilty because defendant is in fact guilty. The
defendant certifies that defendant does hereby admit that the facts set forth in the
attached “Factual Basis,” which is incorporated herein by reference, are true, and were
this case to go to trial, the United States would be able to prove those specific facts and
others beyond a reasonable doubt.

[…]

[ipaper docId=113941489 access_key=key-18hunkknb5w8dehddxkn height=600 width=600 /]

Hat Tip to Citi Group for this! 🙂

Citi-

The Shuman Law Firm announces that it is investigating potential claims
against certain officers and directors of Lender Processing Services,
Inc. (“LPS” or the “Company”) (NYSE: LPS).

LPS provides integrated technology and outsourced services to the
mortgage lending industry in the United States.

The firm’s investigation primarily concerns allegedly illegal activity
that occurred at LPS’s subsidiary, DocX LLC (“DocX”) from 2007 through
2010. On August 2, 2012, the Missouri Attorney General’s office
announced a settlement with LPS of criminal charges of forgery and
making false statements by DocX and DocX’s former president. These
charges arose out of the mortgage document surrogate signing scandal
(robo-signing) which became public in 2010. As a part of the settlement,
LPS agreed to pay the state of Missouri $2 million.

[CITI]

NOTE: This agreement was not out in the public.

Via JN

Under the agreement, LPS will pay the state of Missouri $2 million and will cooperate with the Attorney General’s Office in its continuing criminal investigation of founder and former president of DOCX, Lorraine Brown.

Specifically, LPS will pay $1.5 million into the Missouri state treasury and will pay $500,000 to the Merchandising Practices Revolving Fund of the Attorney General’s Office as reimbursement for the costs of the investigation.

DOCX earned approximately $363,000 in total revenue from the execution and filing of mortgage-related documents in the state of Missouri for the years 2008-2010. Consequently, LPS’s payment of $2 million to the state is well in excess of the revenue earned by the company in the state of Missouri during the relevant time period, and is approximately two and a half times the amount that could be obtained as a result of convictions on the previously pending indictments. LPS discontinued the operations of DOCX in May 2010. LPS terminated Lorraine Brown in November 2009.

[ipaper docId=106278945 access_key=key-2dnpkev5tddpzwcxx0m6 height=600 width=600 /]

The Real Estalker-

Not only does always-working actor and former Brat Packer Rob Lowe (Parks and Recreation, Brothers& Sisters, The West Wing) own a substantial estate with a 14,000-plus square foot mansion in Montecito, CA with distant, over-the-tree-tops ocean views, until last September (2011) he and the Missus also owned an ocean side getaway just 6.5 miles away in Carpinteria, CA that they quietly sold for $5,900,000 to title insurance tycoon William P. “Bill” Foley II.

[THE REAL ESTALKER]

image: The Real Estalker

Below is the only video I could find of this beach house.

by PCdotCOM

— LPS to pay Missouri $2 million and cooperate in ongoing criminal investigation of DOCX president Lorraine Brown —

Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorney General Chris Koster today said his office has negotiated a settlement of criminal proceedings against mortgage-services company DOCX and an agreement with DOCX parent company Lender Processing Services, Inc. (LPS). In February 2012, Koster obtained criminal indictments against DOCX related to its alleged role in the mortgage-document surrogate-signing scandal of 2010.

Under the agreement, LPS will pay the state of Missouri $2 million and will cooperate with the Attorney General’s Office in its continuing criminal investigation of founder and former president of DOCX, Lorraine Brown.

Specifically, LPS will pay $1.5 million into the Missouri state treasury and will pay $500,000 to the Merchandising Practices Revolving Fund of the Attorney General’s Office as reimbursement for the costs of the investigation.

DOCX earned approximately $363,000 in total revenue from the execution and filing of mortgage-related documents in the state of Missouri for the years 2008-2010. Consequently, LPS’s payment of $2 million to the state is well in excess of the revenue earned by the company in the state of Missouri during the relevant time period, and is approximately two and a half times the amount that could be obtained as a result of convictions on the previously pending indictments. LPS discontinued the operations of DOCX in May 2010. LPS terminated Lorraine Brown in November 2009.

Koster obtained the indictments against Brown and DOCX for forgery and making false declarations related to mortgage documents processed by DOCX in the state of Missouri. The Attorney General’s indictments alleged that DOCX directed employees of the company to falsely sign mortgage documents in the names of various bank vice presidents without proper authorization. Furthermore, the indictments alleged that such forged signatures were then falsely notarized by DOCX as though such bank vice presidents had actually signed the documents. Finally, the forged documents were then filed in courthouses across Missouri.

“My office has taken the position that when you sign your name to a legal document, it matters,” Koster said. “The monetary disgorgement and the agreement we have reached in this criminal case with DOCX should remind all mortgage-services processers that our system of titling real property will be held to a standard of accuracy and truth expected by homeowners across the country.”

“I appreciate LPS taking responsibility for the actions of its subsidiary, and for their agreeing to cooperate in our continuing criminal investigation of this matter.”

Koster noted that LPS has also entered into a separate consent order with the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that requires LPS to allow an independent, third-party consultant to conduct a review of document execution services provided by subsidiaries of LPS, such as DOCX, between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2010. The review is intended to assess potential financial injury to borrowers. Under the federal consent order, LPS has agreed to prepare a remediation plan to provide restitution to borrowers if any such financial harm is found. Under the terms of today’s agreement, LPS has agreed to report to the Attorney General’s Office on a quarterly basis to provide the status of its compliance with the federal consent order as it pertains to Missouri residents.

The Attorney General’s Office has agreed not to prosecute LPS or DOCX for DOCX’s previous surrogate-signing related conduct so long as LPS makes the above-referenced payments and complies with the terms of the agreement.

The indictments against DOCX and Lorraine Brown were the result of months of investigation by the Missouri Attorney General’s Office into the robo-signing scandal that injected thousands of questionable mortgage documents into the market. The 68 documents on which the indictments were based were purportedly signed by an employee of DOCX, Linda Green, in her role as a designated vice president for several of the nation’s leading banks, but were in fact signed by someone else, and subsequently notarized and filed in Missouri.

The pending charges against the defendant are merely accusations. As in all criminal cases, the defendant is presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty.

Source: http://ago.mo.gov

“Banks are not sure if they have their “I’s” dotted or “T’s” crossed”….”Don’t know who is the beneficiary of the mortgages”.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE
SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION

COUNTY OF GUILFORD

GUILFORD COUNTY, ex rel. JEFF L.
THIGPEN, GUILFORD COUNTY
REGISTER OF DEEDS,
Plaintiff,

v.

LENDER PROCESSING SERVICES, INC.;
DOCX, LLC; LPS DEFAULT SOLUTIONS,
INC.; MERSCORP HOLDINGS, INC.;
MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC
REGISTRATION SYSTEMS, INC.; WELLS
FARGO BANK, N.A.; WELLS FARGO
HOME MORTGAGE, INC.; BANK OF
AMERICA, N.A.; JPMORGAN CHASE
BANK, N.A.; CHASE HOME FINANCE
LLC; EMC MORTGAGE CORPORATION;
MIDFIRST BANK; SAND CANYON
CORPORATION; CITI RESIDENTIAL
LENDING, INC.; GREEN TREE
SERVICING, LLC; AMERIQUEST
MORTGAGE COMPANY; USAA
FEDERAL SAVINGS BANK; AMERICAN
HOME MORTGAGE SERVICING, INC.;
MOREQUITY, INC.; U.S. BANK
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION;
EQUICREDIT CORPORATION OF
AMERICA; NATIONSCREDIT
FINANCIAL SERVICES CORP.; ARGENT
MORTGAGE COMPANY, LLC; THE
BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON; THE
BANK OF NEW YORK MELLON TRUST
COMPANY, N.A.; CAPITAL ONE, N.A.;
FIRST FRANKLIN FINANCIAL CORP.;
NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION; and
WEICHERT FINANCIAL SERVICES;
Defendants.

[ipaper docId=85235617 access_key=key-1g5fk84g1cy0nyzvnllk height=600 width=600 /]

Our Midland-

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has issued a second criminal investigative subpoena against national mortgage servicing support provider DocX as his office continues to investigate questionable mortgage documentation filed with Michigan’s Register of Deeds offices during the current foreclosure crisis.  

“We are moving forward with our investigative efforts to find answers on behalf of Michigan homeowners,” said Schuette.  

Schuette’s office has requested documents and information regarding DocX operations in relation to foreclosure and/or bankruptcy-related document processing. The subpoena was approved by the 54B District Court in Ingham County, and the information must be provided to the Attorney General’s Office on or before April 4.

This is the second criminal subpoena filed during the course of Schuette’s investigation. Schuette previously filed a criminal subpoena against DocX on June 12, 2011.

[OUR MIDLAND]

AP –

Arizona, Michigan and Florida, three of the states hit hardest by the housing crisis, will join a nationwide settlement over foreclosure abuses, officials with direct knowledge say. They will join more than 40 other states in approving a deal that would benefit many Americans who lost their homes or can’t afford their mortgages.

The three states’ involvement buoys hopes that a full 50-state deal is imminent.

Formal announcements from Arizona and Florida could come within a week, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the settlement publicly.

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said he first wants to resolve a separate foreclosure-related lawsuit his state filed against Bank of America.

Florida officials say they are still in discussions. Attorney General Pam Bondi “remains engaged in the settlement discussions in order to ensure that Floridians receive their fair share in the agreement,” she said in a statement. Other officials said Florida intends to back the deal.

Michigan announced Tuesday it would join the settlement. Officials said the state would receive about $500 million in aid.

Michigan officials also said they would continue a criminal investigation into Docx, a unit of Lender Processing Services of Jacksonville, Fla. The company is accused of using fake signatures on phony foreclosure documents. Missouri filed criminal charges against the firm and its founder Friday, saying it falsified 68 notarized deeds on behalf of mortgage lenders.

[AP]

Action Date: February 7, 2012
Location: Boone Country, MO

DocX, LLC, a mortgage document company and a subsidiary of Lender Processing Services (“LPS”) in Jacksonville, Florida, was indicted on February 6, 2012, by a grand jury in Boone County, Missouri. Lorraine O’Reilly Brown, a former Senior Vice President of Lender Processing Services, and the founder of DocX, was also indicted. This was the first case in which a senior officer of a mortgage document company was charged with crimes relating to mortgage document preparation.

Brown and DocX were each charged with 68 counts of forgery, a class C felony in Missouri and 67 counts of False Declaration, a Class B misdemeanor.

The felony charges can each carry a term of imprisonment not to exceed seven years and a fine not to exceed $5,000 or double the gain from the crime up to $20,000. The misdemeanor charges each carry a term not to exceed six months, and a fine of $500 or double the gain up to $20,000.

The case will be prosecuted by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster. “Today’s indictment reflects our firm conviction that when you sign your name to a legal document, it matters,” Koster said. “Mass-producing fraudulent signatures on millions of real estate documents across America constitutes forgery. When you file those documents in our state, you are committing a crime under Missouri law.

The indictment focuses on Deeds of Release, documents issued by banks and mortgage companies when a homeowner/borrower successfully pays off their loan. In some states, these are also called Satisfaction of Mortgages. The documents examined by the grand jury and identified in the indictments were signed by many different people signing the name Linda Green. This practice was first exposed in a segment of 60 Minutes that aired in 2011.

Other employees of a subsidiary of Lender Processing Services were indicted in 2011 in Nevada by Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. These employees notarized mortgage documents that had been signed by LPS employees using false names and false job titles.

LPS has steadfastly defended these practices and even coined a term, calling the forgeries “surrogate signing.” Regarding the use of false job titles, LPS has defended this practice by saying such titles were authorized by corporate resolutions from many different banks and mortgage companies.

But while publicly defending these practices, lawyers working for LPS have been filing thousands of “corrective” mortgage assignments in county records throughout the country. In tens of thousands of cases, employees signed the name Linda Green to mortgage documents and identified Green as an officer of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (“MERS”) though the real Linda Green did not qualify to serve as a MERS certifying officer because she was not an officer of her actual employer.

Conferring of officer titles to non-employees via corporate resolutions was one of the many practices challenged in a civil lawsuit brought by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan against another mortgage document mill, Nationwide Title Clearing, on February 2, 2012.

Employees in the DocX office signed names to mortgage documents 4,000 times a day for several years. They most often signed false names and false officer titles to mortgage satisfactions and mortgage assignments. The assignments were very often used in foreclosure cases to prove that residential mortgage-backed trusts owned the mortgages and had the right to foreclose even though the trusts had never obtained the necessary documents during the securitization process.

These practices will be a significant part of the examination to be conducted by the mortgage securitization fraud task force, announced by President Obama during the State of the Union address. The taskforce will be co-chaired by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman who filed a lawsuit against MERS and three major banks on February 3, 2012. The New York lawsuit was similar to the lawsuits filed by Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden on October 27, 2011 and by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in December, 2011.

According to the lawsuit filed by Attorney General Biden, “MERS engaged and continues to engage in a range of deceptive trade practices that sow confusion among consumers, investors, and other stakeholders in the mortgage finance system, damage the integrity of Delaware’s land records, and lead to unlawful foreclosure practices.”

The DocX mortgage documents permeate the records of almost every county recorder in the country. From July 1, 2008 through December 31, 2009, 1,742 DocX mortgage assignments were filed in Palm Beach County, transferring mortgages valued at $560,239,797. Deutsche Bank National Trust Company and American Home Mortgage Servicing were two of the most frequent users of the DocX documents, but over 30 banks and mortgage companies were clients of DocX.

Image: X-Files

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF BOONE COUNTY, MISSOURI

STATE OF MISSOURI
Plaintiff,

v.

DOCX, LLC,
a Georgia corporation
Registered Agent:
CT Corporation System
1201 Peachtree Street, NE
Atlanta, Georgia 30361
Defendant.

[ipaper docId=80741262 access_key=key-872qqc60801aaclngf4 height=600 width=600 /]

Some tid-bits for you all from DOCX’s website in 1998:

DOCX was established in March of 1993 by its president, Lorraine O. Brown. It’s a privately held Colorado Limited Liability Company. DOCX set up headquarters in Springfield, Ohio. In October 1994, DOCX merged forces with Ontrak Services. Ontrak was a pioneer in the development of outsourcing services for assignment and satisfaction processing. With the acquisition of Ontrak, DOCX expanded its operations to Frederick Maryland. DOCX has recently established a marketing/sales office in Atlanta, Georgia. DOCX operations continue to run in both the Springfield, Ohio and Frederick, Maryland locations.

[…]

DOCX developed two software products; DOCX RID™ (Recorders Information Database) which keeps track of County Recorder fees, and the requirements for recording assignment and satisfaction documents, UCC’s, and to obtain certified true copies of recorded documents. DOCX’s latest software development, DOCX in a BOX™, takes the DOCX RID program significantly further by providing the software to produce the completed and legally-sufficient documents required to process

NYT-

One of the largest companies that provided home foreclosure services to lenders across the nation, DocX, has been indicted on forgery charges by a Missouri grand jury — one of the few criminal actions to follow reports of widespread improprieties against homeowners.

A grand jury in Boone County, Mo., handed up an indictment Friday accusing DocX of 136 counts of forgery in the preparation of documents used to evict financially strained borrowers from their homes. Lorraine O. Brown, the company’s founder and former president, was indicted on the same charges.

Employees of DocX, a unit of Lender Processing Services of Jacksonville, Fla., executed and notarized millions of mortgage documents for big banks and loan servicers over the years. Lender Processing closed the company in April 2010, after evidence emerged of apparent forgeries in these documents, a practice now called robo-signing.

[NEW YORK TIMES]

[ipaper docId=80741262 access_key=key-872qqc60801aaclngf4 height=600 width=600 /]

STATE OF NEVADA

Plaintiff

vs.

LENDER PROCESSING SERVICES INC.;

FIDELITY NATIONAL IINFORMATION SERVICES INC.;

LPS DEFAULT SOLUTIONS INC.;

DOCX, LLC; DOES 1-XX,

Defendants

EXCERPTS:

5. Following the exposure of deceptive document execution practices at DOCX

[…]

15 Georgia, LPS then misrepresented that it had processes and internal controls in place at the LPS
16 Default Solutions office in Minnesota to ensure that affidavits were signed properly and in
17 accordance with industry standard. LPS senior executives expressly contradicted these
18 representations in sworn court testimony.

[ipaper docId=75880962 access_key=key-cu3armxuntttgvwheh1 height=600 width=600 /]

A few email discussions of the FL AG’s office that show what went on behind closed doors. Go thru them and thanks to Foreclosure Hamlet for these gems.

Please click on the links below.

[M-Hamilton-to-LPS]

[V-Butler-to-LPS]

[B-Julian-to-LPS-1]

[B-Julian-to-LPS-2]

NOTE: Korell Harp misspelled, also see signature variations below.

This is a study of the  DOCX mortgage assignments in just one county – Palm Beach County, FL.

In just 18 months, 1,742 such assignments were filed with a total value of mortgages of $560,239,797.

Most of these assignments transferred mortgages to residential mortgage-backed trusts.

Deutsche Bank was the number one beneficiary.

The trusts that most often used these forged documents were:

American Home Mortgage Asset Trusts
American Home Mortgage Investment Trusts
Soundview Home Loan Trusts
Option One Mortgage Loan Trusts

and

HSI Asset Securitization Trusts

When considering also the assignments from LPS/MN and from LPS Network Law firm – David Stern –
nearly $2 billion in mortgages were transferred in just 18 months in one county.

[ipaper docId=67372622 access_key=key-voc30y1g5zewwughr1w height=600 width=600 /]