Mortgage Fraud

Freddie Mac
Marshall C. Watson Law Firm

Action Date: March 12, 2011
Location: Ft. Lauderdale, FL

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”) announced on March 11, 2011, that it is taking its foreclosure cases away from the Marshall C. Watson Law Firm. The Watson firm, based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, was one of the firms most often used by Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and mortgage-backed trusts to foreclose in Florida. The Watson Firm came under the scrutiny of the Economic Crimes Division of the Florida Attorney General for improper loan documentation and foreclosure practices.

In over ten thousand Florida foreclosure cases, the Watson firm used mortgage assignments signed by the firm’s own employees to prove that their clients owned the mortgages. In most of these cases, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and mortgage-backed trusts were claiming to own the mortgages. Fannie, Freddie and the trusts lost or never obtained the mortgage assignments needed to prove ownership.

In these cases, two associate lawyers in the Watson firm, Patricia Arango and Caryn Graham, signed the Assignments to the trusts so that the foreclosures could proceed. When Arango and Graham signed these mortgage assignments, they did not disclose that they were lawyers in the Watson Firm. Instead, Arango and Graham signed as officers of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.

In the last three years, Arango and Graham signed as officers of the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., as Nominee for the following lenders on over 10,000 documents used in Florida foreclosures:

• Aegis Wholesale Corporation;
• America Imperial Mortgage Business, Inc.;
• American Bancorp Mortgage Corp.;
• American Home Mortgage;
• America’s Wholesale Lender;
• BNC Mortgage, Inc.;
• Century 21 Mortgage;
• Countrywide Bank, FSB;
• Countrywide Home Loans, Inc.;
• CTX Mortgage Company, LLC;
• Gateway Funding Diversified Mortgage Services;
• Decision One Mortgage Company, LLC;
• E-Loan, Inc.;
• First Choice Funding Group;
• First Magnus Financial Corporation;
• Flagstar Bank, FSB;
• Greenpoint Mortgage Funding;
• Guaranteed Mortgage Bankers;
• HomeAmerica Mortgage Corp.;
• Interstate Home Loan Center, Inc.;
• Ivanhoe Financial, Inc.;
• KB Home Mortgage Company;
• MFC Mortgage Inc. of FL;
• Quicken Loans, Inc.;
• Suntrust Mortgage, Inc.; and
• Universal American Mortgage Company, LLC.

On the majority of these documents, the date of the alleged transaction is falsely stated. The documents were so poorly prepared that in many cases, the new owner is shown to have acquired the mortgage months and even years AFTER the foreclosure cases were filed by those new mortgage owners.

The Watson Firm was also the law firm that most frequently used mortgage assignments prepared by Docx, LLC. The assignments from Docx, LLC include thousands of documents with forged signatures of Linda Green, Tywanna Thomas and Korell Harp, as well as dozens of documents where the lenders were identified as “Bogus Assignee” and “A Bad Bene.” These Docx-prepared assignments also falsely stated the dates of the alleged transfers, and even the authority of the signers to sign on behalf of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.

Despite the well-documented problems with foreclosure cases brought by the Watson Firm, Fannie Mae has not removed the firm from its list of approved law firms. Fannie Mae removed Florida firm Ben-Ezra & Katz in February, 2011, and required the firm to transfer over 15,000 files. Fannie also removed The Law Offices of David J. Stern in Plantation, Florida. That firm announced that it would stop doing all foreclosure work as of March 31, 2011.

No criminal charges have been filed in any case involving forged or fraudulent loan documents used by banks and mortgage lenders to foreclose.

While courts have been critical of such documents and have added requirements to civil procedure rules so that law firms can be sanctioned for using such documents, no sanction has ever included any criminal charges.

Link to his site: Christian Meister

Just want to make it clear that no one from his office/party sent this to me.

Winner in my book!

[ipaper docId=43373487 access_key=key-1t11nhdq6z6u5z00k4p7 height=600 width=600 /]

ASSIGNMENT OF MORTGAGE , “Assignor”

Hmmmm

“Assignment of Mortgage”It is signed by Lisa Wickser who is identified as the Assistant Secretary of

“Assignment of Mortgage”

though the notary says she notarized the signature of Rose C. Lara who is also identified as an Assistant Secretary of that same company,

“Assignment of Mortgage.”

Hat tip to the person who added the markings…now it’s up against a Monet art piece!

[ipaper docId=37307888 access_key=key-19vf8lmd51tu4q81fb22 height=600 width=600 /]

One may have seen this coming, so what do they do…

Go NASDAQ BABY!

By: Matthew Weidner P.A.

For a brief period of time in the history of courts in Florida, lawyers engaged in a widespread and pervasive practice of submitting blatantly false evidence in courts.  This period of time began roughly when the foreclosure crisis moved from the mortgage and lending industries and into Florida courts.

Now that judges and courts have become aware of just how pervasive this practice was, individual efforts on the part of judges and systemic rule changes implemented by the Florida Supreme Court should signal the end of this era.  An article that appeared in the Sarasota Tribune and can be viewed here quotes a local judge, Robert Bennett from Sarasota who recently had one of his opinions reversed by the Second District Court of Appeals.  (Verizzo v. Bank of New York) Found here

In the article, the good judge admits that his initial ruling…in favor of the bank was incorrect.  The decision was a reflection of a judicial system that was totally overwhelmed by problems caused by the mortgage and lending institutions….they caused the problems then dumped their problems in the laps of absurdly understaffed courts and judges then said, “Here, you fix the mess we’ve created!”

It’s taken a while to identify the issues and to grasp the scope of the problem, but now that judges and court systems are aware that they were taken advantage of, the tide has shifted.  New rules and new cases, both from appellate courts and from sister courts, have made judges all over aware of the issues such that they are no longer willing to look the other way and sign off granting sale….when asked how he thinks Plaintiff’s attorneys will comply, Chief Judge Lee Hayworth (long a critic of sloppy Plaintiff practice) had this to say:

“I’m looking forward to see how they do comply,” Haworth said. “Their license could be on the line.”

Liberty and Justice Prevail When Good Judges Sit Firmly on The Bench!

Source: Matthew Weidner Blog

Absorb these words from one who knows

what he speaks of…Mr. Paul Muckle

I warned these banks in 2007, “give the People a loan modification before they discover that you defrauded them, because woe be onto you when they find out”. Anyway, I figured out that was on to something so to buy time to think strategy, I demanded that my mortgage go from the $3,833.54 to $1,200 per month. The judge agreed and ordered that the mortgage payments was going to be $1,200 a month, and he also wiped out the $20,000 plus mortgage in arrears. This was too easy, they were willing to cater to me just to keep my brethren from feasting. The judge then ordered that I was to begin mortgage payments of $1,200 a month, but not to pay it to the lender, but to the court’s registry. My claims were still pending, even though I was paying the mortgage, I could still pursue my claims of mortgage fraud against the banks. But I saw the trap! The day I sign any papers accepting this payment modification, I the day that the case is SETTLED, and the banks would get away with robbery. The judge also gave me a stern warning, “Mr. Muckle, I am going to tell you this and please listen to me carefully”.. then he looked me into my dark brown cold eyes with is tender and sincere big blue ones, and said, ever so sincerely and meaningfully, “Mr. Muckle, do not win the battle and lose the war”. He really was looking out for mines and my children’s best interest. But as his mouth opened up and uttered those words, all I could really hear him saying to me was, “ Mr. Muckle, why settle for a battle when you can win the war?” Fight them my brother, I have your back!”.( Lol, I swear, that’s what heard). But to secure the order and bind me, the judge ordered in writing, “If the plaintiff do not begin to pay the money into the court’s registry as ordered, the defendant SHALL foreclose on the Plaintiff’s property and sell it” Huh! …continue HERE