DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
FOURTH DISTRICT
July Term 2010
LAW OFFICES OF DAVID J. STERN, P.A. and DAVID J. STERN,
individually,
Appellants,
v.
LOREN BANNER and WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A.,
Appellees.
CASE No. 4D09-3928
[ December 29, 2010 ]
Excerpt:
Using that standard, we find no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s decision to certify the class in this case and
affirm the certification order.
Paperwork error complicates home sale, raises questions about process
By Diane C. Lade and Doreen Hemlock, Sun Sentinel
5:00 p.m. EST, December 4, 2010
Real estate investor Marjorie Oster was pleased when she snagged what looked like a good deal through a Miami-Dade County foreclosure court auction: a four-bedroom house in Cutler Bay, with a swimming pool, for about $95,000.
But when her husband drove by the next day to check on the property, he saw “someone cleaning the pool, a lawn service cutting the grass and a note it was being tented for termites,” said Oster, a Miami resident who has been in real estate for 15 years.
It turns out the house she thought she had purchased had been sold in a short sale the week before to someone else — Osberto Jimenez, a 40-year-old Cuban-born truck driver. The law firm handling the foreclosure for the lender mishandled the paperwork and never canceled the auction sale.
“So we both own the same house and I’m frustrated as hell,” said Oster. “Someone screwed up.”
On November 26, 2010, the Company received a letter from NASDAQ notifying it that for the prior 30 consecutive business days, the Company’s listed securities failed to maintain a minimum market value of $50 million, consequently, a deficiency exists with regard to this requirement for continued listing pursuant to NASDAQ Listing Rule 5450(b)(2)(A) (the “MVLS Rule”). NASDAQ further stated that in accordance with NASDAQ Listing Rule 5810(c)(3)(C), the Company will be provided 180 calendar days, or until May 25, 2011, to regain compliance with the MVLS Rule. NASDAQ will deem the Company to have regained compliance if at any time before May 25, 2011 the market value of the Company’s listed securities closes at $15,000,000 or more for a minimum of ten consecutive business days .
These notifications do not impact the listing and trading of the Company’s securitiesat this time.However, the NASDAQ letters also state that, if the Company does not regain compliance with the MVPHS Rule by May 23, 2011 or the MVLS Rule by May 25, 2011, the Company will receive written notification from NASDAQ that the Company’s securities are subject to delisting. The Company is reviewing its options for regaining compliance with the MVLS Rule and MVPHS Rule and for remedying other future potential non-compliances with Nasdaq continued listing requirements, including the requirement to maintain a minimum bid price of at least $1.00 per share. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to regain compliance with the MVLS Rule, MVPHS Rule or other Nasdaq continued listing requirements in a timely fashion, in which case its securities would be delisted from Nasdaq.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
RENAE MOWAT, NIKKI MACK,
ARKLYNN RAHMING, and QUENNA HUMPHREY individually
and on behalf of all other similarly situated individuals,
Plaintiffs,
vs.
DJSP ENTERPRISES, INC., a Florida Corporation, DJSP
ENTERPRISES, INC., a British Virgin Islands Company,
and LAW OFFICES OF DAVID J. STERN, P.A.,
DAVID J. STERN, individually,
Defendants.
______________________________________/
EXCERPT:
CLASS ACTION COMPLAINT
Plaintiffs Renae Mowat, Nikki Mack, Arklynn Rahming, and Quenna Humphrey individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, for their Complaint against Defendants, DJSP Enterprises, Inc., a Florida corporation, DJSP Enterprises, Inc., a British Virgin Islands Company, (collectively hereinafter referred to as “DJSP”), Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A., (“Stern, P.A.”) and David J. Stern (“Stern”) state as follows:
NATURE OF CASE
1) Plaintiffs bring this action on behalf of themselves and other similarly situated former employees who worked for the Defendants in Plantation, Florida and who were terminated as a consequence of mass layoffs by the Defendants beginning on September 23, 2010 and who were not provided sixty (60) days advance written notice of the mass layoffs by Defendants as required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, 29 U.S.C. § 2101 et seq.
(“WARN Act”).
2) Plaintiffs and all similarly situated employees seek to recover back pay for each day of WARN Act violation and benefits under 29 U.S.C. § 2104.
3) This Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1334 and 1367, as well as 29 U.S.C. §§ 2102, 2104(a)(5).
4) Venue over this matter is appropriate in this Court pursuant to 29 U.S.C. 2104(a)(5) because the acts constituting the violation of the WARN Act occurred, and the claims arose in this district. Venue is also proper under 28 U.S.C. §1391(a) and (b). The acts complained of occurred in the State of Florida and, at all relevant times, material hereto, the Defendants conducted business with and through the other named Defendants who also conducted business with and through the other Defendants and their subsidiaries and the named individual Defendant, David J. Stern, resides in this judicial district, and all of or a substantial part of the events or omissions giving rise to this action occurred in this judicial district.
Another 155 employees received pink slips Thursday from the Law Offices of David J. Stern and DJSP Enterprises, which processes home foreclosure cases for the Plantation-based law firm.
The layoffs came as Fannie Mae, which withdrew it business from the Stern firm after becoming one of its biggest clients, announced it had named eight law firms to handle foreclosure cases in Florida.
Testimony of Harold Lewis
Managing Director, CitiMortgage
Before the Committee on Financial Services
Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity
November 18, 2010
Excerpt:
As an additional quality control measure, Citi is currently reviewing approximately 10,000 affidavits that were executed in pending judicial foreclosures initiated prior to February 2010 to assure that these affidavits are substantively correct and properly executed. Citi expects that affidavits executed prior to the fall of 2009 will need to be re-filed.
Separately, Citi is also reviewing approximately 4,000 pending foreclosure affidavits in judicial states that were executed at our Dallas processing center and may not have been signed in the presence of a notary, to assure that these affidavits are substantively correct and properly executed. Citi expects that it will re-file these affidavits.
Lastly, as previously announced, Citi stopped referring new matters to the Florida law firm David Stern in September of 2010 and has since withdrawn all pending matters from that firm. As an added precaution and quality-control measure, Citi is transferring approximately 8,500 pending foreclosure files from the Stern law firm to new counsel. New affidavits for these cases will be prepared and re-filed by new counsel under Citi’s current procedures.
Stern’s DAL Enters Forbearance Agreement With Bank of America Over Credit
By Dawn McCarty – Nov 15, 2010 7:51 AM ET
A business run by David Stern, the Florida foreclosure lawyer who is under investigation by the state’s attorney general, entered a forbearance agreement with lender Bank of America NA.
The bank agreed not to take action in the period ending Nov. 26 over a default on a revolving line of credit by DAL Group LLC, a unit of Stern’s foreclosure-processing company, DJSP Enterprises Inc., according to a regulatory filing. The credit line, entered into in March, has an outstanding principal balance of about $12 million, DAL said.
On November 2, 2010, the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of DJSP Enterprises , Inc. (the “Company” or the “Registrant” ) appointed Jewett, Schwartz, Wolfe & Associates (“Jewett”) as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm, effective immediately. Jewett served as the independent registered public accounting firm of Chardan 2008 China Acquisition Corp. (“Chardan”) for the periods prior to the closing on the Business Combination (as defined below). Chardan changed its name to DJSP Enterprises, Inc. on January 15, 2010 in connection with the closing of the Business Combination.
On October 27 , 2010, the Company was notified that effective October 27 , 2010, McGladrey & Pullen, LLP, the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm (“McGladrey”), resigned as the independent registered public accounting firm for the Company.
The terminations come two days after mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac severed ties with the firm. “There’s been a substantial reduction in staff, it started happening over the past few weeks and many employees received notice today,” said Jeffrey Tew, a lawyer representing the Stern firm.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have terminated their relationships with a top Florida foreclosure law firm and began taking possession of loan files on Monday afternoon from the firm, which processes evictions on behalf of the mortgage-finance giants.
Fannie and Freddie had previously suspended all foreclosures that had been referred to the law offices of David J. Stern in Plantation, Fla., a suburb of Fort Lauderdale.
Freddie Mac took the rare step of removing loan files after an internal review raised “concerns about some of the practices at the Stern firm,” a Freddie spokeswoman said.
“We have begun taking possessions of all files on Freddie Mac mortgages simply to protect our interest in those loans as well as those of the borrowers,” the Freddie spokeswoman said. A Fannie spokeswoman declined to elaborate.
Fannie and Freddie said they will move those files to other law firms in the state but that they hadn’t yet identified where they would be redistributed. The firms said they had notified Florida’s attorney general about the decision to remove the files and that the Stern firm had cooperated with the action.
A lawyer for Mr. Stern didn’t immediately respond to inquiries.
Today DJSP Enterprises Inc. announced Mark P. Harmon has resigned from the Board of Directors of the Company and the Board of Managers of DAL Group, LLC, a subsidiary of the Company.
PLANTATION, Fla., Oct. 22, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — DJSP Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq: DJSP) (Nasdaq:DJSPW) (Nasdaq:DJSPU) today announced that it has instituted further staff reductions as a result of continued reduced file volumes. DJSP has reduced its staffing levels by an additional 198 employees, bringing the total number of layoffs to approximately 300 since the reduction in staff was initiated.
About DJSP Enterprises, Inc.
DJSP is the largest provider of processing services for the mortgage and real estate industries in Florida and one of the largest in the United States. We provide a wide range of processing services in connection with mortgages, mortgage defaults, title searches and abstracts, REO (bank-owned) properties, loan modifications, title insurance, loss mitigation, bankruptcy, related litigation and other services. Our principal customer is The Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A. (“DJSPA”). We are headquartered in Plantation, Florida, with additional operations in Louisville, Kentucky and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our U.S. operations are supported by a scalable, low-cost back office operation in Manila, the Philippines, that provides data entry and document preparation support for our U.S. operations.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements about us within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”), including but not limited to management’s expectations about the impact of our expense reduction efforts and recent developments in the residential mortgage foreclosure industry. Additionally, words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect” and “intend” and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act. Such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from the forward looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: business conditions, changing interpretations of generally accepted accounting principles; outcomes of government or other regulatory reviews, particularly those relating to the regulation of the practice of law; the impact of inquiries, investigations, litigation or other legal proceedings involving us or our affiliates, which, because of the nature of our business, have happened in the past to us and DJSPA; the impact and cost of continued compliance with government or state bar regulations or requirements; legislation or other changes in the regulatory environment, particularly those impacting the mortgage default industry; unexpected changes adversely affecting the businesses in which we are engaged; fluctuations in customer demand; our ability to manage growth and integrate acquisitions; intensity of competition from other providers in the industry; general economic conditions, including improvements in the economic environment that slows or reverses the growth in the number of mortgage defaults, particularly in the State of Florida; the ability to efficiently expand our operations to other states or to provide services we do not currently provide; the impact and cost of complying with applicable U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) rules and regulations; geopolitical events and changes, as well as other relevant risks detailed in our filings with the SEC, including our Annual report on Form 20-F for the period ended December 31, 2009, which are available at the SEC’s internet site (http://www.sec.gov). Forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of the press release, and we assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements or the reasons why actual results could differ.
CONTACT: DJSP Enterprises, Inc. Chris Simmons, Director of Investor Relations 954-233-8000 ext. 1744 Cell: 954-294-9095 900 South Pine Island Rd. Plantation, FL 33324
As much as state attorneys general could be an effective force in acting for consumers and investors against banks, the fact that an attorney general has saddled up does not necessarily mean the effort is serious. At a minimum, it might just be a gambit to garner some good PR without seriously inconveniencing the perps; at worse, the action might be a pure Trojan horse.
Consider the curious conduct of one Bill McCollum, the lame duck attorney general of Florida. It appears that McCollum has been going after the foot soldiers in the foreclosure chicanery business (although some of them, like David Stern, head of the biggest foreclosure mill in the state, have earned a tidy fortune). His recent actions have targeted firms offering dubious foreclosure advice, and more recently, the foreclosure mills as well as a firm that may be best known for its real estate related document fabrication activities, Lender Processing Services, through its DocX subsidiary.
Now starting with these actors isn’t a bad thing at all; in fact, prosecutors often target low level criminals with the hope of getting them to turn evidence on the kingpins. And there is good reason to think McCollum has no interest in asking tough questions that will inconvenience bigger fry.
McCollum Is falling in with the banking industry party line. He appears to regard not disrupting the foreclosure process, a top priority of the financiers, as a worthy goal. Gee, isn’t preserving the rule of law and making sure no one is abused or defrauded the sort of thing his office is tasked to defend, not the functioning of markets or the bottom lines of banks? From the Wall Street Journal (hat tip reader f247):
“They’re training a lot of new people, and apparently now they are comfortable with the legality of their foreclosure process,” Mr. McCollum said in an interview. “The primary purpose of these meetings is talking about not having this stuff held back. It’s very important for us to not have a backlog of foreclosures. We already have a backlog. We don’t want it to get worse.”…
Mr. McCollum, Florida’s attorney general, said most errors in the foreclosure process have been “procedural,” adding that his top priority is to resolve the mess in a way that allows foreclosures to resume quickly….
The talks also centered on how to quickly get the foreclosure process moving again, according to the Florida attorney general’s office. Mr. McCollum described the meeting as more cooperative than combative.
The foreclosure case against Patrick Jeffs was thrown out of court when a Jacksonville judge ruled that the summons to inform him of the lawsuit was counterfeit.
Mark Browne was in Iraq when a process server tried to give his mother in New Mexico a summons to inform him that his house in Jacksonville was being foreclosed on. She didn’t accept it, but the server signed a document that said she did. A judge threw that out, too.
Nancy Rush sold her Jacksonville condo in March, walking away poorer after the short sale and was getting on with her life when her phone rang with unlikely news: She was in foreclosure. A week after she unloaded the unit at Kendall Town in Arlington, a Jacksonville judge ordered the home sold at auction to settle a $190,000 mortgage debt, even though Rush had never received a summons saying she was being sued. “I didn’t even know there was a court date,” Rush said. “It scared the crap out of me.”
Even the summons, the simple but important legal notice required to inform homeowners that they are being foreclosed on, has not been immune to the massive problems surrounding what has become known in Florida and across the nation as the foreclosure mess.
The Times-Union has reviewed documents where the same name with obviously different signatures was used to certify that papers were served to the homeowner.
While there is no simple way to know how often every type of irregularity occurs, there is documentation showing a sharp rise in one narrow area of concern.
Instances where summonses entrusted to servers have been reported as lost, once fairly rare, have skyrocketed, making it harder to document the fate of important paperwork. From barely more than 100 annually six years ago, more than 2,000 summonses have been lost in Duval County in each of the last two years.
Critics attribute the problems to both sloppiness and fraud.
Tammie Lou Kapusta, a paralegal in the office of David Stern, the foreclosure law firm at the center of much of the investigations, described the serving process as “a complete mess” during a recent deposition. Renters were served rather than property owners, Kapusta told the Florida Attorney General’s Office. An affidavit of service – the legal document required to verify that the summons was served properly – would be filed when the summons hadn’t been served, she said.
Feel sorry for the poor robo-signer who had to sign 1,000 foreclosure files a day? Then here’s some good news: allegations are now surfacing that at least one robo-signer got help from co-workers.
Imagine standing in your front yard and watching as a car pulls up. A stranger gets out, walks up to you, verifies your identity, then serves you with foreclosure papers. Now imagine that you’ve never missed a mortgage payment in your life.
You’ve seen the headlines about banks stopping foreclosures – but if you haven’t yet realized the implications for every American, this is a story you don’t want to miss.
DJSP Enterprises, Inc. Announces Recent Developments
PLANTATION, Fla., Oct. 19, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — DJSP Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq:DJSP) (Nasdaq:DJSPW) (Nasdaq:DJSPU) today announced that Stephen J. Bernstein, the Company’s Lead Independent Director, has been appointed as Interim Chairman of the Board of the Company. Initially, Mr. Bernstein’s role as non-executive Chairman will be a full time position as he provides Board support to the Company as it develops and executes plans to respond to recent developments impacting the Company and the industry. Mr. Bernstein replaces Mr. David J. Stern as Chairman of the Board. Mr. Stern continues in his role as Chief Executive Officer of the Company and will serve as its President.
The Company also announced the voluntary resignations of Richard Powers, as President and Chief Operating Officer, Kumar Gursahaney as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Howard S. Burnston, as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, each of whom joined the Company in 2010.
About DJSP Enterprises, Inc.
DJSP is the largest provider of processing services for the mortgage and real estate industries in Florida and one of the largest in the United States. We provide a wide range of processing services in connection with mortgages, mortgage defaults, title searches and abstracts, REO (bank-owned) properties, loan modifications, title insurance, loss mitigation, bankruptcy, related litigation and other services. Our principal customer is The Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A. (“DJSPA”). We are headquartered in Plantation, Florida, with additional operations in Louisville, Kentucky and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our U.S. operations are supported by a scalable, low-cost back office operation in Manila, the Philippines that provides data entry and document preparation support for our U.S. operations.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements about us within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the “Act”), including but not limited to management’s expectations about the impact of our expense reduction efforts and recent developments in the residential mortgage foreclosure industry. Additionally, words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect” and “intend” and other similar expressions are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Act. Such forward-looking statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of our management and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from the forward looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements: business conditions, changing interpretations of generally accepted accounting principles; outcomes of government or other regulatory reviews, particularly those relating to the regulation of the practice of law; the impact of inquiries, investigations, litigation or other legal proceedings involving us or our affiliates, which, because of the nature of our business, have happened in the past to us and DJSPA; the impact and cost of continued compliance with government or state bar regulations or requirements; legislation or other changes in the regulatory environment, particularly those impacting the mortgage default industry; unexpected changes adversely affecting the businesses in which we are engaged; fluctuations in customer demand; our ability to manage growth and integrate acquisitions; intensity of competition from other providers in the industry; general economic conditions, including improvements in the economic environment that slows or reverses the growth in the number of mortgage defaults, particularly in the State of Florida; the ability to efficiently expand our operations to other states or to provide services we do not currently provide; the impact and cost of complying with applicable U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) rules and regulations; geopolitical events and changes, as well as other relevant risks detailed in our filings with the SEC, including our Annual report on Form 20-F for the period ended December 31, 2009, which are available at the SEC’s internet site (http://www.sec.gov). Forward-looking statements in this press release speak only as of the date of the press release, and we assume no obligation to update forward-looking statements or the reasons why actual results could differ.
CONTACT: DJSP Enterprises, Inc. Chris Simmons, Director of Investor Relations 954-233-8000 ext. 1744 Cell: 954-294-9095 900 South Pine Island Rd. Plantation, FL 33324
Side note…DJSP recently signed what may be the largest lease in Orlando this year. They plan to open a 12,870-square-foot in Highwoods Properties’ Landmark Center Two, near Lake Eola.
8 Q. And what was said about Cheryl’s bills being paid for
9 the Law Offices of David Stern?
10 A. That he’s always done it. David Stern has always
11 paid for Cheryl’s expenses.
12 Q. Personal expenses?
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Do you know if he — Well was there rumor — Was
15 there talk, rather, that he paid — that he bought her car?
16 A. No, that’s confirmed. He did buy her a car. I
17 acknowledge that.
18 Q. He did buy her a car?
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. What kind of car did he buy her?
21 A. It was a BMW SUV.
<SNIP>
Q. Anything that —
4 A. Is it like personal or business or —
5 Q. Personal? Business? Anything at all?
6 A. Personal? The only thing that I was aware of that
7 took place there were the perks that certain employees received
8 from David Stern. If they were either dating him or they were
9 good friends with him, that they would basically do certain
10 things for him for certain files, in the sense of like David
11 Vargas. He would have certain perks from David Stern, like a
12 house, a car, cell phone paid all by David Stern.
13 And that’s all I know.
14 Q. Okay. So do you know of any other perks besides what
15 you said that Cheryl Salmons got? A car you said, for sure.
16 And her personal bills paid.
17 A. Yes. And cell phone.
18 Q. And probably her mortgage?
19 A. Yes. And vacations and gifts, jewelry.
20 Q. Who else would received gifts and jewelry or cars or
21 homes?
22 A. His girlfriend and David Vargas.
23 Q. Who’s his girlfriend?
24 A. At the time it was Christina Dell’Aguila
<SNIP>
8 Q. You have friends that still work at the office?
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Doing what?
11 A. Foreclosure paralegals, docket return clerks.
12 Q. And what are they telling you?
13 A. That they’re very scared. That’s it.
14 Q. That your friends are scared?
15 A. Yeah, that my friends are scared.
16 Q. Did they say anything about what’s going on with
17 Stern or Cheryl Salmons or anybody else?
18 A. The only concern was that they were moving files out
19 of the office into a different office and that Eighteen Inch
20 Freight, I think, was picking them up. Something like that.
21 Trailer freight, something like that.
22 Q. Do you know where —
23 MS. CLARKSON: Eighteen wheeler?
24 THE WITNESS: Yeah, eighteen wheeler.
25 BY MS. EDWARDS:
1 Q. Do you know where they were moving them?
2 A. Supposedly they were being moved to Orlando’s office.
3 Q. And do you know why they would do that?
4 A. No.
5 Q. Do you know how long ago this was going on?
6 A. I think a month and a half ago.
7 Q. What kind of office is Orlando?
8 A. David Stern has another law office in Orlando,
9 Florida.
10 Q. What office is that?
11 A. I don’t know.
12 Q. And was it connected with the office here in Broward
13 County?
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And do you know which — what the office is there or
16 what the location is?
17 A. No, I just know it’s another law office for David
18 Stern that he’s opened for foreclosures in Orlando.
19 Q. And did he just open it a month and a half ago?
20 A. No. He opened it, I think it was either sometime at
21 the beginning of this year or the end of last year. I can’t
22 remember.
23 Q. 2010?
24 A. Yeah.
25 Q. Or December 2009?
The foreclosure crisis has an unusual capital markets twist. A law firm at the center of the controversy in Florida, the Law Offices of David J. Stern, sold its foreclosure-servicing business to a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, the Chardan 2008 China Acquisition Corporation, less than a year ago. The newly formed company is called DJSP Enterprises.
When I last wrote about SPACs, it was to note their looming death. SPACs are specially formed public companies set up to acquire a single public company and take it private. I have previously criticized these entities on the following grounds:
A purchase of SPAC securities is typically an investment in a single, to-be-determined acquisition. At the time of his or her purchase, a public investor is uncertain what business or industry the SPAC will enter, the size of the SPAC’s acquisition and the leverage it will bear and whether the SPAC’s management will have any facility in the industry of the investment. Their influence on these matters is instead limited to a vote on the acquisition.
However, this vote is one that has an inherently coercive aspect to it; a nay vote entitles investors only to their share of the remaining offering proceeds, an amount that is less than their original investment. By this time, you are unlikely to want to take the loss instead preferring to take a flyer on the acquisition. A SPAC investor is also left relying upon the SPAC sponsors to select an appropriate target.
These problems appear to have borne fruit. According to SPAC Analytics, SPACs have significantly underperformed the market. Their index of special purpose acquisition companies shows that since their reappearance back in 2003, SPACs are down 17.8 percent, compared with a fall of 4.5 percent in the Russell 2000. During this time, there have also been some terrible blow-ups. This includes American Apparel which, after a long struggle, was itself acquired by a SPAC, the Endeavor Acquisition Corporation, in 2007. American Apparel has struggled with liquidity problems of late and averted breaching its debt covenants at the last minute when its primary lender, Lion Capital, agreed to modify American Apparel’s loan.
The DJSP Enterprises SPAC was always a particularly risky deal. The initial SPAC was formed under the laws of the British Virgin Islands. This presumably was to take advantage of tax laws and the laxer disclosure laws applicable to foreign issuers, particularly those that are not listed elsewhere.
Not only have Fannie and Freddie suspended foreclosure referrals to Stern’s firm, the Wall Street Journal reported, but two major banks—Citigroup and GMAC—have also stopped sending cases to the firm, which is under investigation by the Florida attorney general Bill McCollum. “Pending the outcome of the AG’s investigation, Citi is not referring new matters to this firm,” read a company statement.
![[VIDEO] 4 Former Employees Sue Law Offices Of David J. Stern P.A., DJSP](https://stopforeclosurefraud.com/wp-content/themes/gazette/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2010/12/djsp_logo3.png&w=100&h=57&zc=1&q=90){kind=logo}
Side note…DJSP recently signed what may be the largest lease in Orlando this year. They plan to open a 12,870-square-foot in Highwoods Properties’ Landmark Center Two, near Lake Eola.
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