JOHN L. O’BRIEN, JR.
Register of Deeds Phone: 978-542-1704 Fax: 978-542-1706
website: www.salemdeeds.com
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds
Shetland Park 45 Congress Street Suite 4100
Salem, Massachusetts 01970
NEWS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Salem, MA May 3rd, 2011
Contact: Kevin Harvey, 1st Assistant Register 978-542-1724
kevin.harvey@sec.state.ma.us
The 1960’s television show “To Tell the Truth”, where imposters pretend to be the central character, is playing out today at the Essex Southern District Registry of Deeds and Register John O’Brien is not happy about it. After the 60 Minutes’ expose on Mortgage Fraud was aired and showed that leading mortgage services have been using forged documents to foreclose on homeowners, Register John O’Brien reviewed mortgage discharges recorded in his Registry. To view the 60 Minutes Article and a link to the video, go to http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/04/01/60minutes/main20049646.shtml
What he found astonished him. In 2010 alone, 286 Bank of America’s mortgage discharges were recorded with what he calls “questionable and possibly fraudulent signatures of the notorious Linda Green.” O’Brien said that he has found at least four variations of Green’s signature recorded in his Registry.
Green, who was spotlighted in the 60 Minutes Episode, had her name signed by various individuals on thousands of documents recorded at Registries of Deeds throughout the state of Massachusetts and across the nation. In Register O’Brien’s opinion, these documents have corrupted Essex County homeowner’s chains of title. “I have a responsibility to ensure that the documents recorded in my Registry meet the statutory requirements of recording. If, however, I am presented with evidence that clearly shows that fraud may have been committed then it is my responsibility as the keeper of records to turn these documents over to the appropriate authorities for their review and action.”
O’Brien has today forwarded certified copies of these discharges to United States Attorney, Carmen Ortez, Attorney General, Martha Coakley, and Essex County District Attorney, Jonathan Blodgett. “If what I suspect has happened, then the people who have committed this fraud should be held accountable for their actions” commented O’Brien. O’Brien fears that this fraudulent behavior is only the tip of the iceberg and feels strongly that lenders and mortgage servicers should be held accountable for their actions. Actions which he originally only thought involved a scheme to circumvent the land recordation system by creating a private, for profit cyber-registry to benefit the big bank’s pocketbooks. Now it seems that MERS, and its member banks may have added fraud to their repertoire of services that they offer.
Register O’Brien questions if a good portion of this foreclosure mess could have been avoided in the first place, if the big banks did what they were supposed to do and recorded assignments like other lenders do. Register O’Brien believes: 1) Homeowners deserve to know who owns their mortgages; 2) Assignments should be recorded in the appropriate registry of deeds, each and every time a mortgage is sold, to provided transparency and public disclosure of ownership; and 3) Any and all documents should be signed by an authorized authority at the entity that actually owns and holds the note secured by the mortgage.
Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen Uncovers Possible Fraud by Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and MERS
Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen will hold a press conference in the Blue Room in the Old Guilford County Courthouse on Wednesday, May 6th at 10 am to reveal the findings of an internal investigation initiated after a 60 Minutes segment called “The Mortgage Paperwork Mess” that followed alleged fraud committed the company Doc X, owned by Lender Proccessing Services (LPS) and contracted with major mortgage and banking institutions including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) Inc.
Register of Deeds Thigpen will be joined by Lynn Szymoniak, an attorney interviewed during the segment by 60 Minutes Scott Pelley. The findings of this internal investigation will be revealed and forwarded to the appropriate federal and state agencies including the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).
The findings will be submitted to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, heading the 50 State Attorney General Investigations into Foreclosure Fraud, and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, current President of the National Association of Attorneys General for their consideration and the financial services institutions.
Register of Deeds Thigpen will also announce actions taken involving Lenders and Mortgage companies to address the findings of this investigation.
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*April 4, 2011 60 Minutes segment on Mortgage Mess:
Curtis Hertel Jr., Register of Deeds for Ingham County, says that a discovery he made involving alleged fraudulent mortgage documents is now being investigated by both the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.
“Yes, this is, in my opinion, fraud,” Hertel said. “This is a situation where people were forging someone else’s name to a legal document to take another person’s property. That is fraud.”
When the Suffolk County Legislature meets again next week, the county’s share of an estimated $2 billion in fees big banks saved with their electronic record-keeping system — bypassing paper mortgage records in county clerks’ offices — will top the agenda for legislator Ed Romaine.
In his previous job as county clerk, Romaine fought in court against the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, for several years in the early 2000s and lost. But he’s taking another run at it now as the firm’s shaky legal foundation is cracking and so many ordinary homeowners are suffering from questionable foreclosure actions involving MERS.
The registry of deeds is supposed to be a sleepy place where you go to record your mortgage or look up how much your neighbors paid for their homes.
But at the Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds in Salem, haymakers are being thrown in a bare knuckles brawl featuring Register John O’Brien in one corner and Bank of America Corp. and other large banks in the other.
In O’Brien’s mind, big U.S. banks created a bogeyman called the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems to dodge paying recording fees when a mortgage is assigned. Early estimates indicate Massachusetts taxpayers have been deprived of anywhere from $200 million to $400 million-plus in lost revenue. O’Brien says his office alone has lost more than $22 million, but he calls that a conservative estimate.
COURTHOUSE — Montgomery County Recorder of Deeds Nancy Becker is urging registers of deeds across state and the country to withdraw public money from any banks affiliated with the Mortgage Electronic Registry System (MERS), which she claims is undermining the practice of accurate land recording.
[…]
Since discovering the descrepancies, Becker has pulled the county funds out of Wells Fargo and transferred the money into Univest National Bank and Trust Company, a smaller local bank based in Souderton. The bank had been approached by MERS but decided not to partner with the cyber registry.
In light of the action taken by the Department of Treasury, The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Thrift Supervision and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, whereby they issued a Cease and Desist Consent Order against the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. “MERS”; Essex County Register of Deeds, John O’Brien , who has been leading a national effort to ensure that MERS and its member banks including Bank of America, J P Morgan Chase and others, be held accountable for the damage that they have inflicted on the land recordation system and their failure to pay recording fees, said that he is very encouraged that this action has been taken. O’Brien, however, cautioned that this is just the beginning of a very long process to ensure that these banks are held accountable both monetarily and legally for the damage that they have done.
O’Brien, along with Register of Deeds, Jeff Thigpen, of Guilford County, North Carolina, have asked that representatives of the Registers of Deeds across the nation be given a seat at the table during any discussions with MERS, its member banks and any and all government agencies. “It is imperative that we make sure that our voices are heard. As Registers, we have the responsibility to ensure that our records are accurate. We must never lose sight of the fact that millions of homeowners across this country have had their chain of title compromised. This is a very serious issue which needs to be addressed. In addition, MERS must be held accountable for their failure to pay billons of dollars in recording fees. Fees, I might add, that everyone else is required to pay. We will continue to lead this fight to make sure that these issues are not swept under the rug and settled for pennies on the dollar. The taxpayers must be made whole, and the homeowners must be guaranteed that their chain of title is accurate.” said O’Brien.
Norfolk County Register of Deeds William P. O’Donnell Requests Support on Behalf of Massachusetts Citizens
Norfolk County Register of Deeds William P. O’Donnell announced today that he has requested Attorney General Martha Coakley to examine the issue of whether the large lending conglomerates have failed to pay the recording fees associated with the sale and assignment of mortgages as mandated by Massachusetts Law.
Register O’Donnell’s request comes on the heels of the recent Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s ruling U.S. Bank v. Ibanez, in which the Commonwealth’s highest court stated that when a holder of a mortgage seeks to exercise its right to foreclose upon a home that mortgage holder must prove that it is the valid owner of the mortgage at the time of foreclosure. The Ibanez case raises multiple issues concerning the practices of huge lending conglomerates utilizing the Mortgage Electronic Recording System, Inc. or “MERS” to keep track of the numerous and multiple sales and assignments of average homeowners’ mortgages.
Register O’Donnell states that, “Prior to 1995 the sale or assignment of a mortgage was traditionally confirmed by a recording at the Registry of Deeds. The transparency of this practice not only afforded safeguards and protections for homeowners but resulted in revenue to the Commonwealth, the counties, and our local communities.” O’Donnell adds that especially in these tough economic times when, “Local aid is being cut, public safety shortchanged, and drastic adjustments made the revenue loss implication cannot be overstated and warrants inquiry.” Register O’Donnell notes that while local community banks and lenders appeared to have followed long held recording practices the failure of the huge lending conglomerates to follow suit in Norfolk County may have resulted in anywhere from $1.5 to $3.1 million in lost revenue in 2010 alone. “It is a question of fundamental fairness and one to which I will personally support the Attorney General’s efforts at examining,” states O’Donnell. .
REGISTER OF DEEDS JEFF THIGPEN (NC) AND JOHN O’BRIEN (MA) ASK 50 STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL FORECLOSURE WORK GROUP TO REQUIRE ALL PAST AND PRESENT MERS ASSIGNMENTS TO BE FILED!
JOHN L. O’BRIEN, JR. JEFF L. THIGPEN
Register of Deeds Register of Deeds
Commonwealth of Massachucetts Guilford County, North Carolina Phone: 978-542-1704 Phone: 336-451-5300
Fax: 978-542-1706 Fax: 336-641-5778
website: www.salemdeeds.com…………………………..website: www.guilforddeeds.com
April 6, 2011
The Honorable Tom Miller
Iowa Attorney General
1305 E. Walnut Street
Des Moines IA 50319
Dear Attorney General Miller,
We appreciate your leadership in the mortgage foreclosure working group, as part of a coordinated national effort by states, to review the practice of “robo-signing” within the mortgage servicing industry. We understand this investigation is nearing conclusion, but we want to implore you to act on a very important issue to homeowners across the country.
As County Land Record Recorders in Massachusetts and North Carolina, we have been gravely concerned about the role of the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) in not only foreclosure proceedings, but as it undermines the legislative intent of our offices as stewards of land records. MERS tracks more than 60 million mortgages across the United States and we believe it has assumed a role that has put constructive notice and the property rights system at risk. We believe MERS undermines the historic purpose of land record recording offices and the “chain of title” that assures ownership rights in land records.
As a result, we are asking as part of your probe, that this task force and the National Association of Attorney Generals require that all past and present MERS assignments of deeds of trust/mortgages be filed in local recording offices throughout the United States immediately. Assignments are required by statute to be filed in Massachusetts, however they are not currently required to be recorded in North Carolina. We feel, that it is important that the Registers of Deeds should have representatives at the table before any settlement is discussed or agreed to as it relates to MERS failure to record assignments and pay the proper fees.
This action would serve three specific purposes. First, the filing of all assignments would help recover the chain of title that determines property ownership rights that has been lost and clouded over during the past 13 years because of the scheme that MERS has set in place. Second, transparency and confidence in ownership rights would be restored and this would prevent the infringement upon those rights by others. Third, this action would support a return to sound fundamentals in our economy between the financial services industry and public recording offices.
MERS has defended their practices by saying that they were helping the registries of deeds by reducing the amount of paperwork that needed to be recorded. This claim is outrageous. This is help we did not ask for, nor was it help that we needed. It is very clear that the only ones that they were helping were themselves. Over the past 10-12 years, recording offices across the United States have upgraded their internal and external technology to meet the demands of lenders, title underwriters, title searchers and citizens. In fact, in 1998 the Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds in Massachusetts became the first registry of deeds to provide both document images and indices available to the public, 24 hours a day, free of charge on the world-wide-web. In doing so, the Registry received a Computerworld Smithsonian Award which recognized the innovative use of technology to benefit society. In 2009, the Guilford County Register of Deeds was given a Local Government Federal Credit Union Productivity Award by the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners for their technological innovations. Nationally, over 93% of the public land records are up to date and current, according to Ernest Publishing.
As of today, there are over 600 recording jurisdictions, covering 43% of the US population that have incorporated an eRecording model into their document recording operations. We believe these jurisdictions cover nearly 80% of the volume of assignments that should be recorded. The remaining areas could be covered quickly, with legislation requiring such action by state legislatures.
Quite frankly, we believe this can and should be done. It’s the right thing to do.
In the coming weeks, we will be working with our national organizations, the National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks (NACRC) and the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials, and Treasurers (IACREOT) to take the same position. We are also sending a copy of this letter to the National Conference on State Legislatures (NCSL) and the National Association of Counties (NACO).
Thank you for your immediate attention.
Sincerely,
Jeff L.Thigpen
Guilford County Register of Deeds, NC
John O’Brien
Southern Essex District Registry of Deeds, MA
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In case you missed it:
*April 2, 2011 60 Minutes segment on Mortgage Mess:
An Essex County official is boycotting Bank of America and calling on government agencies across the nation to follow suit to protest the firm’s ties to a controversial mortgage-recording network.
“We want to hit Bank of America in the pocketbook to send a message that’s loud and clear,” said Southern Essex County Register of Deeds John O’Brien, who’s taking his office’s business from Bank of America to locally owned Century Bank.
South Essex Register of Deeds John O’Brien said he has received a green light to withdraw what could be millions of dollars from accounts at Bank of America (NYSE: BAC).
We’re also learning that The village of Hempstead on Long Island is pulling its money from JPMorgan Chase and severing its ties with the bank to protest the bank’s lending and foreclosure policies.
This is truly a step forward and walking away from Wall Street to move it all back to Main Street where it belongs. Maybe others will consider following…will you?
Harry Gardner, president of SigniaDocs, said the perfect infrastructure is one that manages all mortgage documents electronically, but the number of loans in the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems’ eRegistry is about 200,000, or “a small fraction of mortgages written in the last 10 years.”
“And by eMortgage, we mean truly paperless not some hybrid of some paper and some electronic documentation,” Gardener said. “Ten years ago, we were saying mainstream eMortgage documentation was three to five years away, and I’m happy to say that mainstream eMortgage documentation is now three to five years away.”
For you to understand the plan the financial institutions have you need to grasp the following. Will MERS patterns continue? Imagine the price you will pay when these files are hacked or manipulated.
Everyone knows by now that MERS was ‘invented’ to keep costs low for the banks, reduce the risk of record-keeping errors and make it easier to keep track of loans for the banks not the borrowers. By these actions, not only has MERS eliminated crucial chain in title documents, has proven in many court cases to assign absolutely nothing because it had no power to negotiate the note but also eliminated an enormous amount of county revenues.
Last week SFF wrote about the latest invention planned to coexist with MERS called SmartSAFE, which will be used for creating, signing, storing, accessing and managing the lifecycle of electronic mortgage documents. According to Wave’s eSignSystems Executive VP Kelly Purcell, “Mortgages are sold several times throughout the life of a loan, and electronic mortgages address the problem of the ‘lost note,’ while improving efficiency in the process.”
This goes a step forward of what MERS can do today.
Will this process eliminate recording paper mortgages/deeds from county records? Eliminate fees that counties in trouble desperately need? THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS.
Still with me? Finally, according to CUinsight, a sample eNote in the form of a MRG Category 1 classified SMARTDoc, was successfully delivered to Xerox’s BlitzDocs eVault, a virtual repository that connects directly to the MERS® eRegistry and eDelivery systems, where it was electronically signed and registered.
Adding the finishing touches to permit MERS access to future eNotes? I say this is the master plan.
Looking forward to what MA John O’Brien, the Essex County register of deeds, NC Register of deeds Jeff Thigpen and NY Suffolk County, former county clerk Ed Romaine’s approach is after they read what they plan on doing to land records. If they thought it was limited to the elimination of recording fees for assignments of mortgage, they are mistaken.
Questions remain as to why replace something that has been working for so long? Why continue with MERS, a system which has failed in many ways? MERS is under investigation for fraud is it not? Why in a time where mortgage fraud is wide spread, will anyone even trust using electronic devices to manage possibly future trillions of dollars worth?
Say farewell to a tradition that has been here for well over 300 years. Eliminating ‘paper’ will put promissory notes and mortgage related documents in great jeopardy. No computer system in the world is secure [PERIOD].
Most Americans have never heard of it, but this mortgage industry holds interests in 50 percent of all U.S. home loans.
No, not Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac either.
Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, otherwise known as MERS, is a private firm that tracks ownership in hundreds of thousands of home loans. The computerized network allows banks to buy and sell mortgages without having to record the transfers at the county level.
An added bonus for the banks is the avoidance of county fees. When MERS is used to turn a regular mortgage into an investment, financial institutions don’t pay “recording fees,” which are usually small charges of between $50 and $100, to the counties where the underlying properties are physically located.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Greensboro, NC
March 2, 2011
Contact:
Jeff Thigpen, Guilford County Register of Deeds
Ph. 336-451-5300
Ph. 336-641-3239
jthigpe@co.guilford.nc.us
THIGPEN WANTS TO TAKE ON MORTGAGE GIANTS:
SEEKS INVESTIGATION OF “MERS” FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF $1.3 MILLION IN LOST REVENUE TO GUILFORD COUNTY
Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen announced today that he will be conferring with County Attorney Mark Payne, NC Attorney General and Secretary of State as to whether the Mortgage Electronic Registration Service (MERS) owes Guilford County fees estimated at $1.3 million in lost revenue from mortgage assignments. Thigpen also wants to review pending legal actions against MERS and consider options to protect the integrity of public land recordation offices.
“As Register of Deeds, I have two primary responsibilities in land records: a sworn duty to protect the chain of title and a fiduciary responsibility to collect recording fees. Quite frankly, MERS has undermined both. Through their own “private for-profit” Register of Deeds mortgage tracking office, MERS has created a dangerous centralization of power whose sole purpose is to protect and serve the interests of major banking conglomerates and undermine public recording offices,” said Thigpen.
“For me, the question is clear. Do we want land records in America to be governed by major banking conglomerates on Wall Street or the people and laws of the United States of America?”
MERS has an electronic registry and database system that tracks more than 65 million mortgages for its paid membership throughout the country and aides the mortgage backed securities trade in the secondary market. MERS is reportedly involved in 60% of US mortgage loans. It was established by some of the largest mortgage lenders in the United States including Wells Fargo, Chase Mortgage, Citi Mortgage, Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. and Bank of America among others in 1997. A number of class action lawsuits and civil racketeering suits have arisen against MERS recently, including a suit alleging its members owe California $60-120 billion for circumventing land recording fees.
MERS has also been at the center of recent foreclosure chaos.
Since the founding of America, counties in the United States have maintained public records of land, mortgages and deeds of trust, by maintaining indexes of grantors and grantees. Register of Deeds offices ensure transparency and an important check and balance in private property ownership. County recording practices have been in place for 300 years. “It is interesting that the first fundamental change in public land title recording systems was not initiated by publicly elected leaders, but a small group of mortgage industry insiders. Now it’s coming back to bite all of us- homeowners and taxpayers. MERS creates a system where only certain eyes see the data and what’s going on. I have a real problem with that as a Recorder.
Thigpen is asking for clarity on the California suit and others surrounding MERS business practices in packaging and repackages home owner loans through securitization. MERS has saved larger financial firms millions of dollars while avoiding recordation and payment of fees related to mortgage transfers.
Since 2005 there were 47,553 deeds of trust that list MERS as a beneficiary filed in the Guilford County Register of Deeds office. Experts have indicated that those kinds of loans are repackaged and sold two and four times on average under the MERS system. “One repackaging of MERS documents would have generated $665,742 if documentation had been filed in our office. Two repackaged loans would have generated $1,331,484. And that’s conservative estimate.”
Thigpen maintains the lost recording fees would help local elected officials reduce budget deficits and maintain core services such as public education and public safety in this time of fiscal crisis.
Thigpen’s primary concern relates to recent court rulings in Arkansas, Kansas, Maine and Missouri questioning MERS legal standing in home foreclosures and suits challenging that MERS filings may be fraudulent. “If MERS filings are false statements, there are laws that say if you decrease the money that you pay for a service through using those false statements then you can get damages. The legal term is “unjust enrichment”. Thigpen wants to explore unjust enrichment and other options related to recovery of lost revenue.
Thigpen acknowledges that NC General Statutes do not currently require assignments to be filed in local Register of Deeds offices which allow the public to know the rightful owner of a mortgage. “That may need to change among other things”, says Thigpen. Thigpen points to a major policy change from MERS in the past two weeks conceding that assignments should be filed in public registries across the country even if the state law does not require it and instructed members not to foreclose in MERS name. “It indicates to me that they know they need to fix this.”
“It used to be that if you bought a house, the mortgage would stay at a single bank until you paid it off. Times have changed. Through securitization, mortgages are all put in a blender and sold off to Wall Street investors and Fannie and Freddie among others. MERS has its finger on the spin button. At the end of the day with MERS, Susie Homeowner can’t keep track of who owns her loan and if she’s going to get hit with new fees or even foreclosure.
“This type of unregulated greed is giving charity to all the people who should be giving it and undermines good business practices.” says Thigpen. Thigpen points out those local credit unions like State Employees Credit Union who didn’t participate in sub-prime lending have avoided legal difficulties.
“This is a mess and the MERS system impacts millions of homeowners across the country in danger of having their homes foreclosed”, said Thigpen. He wants a review of the lawsuits and investigations into MERS by state attorney generals and others and believes it will take a coordinated at the local, state and federal level to resolve it. “To me these issues with MERS are simple. Are major banking conglomerates going to tell the truth or not; and are we going choose to have two standards of justice in America: one for Big Money and the other for the rest of us?
Thigpen will also join Southern Sussex Massachusetts Register of Deeds John O’Brian, Jr. in urging national organizations such as the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers (IACREOT) to address MERS in the coming weeks.
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