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NC Reg. of Deeds Thigpen Releases Approx. 4,500 DocX Signature Spread Sheet

NC Reg. of Deeds Thigpen Releases Approx. 4,500 DocX Signature Spread Sheet


Take a look at all these residents with DocX signatures…this is only the beginning to his quest. In matter of fact he’s found about 2,300 others.

mortgage fraud information from press conference


[ipaper docId=54630751 access_key=key-18dtymzwmp9dng31z6jd height=600 width=600 /]

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Mortgage fraud investigations prompt calls for change, Michigan legislature holds hearing

Mortgage fraud investigations prompt calls for change, Michigan legislature holds hearing


At the hearing, after watching the 60 Minutes segment on DocX forged documents, they seem to appear in shock…  “This is Compelling,” Rep. Knollenberg said.

Michigan Messenger-

LANSING — The growing controversy over allegedly fraudulent foreclosure documents will receive a hearing Wednesday in the state House Banking Committee. The controversy has also prompted some public officials to call for repeal of Michigan’s foreclosure by advertisement process, and instead adopt a judicial foreclosure act.


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MA Register of Deeds John O’Brien Uncovers Questionable and Possibly Fraudulent Signatures

MA Register of Deeds John O’Brien Uncovers Questionable and Possibly Fraudulent Signatures


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.

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Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen Uncovers Possible Fraud by Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and MERS

Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen Uncovers Possible Fraud by Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and MERS


PRESS RELEASE
May 2, 2011

For Immediate Release
Greensboro, NC
May 2, 2011

Contact:  Jeff Thigpen Guilford County Register of Deeds

Ph. 336-451-5300
Ph.  336-641-4802
Email: jthigpe@co.guilford.nc.us

PRESS RELEASE

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.

###

*April 4, 2011 60 Minutes segment on Mortgage Mess:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7361572n

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7361572n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

source: Guildforddeeds.com

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Michigan, Eaton and Clinton Counties also reported questionable documents

Michigan, Eaton and Clinton Counties also reported questionable documents


LSJ.com

Ingham County Registrar of Deeds Curtis Hertel Jr. said last week that he had found at least 60 instances of such fraudulent documents in his office – documents presented by mortgage lenders as part of the foreclosure process.

He is not alone. Eaton and Clinton counties also reported questionable documents, and Oakland County Registrar of Deeds Bill Bullard wrote to Schuette about the problem earlier this week.


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Foreclosure Fraud Operation Uncovered At Detroit Law Firm With Ties To MI GOP

Foreclosure Fraud Operation Uncovered At Detroit Law Firm With Ties To MI GOP


MFI-MIAMI-

Several months ago, the major banks sounded the all clear signal regarding robo-signing in non-judicial foreclosure states, namely Michigan and Massachusetts.  It appears those claims of non-exist robo-signing were either greatly exaggerated or were overly optimistic.

MFI-Miami has uncovered evidence of forged documents drafted and signed by attorneys and employees at Orlans Associates at their corporate offices in Troy, Michigan.   These  fraudulent documents will impact tens of thousands of foreclosures done by Ally Financial, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan-Chase, Fannie Mae and others in Michigan and Massachusetts over the past five years and makes the investigation being done by Ingham County Register of Deeds, Curtis Hertel, Jr. and Oakland County Clerk Bill Bullard into the robo-signing of Linda Green at the now defunct DocX look like a kindergarten production of the movie, The Firm.


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Michigan AG Schuette, Reg. of Deeds Bullard Probing Questionable Mortgage Documents

Michigan AG Schuette, Reg. of Deeds Bullard Probing Questionable Mortgage Documents


Contact: John Sellek or Joy Yearout 517-373-8060

LANSING
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced today that he is working with Oakland County Register of Deeds Bill Bullard, and other local and federal authorities, to look into questionable mortgage documentation filed with Michigan’s Register of Deeds offices during the current foreclosure crisis.

Bullard and other county officials have uncovered Assignment of Mortgage documents filed in their offices with signatures of some mortgage executives that appear to have been forged by many different people, raising questions about the authenticity of the documents.  For example, a recent “60 Minutes” news broadcast showed that the name “Linda Green” was signed to thousands of documents nationwide but with many different variations in handwriting.  Bullard, in a letter to Schuette today, said that his office has found many examples of these documents in its files, as have other county Register of Deeds offices, and plans to forward the questionable documents to the Attorney General’s office for review.

Schuette’s office is beginning the process of working with local, state and federal authorities to look into the problem.  Since late last year, the Michigan Attorney General’s office has also been a part of a 50-state Attorneys General workgroup addressing the robo-signing issue and other consumer protection issues.

“The idea that anyone would forge documents during a process in which a family is losing their home is absolutely unconscionable,” said Schuette.  “We are working closely with federal and local authorities to get to the bottom of this.”

“I want Oakland County residents going through the foreclosure process to be aware of this potential problem with their mortgage documentation and strongly encourage them to review their files,” said Bullard.  “My office will continue its investigation and work with Attorney General Schuette’s office as we find more questionable documents.”

-30-

Source: www.michigan.gov

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FBI Investigating Alleged Forged “DOCX” Signature In Michigan

FBI Investigating Alleged Forged “DOCX” Signature In Michigan


MICHIGAN MESSENGER-

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.”


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MI Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel Investigating Linda Green DOCX Forged Documents

MI Ingham County Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel Investigating Linda Green DOCX Forged Documents


Curtis Hertel: “If you look at the signatures, it’s amazing that they thought they could get away with this.”

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LENDER PROCESSING SERVICES, INC. Files SEC form 8-K, WARNING Investors of Regulatory Consent Order

LENDER PROCESSING SERVICES, INC. Files SEC form 8-K, WARNING Investors of Regulatory Consent Order


According to Form 8-K filed on April 13, 2011:

LPS entered into a consent order (the “Order”) with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision (collectively, the “banking agencies”) in connection with their review of matters relating to the mortgage servicing industry, including the services provided to mortgage servicers by their DocX and Default Solutions operations.

LPS will engage an independent third party to conduct a risk assessment and review of our default management businesses and the document execution services we provided to Servicers from January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2010.

LPS neither admits any fault or liability.

Consent Order for LPS (47 KB PDF)



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Re: EXPOSING THE LAW FIRMS AND BANKS IN THE DOCX SCHEME (and then the many others)

Re: EXPOSING THE LAW FIRMS AND BANKS IN THE DOCX SCHEME (and then the many others)


Dear Friends,

After the 60 Minutes Segment on Foreclosure Fraud on April 3, 2011, I was contacted by over 2,000 individuals, seeking help or wanting to help.

FOR ALL THOSE WHO WANT TO HELP RESEARCH THE DOCX FORGERY SCHEME:

1. Search the official records of your county and find all the Mortgage Assignments filed by Docx in 2009. Search by bank: Deutsche Bank, Bank of NY Mellon, U.S. Bank, HSBC, Wells Fargo, etc.

These are very recognizable. On each form, in the left hand corner, there is a statement that the Assignment was prepared by Docx in Alpharetta, GA.

For examples, click on the word PLEADINGS on the Home Page of www.frauddigest.com (my online magazine) – then click on the second entry – 10 Versions of Linda Green signatures on mortgage documents.

Print each example you find in your county Official Records. Identify and circle the name of the borrorwer/homeowner on each record.

2. Go Back to the Official Records. Search the name of each homeowner on the Docx Assignments for Lis Pendens.

Print the Lis Pendens that corresponds to the Assignment and staple these together.

Note that there will not be a Lis Pendens for every Assignment – many homeowners will have already handed over the keys or agreed to a short sale to avoid litigation.

3. Sort by Law Firm Preparing the Lis Pendens.

In Florida, for example, the firms using these Assignments will include Law Offices of David Stern, Law Offices of Marshall Watson, Shapiro & Fishman, Florida Default Law Group, Law Offices of Daniel Consuegra, Akerman & Senterfitt, Gladstone Law Group and many others.

These are the firms that continued to use the forged documents, never “noticing” that:

(1) the signatures varied so significantly that forgeries were likely;

(2) the same individuals used so many different job titles that the validity was unlikely;

(3) the dates of the Assignments indicated a fraudulent document because the Assignments came after the Lis Pendens.

4. Compile a report of these findings – LAW FIRMS USING FORGED AND FABRICATED DOCUMENTS TO FORECLOSE.

State plainly which law firms used these documents and attach the documents supporting your conclusions.

5. Send your reports to the following:

(1) your local State Attorney;

(2) the Disciplinary Committee of the Bar Association in your state;

(3) the FBI/attention: Mortgage Fraud Taskforce;

(4) the U.S. Attorney for your district;

(5) the Attorney General for your state;

(6) your country recorder;

(7) your area newspaper/television investigative reporter.

6. You may also sort by the BANK that used these fraudulent documents to take homes, and include that information in your reports.

Please send a .pdf file of your letter (without attachments) to szymoniak@mac.com.

If you are very ambitious, you may also add the face value of all of the Docx Assignments you locate so that you can report the total amount that banks took or tried to take using these forged and fabricated documents in 2009.

WHEN WE ALL COMPLETE THIS PROJECT, WE WILL MOVE ON TO FORGED AND FABRICATED ASSIGNMENTS  PREPARED BY LAW FIRMS (such as David Stern in Florida and Baum in NY) AND OTHER SERVICERS.

Thank you for joining this effort.

Best regards,

LYNN E. SZYMONIAK


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TIME OUT | Mr. Trump, You’re Mistaken…The Prez Does Have a Signature on His Certificate

TIME OUT | Mr. Trump, You’re Mistaken…The Prez Does Have a Signature on His Certificate


Donald Trump recently told NBC’s TODAY Show Host Meredith Vieira, that up until 3 weeks ago he thought the President was born in Amerika. That his birth certificate isn’t even a real “certificate” because it doesn’t have a signature. Now he has his doubts and sources say he has hired a group to investigate.

I say to Donald, save your cash … we have proof it’s signed and real.

Via Williambanzai7 @ Zero Hedge

Although this being a joke, the families unlawfully foreclosed isn’t.

This is just as real as the frauduments used for assigning, satisfying etc. equitable interest to real property…

#

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HIGHLIGHTS: FROM AN AHMSI LETTER TO 60 MINUTES

HIGHLIGHTS: FROM AN AHMSI LETTER TO 60 MINUTES


LOL– These are not the ORIGINAL Assignments, They’re locked up in a vault … (sure they are)

From the Letter:

“In addition to transferring the mortgage through an unrecorded assignment at the time the assignee securitization trust obtains the loan, it has been industry practice for the loan servicer to have an assignment of mortgage executed and recorded in the name of the trustee for the securitization trust typically shortly before a foreclosure action is commenced. This latter assignment would be recorded to put record title into the name of the owner or holder of the loan, to eliminate any confusion about the assignee being the appropriate plaintiff to commence the foreclosure action. However, this assignment would not act to transfer ownership or holder status to that assignee, which occurred earlier, as explained above.

Although there exists a signed and notarized unrecorded assignment of mortgage in favor of the securitization trustee in a loan file maintained under contract by a custodian retained by the trust, in most cases it is very burdensome and costly to obtain that old, original assignment and more troublesome to record it, which is a document in favor of blank (that is, the name of the assignee is not filled in) and is dated, signed, and notarized years ago; it is generally less burdensome, more efficient, and less expensive to have foreclosure counsel review the current state of title and counsel or a document preparer prepare, sign, notarize, and record a currently prepared assignment, pursuant to appropriate corporate authority.”

ENTIRE LETTER:

[ipaper docId=52487250 access_key=key-11f6oucsrh7o0az6j08h height=600 width=600 /]

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Lynn Szymoniak, Hero Behind 60 Minutes on Foreclosure Fraud Has Her Case Dismissed

Lynn Szymoniak, Hero Behind 60 Minutes on Foreclosure Fraud Has Her Case Dismissed


Special Thanks to Lynn’s attorney Mark Cullen!

Via Palm Beach Post

At a brief hearing Tuesday, Circuit Judge Jack Cook dismissed the case after finding that the note for the loan was not attached to the original foreclosure complaint. Deutsche Bank filed the foreclosure case in 2008, shortly after a dispute with her lender, Option One Mortgage, over her adjustable rate mortgage.

An attorney for Deutche Bank declined to comment on whether the bank would refile the foreclosure case. However, if the bank does so, it will have to comply with new, court-ordered guidelines that require lenders to verify the truthfulness of the documents. Those rules were not in effect in 2008 when Deutsche Bank filed to foreclose on Szymoniak’s home.

Click link below in case you missed 60 Minutes…

EXPLOSIVE VIDEO | CBS 60 MINUTES: Lynn Szymoniak ESQ, LPS, DOCx, FDIC Sheila Bair, Robo-Signing, Linda Green, Tywanna Thomas, Chris Pendley

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Did Wall Street Violate the Racketeering Act? – Business Insider

Did Wall Street Violate the Racketeering Act? – Business Insider


From Business Insider

I ask the following very simple question. Did this activity violate the RICO Act? In what manner might the the RICO Act have been violated? Try the following on for size:
1. Mail and wire fraud.
2. Extortionate credit transactions.
3. Obstruction of justice.
4. Interference of commerce.
5. Laundering of monetary instruments.
6. Monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activities.
7. Relating to trafficking in goods and services bearing counterfeit marks.
8. Fraud in the sale of securities.

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DOCx, LPS Employee “One of These Days, We’re Gonna Be On 60 Minutes”

DOCx, LPS Employee “One of These Days, We’re Gonna Be On 60 Minutes”


From CBS 60 Minutes

As it turns out, Wall Street cut corners when it bundled homeowners’ mortgages into securities that were traded from investor to investor. Now that banks are foreclosing on people, they’re finding that the legal documents behind many mortgages are missing. So, what do the banks do? As Pelley explains in this video, some companies appear to be resorting to forgery and phony paperwork in what looks like a nationwide epidemic.

Even if you’re not at risk of foreclosure, there could be legal ramifications for a homeowner if the chain of title has been lost. Watch the “60 Minutes” report and listen to Pelley’s discussion with “60 Minutes Overtime” editor Ann Silvio about the findings of his reporting team.

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EXPLOSIVE VIDEO | CBS 60 MINUTES: Lynn Szymoniak ESQ, LPS, DOCx, FDIC Sheila Bair, Robo-Signing, Linda Green, Tywanna Thomas, Chris Pendley

EXPLOSIVE VIDEO | CBS 60 MINUTES: Lynn Szymoniak ESQ, LPS, DOCx, FDIC Sheila Bair, Robo-Signing, Linda Green, Tywanna Thomas, Chris Pendley


(CBS News)

If there was a question about whether we’re headed for a second housing shock, that was settled last week with news that home prices have fallen a sixth consecutive month. Values are nearly back to levels of the Great Recession. One thing weighing on the economy is the huge number of foreclosed houses.

Many are stuck on the market for a reason you wouldn’t expect: banks can’t find the ownership documents.

Continue reading…… CBS 60 Minutes

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PBPOST | Surrogate signers” signed countless foreclosure documents – with someone else’ name

PBPOST | Surrogate signers” signed countless foreclosure documents – with someone else’ name


From the Palm Beach Post Christine Stapleton [link]

At Lender Processing Services workers who signed tens of thousands of sworn foreclosure affidavits with someone else’ name were called “surrogate signers”, according to Cheryl Denise Thomas, a former LPS worker who admitted to notarizing as many as 1,000 sworn affidavits daily – often without witnessing the signature.

Thomas said despite “raised eyebrows”  her supervisors never used the word “forge” and repeatedly told workers the practice of signing someone else’ name on a sworn affidavit was legal. Thomas detailed the company’s foreclosure document processing practices during a deposition in an Orange county foreclosure case on March 23.

[ipaper docId=51885547 access_key=key-2omhtmjy5z5l5nazqt36 height=600 width=600 /]

[image credit: I-Robot]

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Deposition Transcript of DOCx, LPS CHERYL DENISE THOMAS

Deposition Transcript of DOCx, LPS CHERYL DENISE THOMAS


via: NakedCapitalism

Excerpts:

Beginning Pg. 33

that’s when they — well, upon us leaving
anyway, they took up our notary stamps and
everything and destroyed them. But I was
relieved of my duties once moved to
Gwinnett County.

Q. Who — who — I’m sorry, did I miss
that? Who destroyed those documents?

A. I can’t say exactly who destroyed
them. All I know is that Jeffrey
the supervisor in the signing room at that
times, he picked up everyone’s stamp, the
notaries’ stamps.

Q. He took your stamps?

A. He took our stamps. And — and
they were destroying them.

Q. How were they destroying them?

A. I don’t know how. He just said
they were picking up all the stamps, all
of the notary stamps. And they were going
to destroy them, because the company was
closing. And they were only suppose to be
used for that company.

Continue below…

[ipaper docId=51885547 access_key=key-2omhtmjy5z5l5nazqt36 height=600 width=600 /]

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Mortgage Fraud | Freddie Mac and Marshal C. Watson Law Firm

Mortgage Fraud | Freddie Mac and Marshal C. Watson Law Firm


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.


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ADAM LEVITIN| Ibanez and Securitization Fail

ADAM LEVITIN| Ibanez and Securitization Fail


posted by Adam Levitin
.

The Ibanez foreclosure decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has gotten a lot of attention since it came down on Friday. The case is, not surprisingly being taken to heart by both bulls and bears. While I don’t think Ibanez is a death blow to the securitization industry, at the very least it should make investors question the party line that’s been coming out of the American Securitization Forum. At the very least it shows that the ASF’s claims in its White Paper and Congressional testimony are wrong on some points, as I’ve argued elsewhere, including on this blog. I would argue that at the very least, Ibanez shows that there is previously undisclosed material risk in all private-label MBS.

The Ibanez case itself is actually very simple. The issue before the court was whether the two securitization trusts could prove a chain of title for the mortgages they were attempting to foreclose on.  

There’s broad agreement that absent such a chain of title, they don’t have the right to foreclose–they’d have as much standing as I do relative to the homeowners. The trusts claimed three alternative bases for chain of title:

(1) that the mortgages were transferred via the pooling and servicing agreement (PSA)–basically a contract of sale of the mortgages

(2) that the mortgages were transferred via assignments in blank.

(3) that the mortgages follow the note and transferred via the transfers of the notes.

The Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held that arguments #2 and #3 simply don’t work in Massachusetts. The reasoning here was heavily derived from Massachusetts being a title theory state, but I think a court in a lien theory state could easily reach the same result. It’s hard to predict if other states will adopt the SJC’s reasoning, but it is a unanimous verdict (with an even sharper concurrence) by one of the most highly regarded state courts in the country.  The opinion is quite lucid and persuasive, particularly the point that if the wrong plaintiff is named is the foreclosure notice, the homeowner hasn’t received proper notice of the foreclosure.

Regarding #1, the SJC held that a PSA might suffice as a valid assignment of the mortgages, if the PSA is executed and contains a schedule that sufficiently identifies the mortgage in question, and  if there is proof that the assignor in the PSA itself held the mortgage. (This last point is nothing more than the old rule of nemo dat–you can’t give what you don’t have. It shows that there has to be a complete chain of title going back to origination.)  

On the facts, both mortgages in Ibanez failed these requirements. In one case, the PSA couldn’t even be located(!) and in the other, there was a non-executed copy and the purported loan schedule (not the actual schedule–see Marie McDonnell’s amicus brief to the SJC) didn’t sufficiently identify the loan. Moreover, there was no proof that the mortgage chain of title even got to the depositor (the assignor), without which the PSA is meaningless: 

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.



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The force behind the Massachusetts decision

The force behind the Massachusetts decision


Today my friend’s history was made. The Massachusetts decision represents a major victory for consumers as well as for the handful of attorneys and advocates who dedicated their lives to protecting the defenseless. Perhaps the critical game-changing event in the Massachusetts litigation was the Amicus Brief submitted by Marie McDonnell setting forth and outlining the securitization paradigm and the defects in the chain of title.

Her analysis exposed both the material deficits contained and the subsequent fraudulent actions taken by the banks in foreclosing the properties. If you recall correctly it was Marie who first made the discovery in Antonio Ibanez’s loan in which it may have been securitized twice? Lets not forget who the robo-signer was that assigned the mortgage to U.S. Bank but non other than Linda Green.

And after two and half very long years post-foreclosure who would have thought that Mark and Tammy LaRace would move back home!

I would like to personally thank all the attorney’s involved and a special thanks to my good friend Marie McDonnell for her brilliant work and who deserves a mighty high five from all of us…

Marie McDonnell is the President of McDonnell Property Analytics, Inc. (www.mcdonnellanalytics.com), a company dedicated to helping consumers, and training and supporting attorneys in defending foreclosures.

© 2010-19 FORECLOSURE FRAUD | by DinSFLA. All rights reserved.



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