The Ingham County Board of Commissioners in Michigan approved up to $60,000 in Legal Aid funding to represent borrowers affected by allegedly improper foreclosures and possible documentation fraud.
The county’s Register of Deeds Curtis Hertel Jr. uncovered potential fraudulent documents in his office calling into question hundreds of foreclosures. Hertel told HousingWire Wednesday he found 400 cases with possible fraudulent documentation involving Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems and another 100 involving DocX, a division of Lender Processing Services (LPS: 24.44 -1.89%).
Steven Soraya, who had a loan amounting to $980,500.00 with Wells Fargo, which was released on July 3, 2007 and which just so happens was signed by Robosigner extraordinaire, the one, the only, the infamous Linda Green. Ergo our question: did miss Palin just procure a property to which there is no legitimate title, and which, therefore, may not have been legitimately sold to her? Oh yes, MERS is of course involved too.
If you’ve ever bought or sold a home…you need to hear this. Hank found a signature buried deep in your mortgage documents could be a ticking time bomb for thousands of Massachusetts homeowners. For those in foreclosure: it could be a lifesaver. It’s a shocking, amazing, unbelievable story. Hank Investigates.
But Deutsche Bank wasn’t just going after her. The bank was also attempting to sue her son, Mark Cullen, who is currently pursuing a graduate degree in poetry at the New School in New York. Cullen hasn’t lived in Szymoniak’s house for seven years and is not a party to any aspect of her mortgage — he has no interest in either the property or the loan, and never has had any such interest, according to Szymoniak.
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And other Florida foreclosure experts say it’s difficult to interpret Deutsche Bank’s move as anything other than retaliation for Szymoniak’s media presence. If it is not, in fact, retaliation, they argue, then Deutsche Bank’s lawyers have demonstrated rank incompetence.
The signatures of the same names on more than 4,500 documents handled by Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS) for real estate valued at $624.8 million varied enough to raise doubts about their validity, Jeff Thigpen, register of deeds in Guilford County, North Carolina, told reporters today in Greensboro.
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.
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:
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.
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.
![[VIDEO] Essex County, MA Locates 6,000+ DOCx “Linda Green” Documents](http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/wp-content/themes/gazette/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2011/05/linda-green2.jpg&w=100&h=57&zc=1&q=90)
![[VIDEO] Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen Press Release on Mortgage Fraud](http://stopforeclosurefraud.com/wp-content/themes/gazette/thumb.php?src=wp-content/uploads/2011/05/JeffThigpenPressRelease21.jpg&w=100&h=57&zc=1&q=90)
