Florida Attorney General "Unfair, Deceptive and Unconscionable Acts in Foreclosure Cases"
Florida Attorney General "Unfair, Deceptive and Unconscionable Acts in Foreclosure Cases"
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Economic Crimes Division u
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UNFAIR, DECEPTIVE u r
l o s
AND UNCONSCIONABLE c
ACTSr e IN
Fo
FORECLOSURE
t o p CASES
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Prepared by: June M. Clarkson, theresa b. Edwards and rene D. harrod
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Overview of Foreclosure Industry
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Florida Attorney General investigation
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50 State Multi-State TeamFInvestigation
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Law firms began withdrawing
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documents c l o
Banks suspended r eforeclosures
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Delinquency & Foreclosure Rates 2006-2010
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Source: Oversight Panel Oversight Report, Examining the Consequences of Mortgage Irregularities for Financial Stability and Forec
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The History of Mortgages in America
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Bankers used to take the
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original note and
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mortgage and secure it
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in the bank vault.
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Mortgage-Backed Trusts
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As the mortgage industry
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grew, bankers began
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securing the notes in
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mortgage-backed trusts
Trusts are a bundle of u re
5,000 notes secured by lo s
mortgages
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A bundle of notes may o r
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contain 5,000 notes and
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mortgages with a face
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value of $1.5 Billion
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Sales & Servicing of Trusts
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These Trusts were
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packaged as Residential
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Mortgage-Backed
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Securities (“RMBS”) and
could be sold to u re
investors in bite-sized
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pieces
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The rules for the operation
of these RMBS trusts
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were set forth in
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“Pooling and Servicing
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Agreements”
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The Travels of a RMBS bundle
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Trust bundles travel from:
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The Lender
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To the Depositor
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To the Securities
Company lo s
To the Trustee e c
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When it doesn’t work quite right . . .
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Sometimes a note or a mortgage gets lost. d . c
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When it doesn’t work quite right . . .
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Sometimes the document d. c
custodians are lax about au
their procedures. F r
That appears to be the
u re
situation here in Florida
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as well as across the
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nation.
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When it doesn’t work quite right . . .
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Sometimes there are just too many documentsd. c to keep
track of any single Note or Mortgage.au
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When it doesn’t work quite right . . .
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Keep in mind these are d. c
some of the largest au
banks in the country . . . F r
losing ownership
u re
paperwork!!
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IMPORTANT: The Key
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The key to the problems
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regarding foreclosures of
mortgages are the u re
ASSIGNMENTS of lo s
mortgage. e c
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IMPORTANT: The Key
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Assignments of
F
e
mortgage operate to
rtransfer ownership
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clo of the mortgage
from one bank to
re
Fo another.
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Who is the Real Linda Green?
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Linda Green o m
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ua
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Linda Green’s “signature” r e appears on
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hundreds oflothousands
of mortgage e cassignments.
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t o as an officer of dozens of
She is listed
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banks
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A Few of Linda Green’s Many Job Titles
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Scott Anderson, Ocwen employee
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Forgeries by Mortgage Servicers
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A Mortgage Servicing Company
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Mortgage servicing companies help d
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banks
u
adocuments
obtain foreclosure by preparing
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necessary to facilitate the foreclosure in
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These companies hire c l o
robo-signers who
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execute the documents
e by the tens of
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thousands per p month.
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Mortgage Servicing Companies
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DocX had offices employing dozens of workers d. c
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producing thousands of fraudulent assignments.
Lender Processing Services produced F r
2,000
r e
assignments each working day.
su
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GMAC (including its first famous
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robo-signer, Jeffrey
Stephan) also produces e 2,000 assignments every
day. o r
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Nationwide TitlepClearing out of the Tampa area also
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produces 2,000o assignments every day.
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Forgeries in Other Documents
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Forgeries in Other Documents
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Examples of Bogus Documents
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Examples of Bogus Documents
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Examples of Bogus Documents
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Examples of Bogus Documents
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Examples of Bogus Documents
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Assignment of Mortgage
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Corrective Assignment of Mortgage
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Filing Lis Pendens Without Standing
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Assignments After Lis Pendens
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Filing Lis Pendens Without Standing
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Assignments After Lis Pendens
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Affidavit of Amounts Due
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Affidavit of Amounts Due
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Withdrawal of Affidavits of Amounts Due
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Withdrawal of Affidavits of Amounts Due
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Sample Notice of Lis Pendens
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Stamped signature on Assignment of Mortgage
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Stamped Signatures
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Stamped Signatures
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Affidavit of Correction due to assignment of a
mortgage that had been fully paid (St. Lucie Co.) m
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Affidavit of Correction due to an assignment of mortgage
that had been fully paid. (Palm Beach Co.)
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Affidavits of Correction due assignments of mortgage that had
been fully paid (Broward Co. and Palm Beach Co.)
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$164k Question
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And you thought your mortgage was high?
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Assignment for Defunct Assignee
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American Brokers Conduit BANKRUPT 8/7/2007 m
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Assignment by a defunct institution
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IndyMac, out of business CLOSED July 2008
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Federal regulators seize crippled
r e IndyMac Bank
Doors will reopen Monday. su
A run on the Pasadena thrift ends in one of the biggest financial failures ever.
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July o 12, 2008
July 12, 2008|Kathy M. Kristof and Andrea Chang | Times Staff Writers
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The federal government took control of Pasadena-based IndyMac Bank on
Fo
Friday in what regulators called the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history.
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The bank's 33 branches will be closed over the weekend, but the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp. will reopen the bank on Monday as IndyMac
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Federal Bank, said the Office of Thrift Supervision in Washington.
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Assignment for Defunct Assignee
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Lehman Brothers
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Notary Issues
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Impossible Notaries- Stamps are only good for
four years in Florida
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Impossible Notaries
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Impossible Notaries
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Sworn Testimony of Tammie Lou Kapusta
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Testimony of Tammie Lou Kapusta,
former employee of Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A.
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Q Would these notaries be there watching her [Cheryl
d . c
Samons] as
she signed?
a u
A No. F r
e
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Q She would just sit there and sign stacks of them?
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the firm I don't think any notary
actually used their own notary c
stamp. The team used them.
Q There were just stampso
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around?
A Yes.
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Q And you actuallyt osaw that?
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A I was part of that.
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Sample Assignment of Mortgage
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Testimony of Tammie Lou Kapusta,
former employee of Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A.
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Q So this was an assignment signing table?
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A Correct. Assignments or Affidavit A's that she was signing.
a u
Q What's an Affidavit A?
F r
re
A The indebtedness affidavit.
Q Okay.
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A I think that's all Cheryl signed for. I think Beth signed for the rest. There's your Exhibit
lo
E's. We had different exhibits. That's how they signed them. When Cheryl was out of the
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office Tammie would sign them or Beth would go sign them.
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Q Beth would sign but it would say Cheryl Samons?
A Correct.
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Q And Beth would be the signer?
A Correct.
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Q Or Tammie Sweat? S
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A Right.
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Testimony of Kelly Scott,
former employee of Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A.
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Testimony of Kelly Scott,
former employee of Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A.
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Q. Other than Cheryl going around twice a day to sign the documents that she was reading, was there
A.
anyone else that did that, as well?
a u
Only Cheryl. And only when Cheryl was out of town, that she would go on vacation, there was someone
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else that would sign on her behalf. Who was it? I really don't know.
F
re
Q. And when you said those were the papers that were up on the long table on the four floors, what types
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Motions for Summary Judgment and Assignments of Mortgage.
Q.
***
Fo
But whatever was on those long tables, nobody was reading? They were just putting their names on
A.
them?
t o p
Yes, they were just putting their names.
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Q. Yes, there was no one reading them?
A.
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Yes, there was no reading them.
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Cheryl Samons “signature”
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Cheryl Samons “signature”
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Cheryl Samons “signature”
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Cheryl Samons “signature”
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Cheryl Samons “signature”
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Sample Assignment of Mortgage
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Misuse of Falsified Assignments
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Improper assignments were recorded in the county d . c land
records offices u
a Court in
Improper assignments were submitted torthe
support of foreclosure motions e F
Improper assignments were accepted u r by the Court as valid
assignments that substantiated
l o s the foreclosure
Homeowners were foreclosed
e c upon based upon falsified
assignments, by a bank
the note. o r who was not the true holder of
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If the foreclosure judgment is obtained by a bank that does
lawsuit by S
o
not hold the tnote, then the homeowner risks a second
the real note holder, and possibly a having a
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second judgment against them on one property.
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Notices to Court of Improper Affidavits
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Notices to Court of Improper Affidavits
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Real Estate in Florida (in pictures)
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Real Estate in Florida (in pictures)
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Real Estate in Florida (in pictures)
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Solutions for Foreclosures in Florida???
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Any solution must include: d. c
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Assuring the integrity to the judicial foreclosure process
Documents submitted must be true and F r
accurate
r e and form
Affidavits must be proper in substance
Assignments must be properly s u and accurate
executed
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Due process rights to the foreclosed homeowners
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Proper service of process on the homeowner
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Proper standing to sue by the plaintiff Bank
Foreclosuresto
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Substantive review of paperwork prior to foreclosure
will have to go forward and there will be many
. S year, but they need to done within the law.
more next
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