Foreclosure 'robo-signers' appear to be widespread
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 5:01 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010________________________
________________________
Florida foreclosure law firms were using the same "robo-signer"-type practices to repossess homes that tripped up the nation's major lenders, a signal, defense attorneys argue, that should lead to a larger foreclosure moratorium.
Banks that have not pulled back on foreclosure sales and evictions, such as lender CitiMortgage, gave firms power of attorney to sign documents on their behalf. In turn, some firms created assembly-line signing systems to keep up with bank deadlines on foreclosure cases.
The operations manager for the Plantation-based David J. Stern law firm said in a deposition last year that she signed foreclosure papers for two hours a day on behalf of financial institutions without reading the documents.
And, when the manager wasn't available, employees would forge her signature, according to a sworn statement taken last month by state investigators of a former Stern paralegal. Stern's attorney has refuted the employee's allegation.
Citi Spokesman Mark Rodgers said Tuesday the company is not referring new cases to Stern's firm pending the outcome of a Florida attorney general investigation.
But Citi is not suspending foreclosures.
"Foreclosures are monitored to make certain that staffing is adequate to review the affidavits properly," Rodgers said. "At this point, we have no reason to believe our employees haven't been following our procedures."
Attorney Tom Ice of Royal Palm Beach-based Ice Legal said the problem is that law firm employees were doing the work, not Citi employees.
"In truth, CitiMortgage not only engaged in the same practice of using a robo-signer for its cases, they used a robo-signer who is actually an employee of the foreclosure mill attorneys representing them," said Ice, who deposed Stern operations manager Cheryl Samons last year. Samons signed as "attorney-in-fact" for CitiMortgage in some foreclosure documents. She also had power of attorney to sign for BAC Home Loans Servicing, GMAC Mortgage, IndyMac Federal Bank, Flagstar Bank and the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS.
In an August deposition taken by Ice Legal, a former Florida Default Law Group attorney says she had power of attorney to sign for Wells Fargo and other financial institutions. The attorney said she looked at no backup documents before signing foreclosure affidavits and relied on the bank's word as to the identification of the loan servicer and owner.
Neither Florida Default Law Group or Wells Fargo could be reached Tuesday.
Stern's attorney, Jeff Tew, said his client's firm stopped allowing employees sign for banks when it recognized they could be called as witnesses in a foreclosure trial.
"We stopped signing them in 2009," Tew said. "It wasn't because of misconduct. By signing the affidavits it threw the law firm into being a witness when the defense attorneys would try to delay things. The problem now is with the banks, the law firms haven't been implicated."
The Florida attorney general's office is investigating Stern's firm, as well as three other Florida firms that handle large volumes of foreclosures. Tew asked a Broward County Court judge Tuesday morning to quash a state subpoena for information relating to the firm's foreclosure practices.
A similar request was granted last week by a Palm Beach County judge in the attorney general's investigation into the Shapiro & Fishman law firm. The attorney general's office has asked for a rehearing in that case.
Meanwhile, Ice said he's still getting documents signed by Stern's operations manager, Cheryl Samons, acting on behalf of CitiMortgage in his foreclosure cases.
It was also Samons' signature that former Stern employee Tammie Lou Kapusta told state investigators was regularly forged with the knowledge of company officials.
Tew said Kapusta, who was fired in 2009, is a disgruntled former employee with a vendetta against the firm.
"To my understanding, nothing she said happened there is true," Tew said.
Find this article at:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/real-estate/foreclosure-robo-signers-appear-to-be-widespread-968114.html________________________
________________________
_____________________
Wow. this is going to be a complete disaster far worse than i ever imagined.
