Monday, September 27, 2010

Other Multiple Corporate Hat Wearing Vice Presidents Begin To Share The Spotlight

The Washington Post reports:

  • The nation's overburdened foreclosure system is riddled with faked documents, forged signatures and lenders who take shortcuts reviewing borrower's files, according to court documents and interviews with attorneys, housing advocates and company officials. The problems, which are so widespread that some judges approving the foreclosures ignore them, are coming to light after Ally Financial, the country's fourth-biggest mortgage lender, halted home evictions in 23 states this week.

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  • Beth Ann Cottrell said in a sworn deposition in May(1) that she signed off on thousands of foreclosures a month for JPMorgan Chase even though she did not verify the accuracy of the information. In one instance in Palm Beach, Fla., Cottrell signed off on two documents that stated conflicting amounts of mortgage, the court testimony states. Cottrell claimed that both were signed by the borrower at closing. But the homeowner recognized that her signature had been forged, her attorney Christopher Immel said. The attorney added that such forgeries are common among the cases he's seen. JPMorgan Chase declined to comment.

  • In Georgia, an employee of a document processing company, Linda Green, for years claimed to be executives of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank and dozens of other lenders while signing off on tens of thousands of foreclosure affidavits.

  • In many cases, her signature appeared to be forged by different employees.(2) Green worked for a foreclosure document company owned by Lender Processing Services. The company is being investigated by a U.S. attorney in Florida for allegedly using improper documentation to speed foreclosures. Lenders have already started to withdraw foreclosures that had Green's name on them.

For the story, see Under piles of paperwork, a foreclosure system in chaos.

(1) See May 17, 2010 deposition of Beth Ann Cottrell (available online courtesy of Mother Jones).

(2) Go here for examples of Linda Green's changing signature.

(3) Green has also been known to have signed at least one assignment of mortgage with an effective date of 9/9/9999 (see 4closurefraud.org - document titled - "DOCX Assignment of Mortgage 3 Effective 09-09-9999").

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