Lender Processing Services, National Title Subpoenaed By California, Illinois In Robo-Signing Probe

LOS ANGELES -- Prosecutors in California and Illinois are investigating allegations that Lender Processing Services Inc., one of the nation's largest mortgage processing companies, engaged in the illegal practice of "robosigning" – signing thousands of foreclosure documents without checking their accuracy.

The move comes as top attorneys general step up the investigation of questionable mortgage-industry practices. On Monday, California Attorney General Kamala Harris set up a task force to pursue criminal and civil judgments on a broad spectrum of mortgage fraud cases. Last week, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sought records from three major Wall Street banks as part of a broad investigation into the mortgage crisis that fueled the recession.

All 50 state AGs and federal officials also are negotiating a settlement with big bank lenders on certain mortgage practices, including robosigning.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan on Wednesday issued subpoenas to Lender Processing Services and Nationwide Title Clearing Inc., two Florida-based corporations that provide "document preparation services" and other loan management services to the largest banks and mortgage lenders. California AG Harris has subpoenaed Lender Processing.

Lender Processing is one of 16 banks and servicers that the federal government last month ordered to reimburse homeowners who were improperly foreclosed upon. Messages left Wednesday for a company representative weren't returned. Shares of LPS fell 18 cents to close at $25.16.

Nationwide Title said it can't comment on specifics at this time as it has not yet been served a subpoena from the Illinois AG. In a statement, the company said that it "stands behind" its mortgage assignment documents and procedures and "intends to cooperate with the Attorney General's office to the fullest extent of the law."

Comments

[karen1p]

09:35 PM on 05/29/2011

Everybody on this thread seems to know what has gone down. Why aren't you in the streets? Frankly, I can't believe everyone isn't just steaming mad....enough for more than pitchforks.

[BonnieDoon]

07:01 PM on 05/26/2011

“Sarah Palin, Meet Linda Green ( And MERS ): Was Palin's New Home Purchase Preceded By A "Robosigned" ( And Fraudulent ) Title Release”

From Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/sarah-palin-meet-linda-green-and-mers-was-palins-new-home-purchase-preceded-robosigned-and-f


“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.”

“Behold Ms. Green's signature on the release of the mortgage (and compare to her original signature).”

[james rimes]

09:05 AM on 05/26/2011

Where can I buy title insurance on a illegally foreclosed home?

[Jesse P. Steinberg]

08:54 AM on 05/26/2011

Please foreclose on those banks. Lets see how they like it.

[big tom]

08:14 AM on 05/26/2011

when lloyd blankfein and jimmie damian go to prison i will believe progress is being made.

[Peter007]

07:59 AM on 05/26/2011

The court will have to determine what damages were caused by the use of Robo signing. Usually mortgage documents are standard , boiler plate, documents that are pages upon pages of fine print. Its highly unlikely that a real person would actually read all the documents.

If you file and record a deed and the date is off by one day, its hard to claim that anyone would be harmed by such a mistake.

I'd like to see what type of damages are claimed....

[karen1p]

09:06 PM on 05/29/2011

The underlying damages.....are why do they need to produce fraudulent documents in the first place?

And a plethora of fraud in our land records....and you don't think this is damaging......can anyone say, "brain damage"???

[melhol]

06:02 AM on 05/26/2011

What a waste of time and money. How long will they carry on about going after the banks and getting to the bottom of the crisis. We all know who's responsible, how it happened and what the real punishment should be....prosecute and lock them up or shut up.

[EdCorner]

11:21 PM on 05/25/2011

YES!! LSI, an Appraisal Management Co., owned by LPS, hired compromised & inept appraisers at reduced fees (no independent appraisers would work for them) to inflate values all over the country – similar to the WAMU & EAppraiseit fraud uncovered by Cuomo that had over 200k fraudulently inflated valuations all over the country from early 2006-2008. Eappraiseit admitted this in a deposition. All it takes is one fraudlently inflated appraisal to raise values in a neighborhood – and Eappraiseit did over 200k!! That one AMC alone inflated home values all across the country & I believe these AMC's were the cause of the meltdown through fraudulently inflated valuations. LSI is right there with them as the only way AMC's could gain market share from experienced appraisers was to be "number-hitters" for the banks.

The crazy thing is, although they’re known fraud perps, the GSE’s have rewarded them by policy that all retail loans going through the GSE’s must go through these bank owned AMC’s !! The AMC’s have a monopoly on the appraisal market now & fraud is on the rise. Competition with independent appraisers that don’t need AMC’s was stopped by this policy & the banks are now free to control values, again.

I wish the AMC’s role in inflated values, so that the investment banks could prosper, were investigated for their major role in the meltdown. This LPS/LSI investigation is a start.

Disclaimer: An independent appraiser with 20 yrs experience, career stolen by AMC's.

[MadAppraiser]

06:03 AM on 05/26/2011

WHEN AMERICA RETRACES THE STEPS THAT LED TO THE 2008 FINANCIAL COLLAPSE WE INVARIABLY TRAVEL DOWN AN 8 BLOCK STRETCH BETWEEN BROADWAY AND SOUTH STREET IN LOWER MANHATTAN. “Last week, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sought records from three major Wall Street banks as part of a broad investigation into the mortgage crisis that fueled the recession. All 50 state AGs and federal officials also are negotiating a settlement with big bank lenders on certain mortgage practices, including robo-signing.” SOMETIMES GREAT INTELLIGENCE IS A GREATER CURSE FOR MAIN STREET!

I am not really concerned with loan approvers that masqueraded as appraisers. These financial actors made fast money with the application of database computer technology. Career appraisers with a reference of the appraisal profession peer at a large administrative clean-up job in the future.

An appraiser called me recently laughing, “Did you renew your appraisal license?” I replied, “I received my renewal license roughly three weeks ago. I placed the OREA package in the bookcase, unopened. I will eventually get around to opening the OREA package in the future. There is not a great rush in opening it.”

[Peter007]

07:55 AM on 05/26/2011

What a bizarre post.
Appraisals do not make real estate values go up. Home buyers make values go up. People that purchase homes usually know values better than appraisers and that is why 99% of appraised values on home purchases come in at or near the purchase price.

Also, a bad or fraudulent appraisal never caused a foreclosure. When people stop making monthly payments, is when a foreclosure begins.

[EdCorner]

10:37 AM on 05/26/2011

I'll assume you're not being rude but rather asking a question when you say "What a bizarre post". I've stated I've been in real estate for over 20 years. What is your experience? Ask yourself, why did WAMU conspire with Eappraiseit to fraudulently inflate values?

Of course a fraudulent appraisal doesn't cause a foreclosure - what it does is allow the bank to put someone in a home they can't afford and it supports the sales pitch that "Values were always going to go up" which the rating agencies bought and buyers bought when they signed up for the loans. It's a fact that buyers look more at mortgage payments for affordability then they do the actual price of the home.

Only the lenders and their agents can cause widespread inflation of appraisals. This means that the borrowers on liar’s loans commonly had negative equity in their homes from the day they purchased the house – they overpaid for the homes. The lenders and their agents, by inflating the appraisals, deceived less sophisticated borrowers about the value of their homes and placed them in a position where they were highly likely to lose the home and their very limited savings. The lenders and their agents’ primary reason for inflating the appraisal was to lower the reported loan-to-value (LTV) ratio. By falsely reporting a lower LTV ratio the lenders increased the ease of securing “AAA” ratings from a rating agency and the premium they could receive by selling the loan.

[EdCorner]

10:48 AM on 05/26/2011

Part 2 : Andre Cuomo, when he was NY AG, found that WaMu kept a blacklist of appraisers, and one got on the list by refusing to inflate appraisals. No honest lender would ever inflate appraisals, but doing so optimizes accounting control fraud.

In 2006 43% of borrowers did not provide written verification of their income. In '06 Credit Suisse estimated that 50% of all loans called subprime were also liar loans that the banks knew would fail. 100%

[TheIndependenceParty]

10:50 PM on 05/25/2011

Clearly "Robo-Signing" foreclosures is fraudulent for what is being sworn to, ... namely that the volumes of documents are being reviewed and properly signed. Hogwash! Fraud, probably.

But another significant concern is the behavior of the Notary Publics who attested to the signatures. No, they can not attest to the fact that the signing parties reviewed the documents as they claimed, ... but they do attest to observing the actual signing. They also do so as an arm's length observer of that deed, and can have NO stake in the outcome. An employee of a firm paid to perform the deeds notarized should recuse him/herself for they have a stake through continued employment, and could be forced, at risk of termination, to notarize an entire stack of documents signed, but elsewhere and not in their presence.

No, it appears the lenders, their servicers, notaries and lawyers were committing assembly line fraud on a scale never seen before, to assure the process would not bog down, and the banksters could claim these properties as theirs, as quickly as possible and without delay.

If this sounds like the way crooks pull a heist, ... perhaps their are some similarities.

[Lolie Culley]

10:25 PM on 05/25/2011

People are tired of this and nothing comes out of it. Banks are now working day and night to evict people out of their homes. Until Eric Holder do something about this mess, people will always be the looser. Banks and Trustees are scaring people to get out of their homes by filing bogus papers and affidavit in courts around the country. Nothing is being done and simply no justice for people like us. Money and power ruled this country. Our justice system has been bought from top to bottom of our local and federal government.

[giwel7]

09:07 PM on 05/25/2011

recon trust continues to robo sign and violate other state laws . bank of america keeps repeating that they are a national bank so they do not have to follow state foreclosure laws. in utaha trustee has to belong to the state bar or be a title ins co -recon trust is neither-in washinton the trustee by law has to have an office in the state -recon trust has no offices. they continue to foreclose for BAC home loans servicing (trade name) countrywide home loan servicing.

[trespanieli]

07:14 PM on 05/25/2011

Investigate, inschmestigate. Come back when you guys actually punish these frauds and put them in striped suits with numbers over the left front pocket and across the back. A ball and chain would make nice accessories.

[EdCorner]

07:14 PM on 05/25/2011

Since they clouded all titles they touched, I don't see how this can be "fixed" for sellers, buyers and the foreclosed. This is irreparable damage and unforgiveable.

[cats530]

07:22 PM on 05/25/2011

Did you see today's Ticker?

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=2561951

[EdCorner]

07:38 PM on 05/25/2011

Great link, thanks - Glad I fanned ya !

[giwel7]

09:09 PM on 05/25/2011

it seems they try to have the homeowners fill out modification papers with a clause to sign away legal rights -then many have no plans to offer a modification they just want new paperwork

[BonnieDoon]

06:41 PM on 05/25/2011

Additional good news on the Fraudclosure front - excellent article on Zero Hedge by Tyler Durden:

"From Bad To Worse For Bank Of Countrywide Lynch: Utah AG Says BofA's State Foreclosures Are Illegal"

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/bad-worse-bank-countrywide-lynch-utah-ag-says-bofas-state-foreclosures-are-illegal-elijah-cu

[cats530]

06:53 PM on 05/25/2011

Yes, that was an excellent article and I especially loved the title "Bank of Countrywide Lynch;" made me laugh.

[UKNOWHOW ICM]

06:40 PM on 05/25/2011

And so what does this mean for homeowners???

[trespanieli]

07:40 PM on 05/25/2011

It means you are still screwed. If you haven't been foreclosed on yet, don't worry. They'll be coming for you soon. Too many home owners, too little time.

[UKNOWHOW ICM]

06:55 AM on 05/26/2011

Sigh. You may be right.