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On November 20th 2012 I told you about a guilty plea taken by Lorraine Brown, the founder of DOCX (later known at LPS), in federal court in Florida. The press release for that plea did not come out until after 5 PM on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving most of the reporters who usually occupy the front pages of our newspapers and network news were presumably traveling or preparing for their holiday. The story was barely reported.
Lorraine Brown also pled guilty earlier that same day in state court in Missouri. She is rumored to be in plea negotiations in other states.
Even though this is no longer breaking news, it still belongs on the front page of every paper in the country and should be the lead story on every newscast. I’ll tell you why:
Whatever the banks thought about the robo-signing being “sloppy” before, once Lorraine Brown admitted that virtually every document coming out of DOCX/LPS was a forgery and that ALL documents coming out of DOCX/LPS were suspect, the banks that had court cases pending using DOCX/LPS documents had an obligation to either withdraw the documents and/or withdraw the lawsuits and other foreclosure proceedings.
It is a crime (common law fraud) to knowingly use a false, perjured, forged, fraudulent document as “evidence” in court. The specific statute violated will vary from state to state, but it is impossible to conceive that there is a single state where this is legal. If I’m wrong about that, I’m sure someone from the fraud-allowing state will set me straight in the comments. This is certainly a violation of federal criminal law, for example 18 USC §§ 371, 1341, 1342, and 1343 and 39 USC§§ 1341 and 1342.
I have seen no evidence that there has been a wholesale withdrawal of DOCX/LPS documents from evidence or a large scale voluntary dismissal of cases or even letters sent to chief judges saying that the cases should be stayed until they can perform the mechanics of withdrawing the fraudulent “evidence.” Nope, the cases I have been following are still going strong and being prosecuted vigorously.
This also means that the 50 state settlement notwithstanding, the Department of Justice and every attorney general in the country have a brand new, slam dunk, open and shut case against every single bank that is still allowing a foreclosure case to go forward based on DOCX/LPS false evidence.
THAT, my friends, is front page news. And getting it to the front page is essential so that judges know they are being hoodwinked, and homeowners know they should be making motions to dismiss. DOJ clearly knows about the Lorraine Brown guilty plea since the 13th hour press release came out of Main Justice instead of from the Middle District of Florida press office.
So, I’m asking for your help. Tweet this. Send a copy as a Letter to the Editor (or re-write your own using this information). Send it to the network and cable news shows you watch. Put up your own blog post about it. Email it to your favorite reporters. I don’t care if my little blogpost is the form you promote, just promote the story of the brand new massive fraud on the court that is occurring right now. The banks, and their lawyers, have no excuse. They can no longer harbor any belief, good faith or not, that those documents are not false and fraudulent.
Photo by steakpinball under Creative Commons license.
37 Comments
Dynamite!
Thank you, Cynthia. Will do.
Wells Fargo not modifying mortgages as required, lawsuit says
Thanks Cynthia. I’ve already contacted the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about it. I will circle back.
Tweeted.
Recommended.
Emailed to Dayton (Oh) daily news and Xenia Gazette.
Neither are particularly corporate. Both serve area’s with high foreclosure counts. They may run with it. Or not, given that most of their reporters are part time.
I wonder how much work it would take to find the cases with docx paperwork and zip off a letter to the lawyer or defendant.
Boxturtle (Hmm…that stuff is mostly online)
something else that ought to be on everyone’s front page instead of the fiction that is the fiscal molehill
Why Isn’t This a Front Page Story Nationwide?
Simple. Everyone – mortgage bankers, Wall Street types, regulators, prosecutors, journalists, investors, and even plaintiffs’ attorneys are whistling past this graveyard, hoping everything is going to be just fine if we all believe that it will be hard enough.
BT
Basically all of the cases involving the major servicers will have DOCX/LPS docs. They contracted with virtually of them.
True of the one’s I’ve seen.
In CA I’m told you’d have to get you case in front of a Federal Judge, via Bankruptcy proceedings, as the California Civil Procedures do not appear to permit challenges over documentation.
I have posed this question on a couple of other blogs, but I have to wonder about the liability and effects on companies that issue notarial bonds, as well as the notaries who attested to the signatures… In every state that I know of, notaries public are required to post a bond in case of any wrong-doing on their part (such as fraudulently attesting to signatures). The state can then go after the bonding company, which will then go after the notaries themselves.
Is this just some other aspect of the violation of public trust that will get swept under the carpet?
Tweeted!
Than you, Cynthia.
Thank you! Should say Thank you.
To date there have been no real penalties for bad behavior. Greed is a human frailty that should be discouraged and this is what happens when it is allowed to flourish.
Thank you for keeping this front and center. Great post.
o’s doj doesn’t go after bankster criminals when they have the evidence in hand. brown must have had a guilty conscience because no other people have been charged, let alone prosecuted. Things on the front page of newspapers don’t seem to elicit any response from the law enforcers except a huge yawn.
Cynthia, thank you for refusing to let this just slide into oblivion. You are correct, of course, this SHOULD be front-page news in every newspaper in the land … it should be an ongoing feature “In the people’s interest”, on every television “news” program.
A wee question if I might, however?
Should not, by now, EVERY judge who deals with issues related to the fraud, excuse me, the “transfer” of property or foreclose of same, already be familiar with the Lorraine Brown case? Should not every prosecutor, even Attorneys General, and every single attorney who deals with property or “home” issues be exclaiming, “AHA!!”, “Eureka”!!, and “By holy jumping Moses, we’ve finally got the ‘goods’ on what has gone wrong.” … indeed, should not every county recorder of deeds be jumping up and down for joy?
If this is not the case, then why do you imagine that it is not?
Again, I quite agree with you that the people should know about the Lorraine Brown case and what it implies. However, when we discover that the LEGAL profession does not know, apparently, when we are discussing nothing less than a FEDERAL case, a case which would seem to be supremely important TO the legal profession, then what are we, reasonably, to think and consider?
Might it be that it is not merely the banking profession which is not behaving well? Might it be that the legal profession well ought to know what is occurring and, WITHOUT PROMPTING FROM the people, rise to THEIR responsibility of being both informed AND making use FOR the people of that information?
What does justice require?
Not merely of the people, but of the legal profession?
What does truth require … of those who would benefit from being members of the legal profession?
Whose responsibility, is it, then, regarding the legal profession, to see that the legal profession is informed and best serves the genuine interests of the people? Or perhaps, the legal profession best serves other “interests”?
At some point, these questions must both be asked … and answered … else we are left to conclude, collusion, incompetence, or stupidity.
And while it may be claimed that “the people” are, ultimately, responsible for such things, for all that is wrong, there must be some small recognition, that, by now, the legal profession cannot hide behind claims of ignorance or incomprehension.
We may understand that the people do not know, as they have been kept, deliberately, in the dark, but the legal profession can claim only that its members have had their eyes, their ears, their minds, and their hearts closed … which is not the same thing as blind nor impartial justice, as it is self-serving, and convenient in the most craven and cowardly fashion.
We know that not all members of the legal profession have closed themselves off from the truth, Cynthia, as you are example and as others whom we know of are also example … but what must we all begin to conclude about certain other members of the world’s second oldest profession?
What excuse will or might suffice to release the legal profession from its own responsibility for the plight and oppression of the many … “looking forward”?
Some lawyers often seem pleased, or moved, to intone, when explaining injustice, oppression, and social destruction, “It was ever thus …”
Which begs this reply:
Without an effective Rule of Law, civil society crumbles, tyranny triumphs, and humanity suffers …
DW
Ms Khouril, thank you from the bottom of my heart for posting this. But I need to point out – a recent survey of judges showed that it is nigh impossible to find a judge who doesn’t own stock ina bank, have an on going business situation with a bank, or is related to some banking executive.
It is hard for any citizen to get past this prejudice. I have had a legit legal claim against a bank, but cannot get any single lawyer to take the case. They have to think, “What if I need a loan to put one of the kids through school? Or a business loan? Can I afford to take on Wells Fargo, and know that then I can’t have them loan me money?”
“Real People” are now basically feudal scum. We are less than clods of dirt. At least that is what we are worth when it comes to legal matters and the Justice System. After all, America is now so corrupt, it is the “Just Us” system. Like George Carlin told us many years ago, you and I are not part of that “Just Us.”
The same evil cabal that owns the financial industry also owns the mainstream media, the political process and as a knock on of course much of the judicial process as well. Mainstream journalists are as much paid to *not* report news as they are to report it– when the news they don’t report could injure or embarrass the oligarchy.
An excellent question Ms. Kouril, and one that myself and others (you included) have been asking for several years now.
I’ll be making a presentation to my state rep that heads our version of a foreclosure task force. We’ll see if the rep is really interested, or if the rep blows me off like every other elected official I’ve spoken with (local, state and federal included).
In all likelihood the rep believes the National Mortgage Settlement has “taken care of all of this,” and there remains nothing else to do.
Why aren’t a lot of stories front page nationwide ?
Because the MOTU need to maintain the fantasy the “Everything is beautiful and nothing hurts” or else the slave will revolt.
even challenges that say evidence is outright forged?
That’s harsh
I am a notary in NY and if I posted a cash bond to become one (it was so long ago I would never remember) it could not have been much $ because I was as poor as church mouse at the time I became a Notary.
I can tell you that there are still vast swathes of America who have no idea about this plea, including judges and prosecutors.
And even if they see my teeny blogpost, unless this story gets validated by MSM, most won’t believe it. Even if properly covered by MSM, a few will continue to not believe. Kevin reported that Bradley Manning’s Army Captain didn’t believe the newspaper stories about how Manning was treated at Quantico and thought they were hyped (he has since found out the truth and appears to by upset).
So, the best we can do is to get whatever recognition and validation we can out to as many eyes and ears as we can.
Very well said! I might, however, replace “as a knock” with “has a lock.” :)
Re: your comments about the legal profession: It’s the lawyers representing the banks that are your issue. The lawyers defending the homeowners are not part of the problem.
I have big issues with Lanny Bruer who announced earlier that a bank they caught dead to rights money laundering was getting off with some shitty fine b/c it was to big to prosecute. If that fine was coupled with the bank being broken up into something you could prosecute without wrecking the world economy, I might have understood, but no, it will continue to be so big that ist is a worldwide systemic risk,
I also have a big problem with the state level judges who just will not believe the truth and refuse to hold the banks to the normal and typical standard of proof that every other kind plaintiff bears.
Nope, they still believe the Tea Party rant about greedy deadbeat homeowners.
Agreed. All we can do is whatever we can do, and I’m asking you to tweet and forward
Stopforeclosurefraud.org has the initial story (from Michigan), but not the pleas in FL and Missori, and certainly doesn’t seem to have featured it in any event.
Perhaps you could take your diary over there to give the story longer legs? And to a comment stream at Naked Capitalism? They rock and roll over there.
I don’t tweet (no cellphone), and the papers here stopped printing my letters long ago (go figure), or I would. Thank you, Cynthia.
Imperative that this gets on every front page in the country, perhaps the world.
Thanks Cynthia !
Ditto – attorneys in NJ can, obviously, sign as notaries. I don’t know an attorney who’s posted a bond, and my secretary didn’t have to post one either.
Again the question arises, Cynthia … WHY do judges and lawyers NOT know about the Lorraine Brown case? Are not members of the legal profession expected to keep abreast of things that truly matter within their profession, that must affect their behavior and understanding?
Perhaps that seems unreasonable to you?
However, it seems to me that judges, especially, have a CONTINUING obligation to know the law AND cases which necessarily MUST have consequences for their decisions and for the people whom the judges MUST understand are those whom those judges actually serve. I can conceive of no possible excuse which judges might use to justify their ignorance of such an important revelation as the Lorraine Brown case, can you?
DW
I have big issues with Lannie Bruer AND Eric Holder … MERS, after all came from the law firm they were employed by … Covington & Burling.
And both of their behaviors, in NOT prosecuting the fraud which we both know is provable, as the Lorraine Brown case amply demonstrates, is beyond excuse or justification.
Understand, I do not disagree with spreading the news of the Lorraine Brown case far and wide, I applaud that suggestion and hope that as more people come to understand what occurred that the legal profession will be shamed into doing what it properly should.
However, I maintain, that a conscious and conscientious legal profession should not need or require pricks to conscience and humanity to uphold the Rule of Law … for that concern should rank right up “there” with doing “well” … above political and economic “connection”. I maintain that those things, greed (there is no other proper word, in this context,) and favorable “relationships” play a more than slight role in the willful “ignorance” of judges that is so harming civil society and individual human beings.
Were it honest error, then we might expect to see exactly what you do not see … as you relate in the sixth paragraph of your most excellent post, which I recommended very early this morning, long before venturing a comment.
DW
Here’s a link to a lawyer’s newsletter
A news article
Your first link did not work for me, Synoia.
Your second, very informative itself, has a number of comments about MERS that are most definitely very interesting and I hope that others might take a few minutes to read and ponder …
Much appreciation to you, Synoia.
DW
Oh, don’t worry; Obama and Holder will find a way to give the bankers immunity for this as well. Maybe they’ll even criminalize making a claim of forgery as an attack on the Treasury or something.
Scum (non-Elites) will be dispossed/jailed/exterminated, the Right People will be protected, and we can all go back to sleep. God Bless America, the most fragrant shitpile in the world.
“dispossessed”, sorry.
Really, Cynthia? You don’t ‘understand?’ I’ll try to explain: The media is owned by the politicians, Dempcrats AND Republicans. (Why don’t you think no third party is ever allowed to gain any political traction? To get traction, you need a certain percentage of the public behind you. To get the public fired up requires them to be informed. Who CONTROLS the flow of information? Duh! the Media! And the politicians like things just the way they are with their petty quarrels reported by the Media that keep us distracted from what is really going on.) And the politicians are owned by the Finance Industry (aka the Banks). Do you get it now?!?