Posts Tagged ‘david j stern enterprises’
EXPOSED- National Media Picks Up on the Story on David J. Stern
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
Congratulations to Ice Legal for really being on the front lines of the fight to ensure basic rights and the rules of the courts are respected and thanks to Mike Dillon for the early morning heads up on the story.
Now the national media is picking up on what all of us have known for far too long…..the rich foreclosure barons are shoveling in millions of dollars and abusing courts and homeowners in the process.
One of my questions is how courts can continue to sanction the conduct reported in this article? How can our federally-backed lenders and servicers continue to sanction such conduct? It’s a terrifying commentary on what our country has become when the conduct reported in this article has become so institutionalized that it’s widely accepted. We should all be reminded that this fight we’re in is a fight for the very heart and soul of this country and our courts. There are judges that “get it”. (Note that one of Pinellas County’s great judges Hon. Anthony Rondolino is quoted prominently in the article.) There is a small but growing band of activists that are sounding the alarm bells.
Let’s just hope this evil fire gets extinguished before we reach a point of catastrophic no return….if we have not already.
Read on. Visit the Mother Jones website for the full story.
EXCLUSIVE: Fannie and Freddie’s Foreclosure Barons
— Illustration: Lou BeachHow the federal housing agencies—and some of the biggest bailed-out banks—are helping shady lawyers make millions by pushing families out of their homes.
LATE ONE NIGHT IN February 2009, Ariane Ice sat poring over records on the website of Florida’s Palm Beach County. She’d been at it for weeks, forsaking sleep to sift through thousands of legal documents. She and her husband, Tom, an attorney, ran a boutique foreclosure defense firm called Ice Legal. (Slogan: “Your home is your castle. Defend it.”) Now they were up against one of Florida’s biggest foreclosure law firms: Founded by multimillionaire attorney David J. Stern, it controlled one-fifth of the state’s booming market in foreclosure-related services. Ice had a strong hunch that Stern’s operation was up to something, and that night she found her smoking gun.
It involved something called an “assignment of mortgage,” the document that certifies who owns the property and is thus entitled to foreclose on it. Especially these days, the assignment is key evidence in a foreclosure case: With so many loans having been bought, sold, securitized, and traded, establishing who owns the mortgage is hardly a trivial matter. It frequently requires months of sleuthing in order to untangle the web of banks, brokers, and investors, among others. By law, a firm must execute (complete, sign, and notarize) an assignment before attempting to seize somebody’s home.
A Florida notary’s stamp is valid for four years, and its expiration date is visible on the imprint. But here in front of Ice were dozens of assignments notarized with stamps that hadn’t even existed until months—in some cases nearly a year—after the foreclosures were filed. Which meant Stern’s people were foreclosing first and doing their legal paperwork later. In effect, it also meant they were lying to the court—an act that could get a lawyer disbarred or even prosecuted. “There’s no question that it’s pervasive,” says Tom Ice of the backdated documents—nearly two dozen of which were verified by Mother Jones. “We’ve found tons of them.”
This all might seem like a legal technicality, but it’s not. The faster a foreclosure moves, the more difficult it is for a homeowner to fight it—even if the case was filed in error. In March, upon discovering that Stern’s firm had fudged an assignment of mortgage in another case, a judge in central Florida’s Pasco County dismissed the case with prejudice—an unusually harsh ruling that means it can never again be refiled. “The execution date and notarial date,” she wrote in a blunt ruling, “were fraudulently backdated, in a purposeful, intentional effort to mislead the defendant and this court.”
More often than not in uncontested cases, missing or problematic documents simply go overlooked. In Florida, where foreclosure cases must go before a judge (some states handle them as a bureaucratic matter), dwindling budgets and soaring caseloads have overwhelmed local courts. Last year, the foreclosure dockets of Lee County in southwest Florida became so clogged that the court initiated rapid-fire hearings lasting less than 20 seconds per case—”the rocket docket,” attorneys called it. In Broward County, the epicenter of America’s housing bust, the courthouse recently began holding foreclosure hearings in a hallway, a scene that local attorneys call the “new Broward Zoo.” “The judges are so swamped with this stuff that they just don’t pay attention,” says Margery Golant, a veteran Florida foreclosure defense lawyer. “They just rubber-stamp them.”
But the Ices had uncovered what looked like a pattern, so Tom booked a deposition with Stern’s top deputy, Cheryl Samons, and confronted her with the backdated documents—including two from cases her firm had filed against Ice Legal’s clients. Samons, whose counsel was present, insisted that the filings were just a mistake. She refused to elaborate, so the Ices moved to depose the notaries and other Stern employees whose names were on the evidence. On the eve of those depositions, however, the firm dropped foreclosure proceedings against the Ices’ clients.
It was a bittersweet victory: The Ices had won their cases, but Stern’s practices remained under wraps. “This was done to cover up fraud,” Tom fumes. “It was done precisely so they could try to hit a reset button and keep us from getting the real goods.”
Backdated documents, according to a chorus of foreclosure experts, are typical of the sort of shenanigans practiced by a breed of law firms known as “foreclosure mills.” While far less scrutinized than subprime lenders or Wall Street banks, these firms undermine efforts by government and the mortgage industry to put struggling homeowners back on track at a time of record foreclosures. (There were 2.8 million foreclosures in 2009, and 3.8 million are projected for this year.) The mills think “they can just change things and make it up to get to the end result they want, because there’s no one holding them accountable,” says Prentiss Cox, a foreclosure expert at the University of Minnesota Law School. “We’ve got these people with incentives to go ahead with foreclosures and flood the real estate market.”
PAPER TRAIL
View the documents featured in this story:
Federal Securities Fraud Suit, Cooper and Methi v. DJSP Enterprises, David J. Stern, and Kumar Gursahaney, July 2010
Class Action Racketeering Suit, Figueroa v. MERSCORP, Law Offices of David J. Stern, and David J. Stern, July 2010
Fair Debt Collection Violation Suit, Hugo San Martin and Melissa San Martin v. Law Offices of David J. Stern, July 2010
Class Action Suit for Fair Debt Collecting Violations, Rory Hewitt v. Law Offices of David J. Stern and David J. Stern, October 2009
Florida Bar, Public Reprimand, Complaint Against David J. Stern, Sept. 2002
Florida Bar, Public Reprimand, Consent Judgment Against David J. Stern, Oct. 2002
Freddie Mac Designated Counsel, Retention Agreement with Law Offices of David J. Stern, April 2003
Freddie Mac Designated Counsel, Memo to Law Offices of David J. Stern, March 2006
Amended Complaint Alleging Sexual Harassment, Bridgette Balboni v. Law Offices of David J. Stern and David J. Stern, July 1999
Stern’s is hardly the only outfit to attract criticism, but his story is a useful window into the multibillion-dollar “default services” industry, which includes both law firms like Stern’s and contract companies that handle paper-pushing tasks for other big foreclosure lawyers. Over the past decade and a half, Stern has built up one of the industry’s most powerful operations—a global machine with offices in Florida, Kentucky, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines—squeezing profits from every step in the foreclosure process. Among his loyal clients, who’ve sent him hundreds of thousands of cases, are some of the nation’s biggest (and, thanks to American taxpayers, most handsomely bailed out) banks—including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citigroup. “A lot of these mills are doing the same kinds of things,” says Linda Fisher, a professor and mortgage-fraud expert at Seton Hall University’s law school. But, she added, “I’ve heard some pretty bad stories about Stern from people in Florida.”
While the mortgage fiasco has so far cost American homeowners an estimated $7 trillion in lost equity, it has made Stern (no relation to NBA commissioner David J. Stern) fabulously rich. His $15 million, 16,000-square-foot mansion occupies a corner lot in a private island community on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. It is featured on a water-taxi tour of the area’s grandest estates, along with the abodes of Jay Leno and billionaire Blockbuster founder Wayne Huizenga, as well as the former residence of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. (Last year, Stern snapped up his next-door neighbor’s property for $8 million and tore down the house to make way for a tennis court.) Docked outside is Misunderstood, Stern’s 130-foot, jet-propelled Mangusta yacht—a $20 million-plus replacement for his previous 108-foot Mangusta. He also owns four Ferraris, four Porsches, two Mercedes-Benzes, and a Bugatti—a high-end Italian brand with models costing north of $1 million a pop.
Despite his immense wealth and ability to affect the lives of ordinary people, Stern operates out of the public eye. His law firm has no website, he is rarely mentioned in the mainstream business press, and neither he nor several of his top employees responded to repeated interview requests for this story. Stern’s personal attorney, Jeffrey Tew, also declined to comment. But scores of interviews and thousands of pages of legal and financial filings, internal emails, and other documents obtained by Mother Jones provided insight into his operation. So did eight of Stern’s former employees—attorneys, paralegals, and other staffers who agreed to talk on condition of anonymity. (Most still work in related fields and fear that speaking publicly about their ex-boss could harm their careers.)
For the rest of the article, click here.
$1 Million Dollars of Foreclosure Slop- This has got to Stop!
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
The picture above is another million dollar example of foreclosure slop. The home, located at 101 21st Avenue North in St. Petersburg Florida was once a proud and beautiful example of residential beauty. It sits on three large lots in one of the nicest areas of town. Just a few short years ago, it’s lush tropical landscape and interesting gardens made it the jewel of the street. Today it’s a vacant and crumbling eyesore, a blight on the neighborhood. The foreclosure mills have made such a mess out of the foreclosure, that the home will have to be re-foreclosed before it can ever be sold. But it’s such a mess that I predict it will just fall into continued disrepair and be liquidated for next to nothing. Here’s the anatomy of this foreclosure mess:
Have a look at the property appraiser card for this property, gorrellpropertyappraiser
12/26/2007, David Stern Enterprises, (DJSP) on behalf of Citimortgage, filed a foreclosure. gorrellcitilis
1/18/2008, Shapiro and Fishman, on behalf of HSBC file a second foreclosure on the same property. gorrellhsbclis
2/01/2008, HSBC files affidavit swearing they cannot get personal service on the defendants.
3/13/2008, Scott Anderson/MERS executes assignment of mortgage from Delta to HSBC. gorrellassign
9/11/2008, Court enters Order of Dismissal, dismissing the HSBC foreclosure. gorrellmasterdismissal
9/11/2008, Court enters Order of Dismissal, dismissing the Citi foreclosure. gorrellmasterdismissalciti
4/16/2010, Court enters Final Judgment of Foreclosure to HSBC for $1 million. gorrelljudgment
4/24/2009, Citi files a Voluntary Dismissal. gorrelldocket
6/24/2010, Court issues Certificate of Title to HSBC Bank. gorrellCT
To the untrained eye, all those documents and the chain of slop and mistakes may not mean much, but the title work on this property will give any experienced title attorney nightmares. It’s just a mess on top of a mess, topped off with an unresolvable mess. It’s hard to tell what’s the worst thing about all this. Is it the fact that the judgment is void or voidable as to the Defendants Gorrell due to the improper service? The post-filing assignment of mortgage? The questionable veracity of the HSBC Assignment? HSBC ignoring the Citi Lis Pendens? The code enforcement liens?
I’m going to keep watching this property to see what becomes of it. HSBC claims they’ve paid $35,000 in property taxes on the home and $19,000 in homeowner’s insurance. The taxes work out to $11,000 per year, so HSBC will keep eating those taxes for years to come.
The irony of the whole thing is I alerted the foreclosure mill attorney to the problems with this file more than a year ago….it would have been easy enough to resolve some of the problems if anyone cared enough to put the time into the file, but you know….in this rush to push these cases through….who has the time to do things correctly…..there’s another even more messed up foreclosure that I’ll share with everyone later….
Another Day, Another Set of Serious Allegations Against David J. Stern
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
Things just keep looking darker for the former king of Florida foreclosures, David J. Stern. This comes from the wire at Wall Street Journal…poor David J. Stern…..the following is taken directly from the press release:
The Briscoe Law Firm, PLLC and Cash Powers Taylor, LLP Announce the Investigation of Possible Breaches of Fiduciary Duties Against the Officers and Directors of DJSP Enterprises, Inc.
DALLAS, Jul 28, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The Briscoe Law Firm, PLLC, founded by a former state prosecutor and enforcement attorney for the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and the law firm of Cash Powers Taylor, LLP are investigating potential legal claims available to purchasers of DJSP Enterprises, Inc. (“DJSP” or “Company”) /quotes/comstock/15*!djsp/quotes/nls/djsp (DJSP 3.95, +0.07, +1.85%) during the period of March 16, 2010 and May 27, 2010.
DJSP and certain of its officers and directors allegedly violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by issuing materially false and misleading statements and failing to disclose certain facts known to them regarding the Company’s business and financial results. Specifically, on March 11, 2010, the Company issued statements assuring investors that it would continue to profit and earn revenue as usual, despite the Obama Administration’s efforts to curb real estate foreclosures. Additionally, the Company stated that DJSP would continue to be profitable in subsequent years and that its business would not be affected by the government’s involvement in the mortgage markets. However, in April 2010, when the Company’s largest clients began real estate foreclosure conversion systems, DJSP revenue from mortgage foreclosure began to substantially decline. As a result of defendants’ false statements, DJSP’s stock traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period.
If you currently own or purchased DJSP shares and would like additional information regarding this investigation or if you have information regarding the allegations against the company, please contact Patrick Powers at Cash Powers Taylor, LLP, toll free (877) 728-9607, via e-mail at patrick@cptlawfirm.com, or The Briscoe Law Firm, PLLC toll free (877) 397-5991, or via email at WBriscoe@TheBriscoeLawFirm.com. There is no cost or fee to you.
The Briscoe Law Firm is a full service business litigation, commercial transaction, and public advocacy firm with more than 20 years of experience in complex litigation and transactional matters.
Cash Powers Taylor, LLP is a boutique litigation law firm that handles a variety of complex business litigation matters, including claims of investor and stockholder fraud, shareholder oppression, shareholder derivative suits, and security class actions.
SOURCE: Cash Powers Taylor, LL
WITH ALL THESE SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS, HOW CAN OUR CIRCUIT COURT JUDGES CONTINUE TO GRANT FORECLOSURE?
BOMBSHELL- CLASS ACTION OPEN FOR EVERY CONSUMER WHO HAS BEEN SUED BY DAVID J. STERN
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
First reported by 4closurefraud, I post below a stunning and mind-blowing class action lawsuit that was just filed against the Law Offices of David J. Stern, David J. Stern individually and MERSCorp. The lawsuit is stunning both in the allegations made and the detail that describes the collapse of the entire American financial markets and widespread the destruction of property rights across this country.
More will be detailed about this lawsuit in months to come. For now, I encourage everyone to read this lawsuit carefully and share this lawsuit with judges, reporters and policy makers. The lawsuit articulates many of the suspicions and the greatest fears held by many but who are unable to put those fears into words. I give real credit to the courageous attorney who took on this effort and encourage all those who are in the fight to protect and defend our courts to support this effort.
More Bad News for David Stern and DJSP Enterprises…..
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
Another day, another bad newspaper article in the St. Petersburg Times for David J. Stern, (ahem) the Law Offices of David J. Stern, David J. Stern Enterprises or whatever the heck the evil empire is called…..I cannot imagine that the small number of institutional lender clients will continue to refer cases to a law firm that is the subject of lawsuits and unfavorable press. I wonder how many investors actually bought stock in this enterprise, seeking to capitalize on other’s misfortune…..I think about them as I see the stock price just diving, diving, diving down lower.
I also wonder whether judges will start examining David J. Stern cases more carefully in light of the allegations.
Read the full article here.
HOT OFF THE PRESSES- DAVID STERN SUED FOR VIOLATIONS OF FEDERAL SECURITIES LAWS!
Author: Matthew D. Weidner, Esq.
First reported on 4closurefraud.org I wanted to share with everyone a major development that has implications for the entire foreclosure industry–a brand new federal lawsuit against David Stern and DJSP, David J Stern Enterprises. The attached lawsuit, filed in Federal Court for the Southern District of Florida just yesterday details 30 pages worth of very troubling allegations against the principals of one of the largest foreclosure mills in the country.
The allegations are just that…allegations, but if they are proven true and if the exceptionally detailed statements were relied upon by major financial players who invested in DJSP….there’s probably some kind of trouble. Read the complaint in its entirety. Take each statement and allegation and ask, “What does it mean if just one of the allegations are true?”
And for the hundreds of thousands of homeowners across this state that have been victimized by the (ahem) Law Offices of David Stern….and for the judges all across this state that have been inundated by foreclosure slop from the (ahem) Law Offices of David Stern…what would proof that these allegations are correct mean?
I have the distinct feeling that this is just the beginning…..reading the very specific allegations made simply confirms my suspicions that something is very wrong in the Twilight Zone world that must be the (ahem) Law Offices of David Stern…It’s a sad commentary that abuses of court process and homeowners is tolerated and that it apparently takes abusing rich and powerful investors before real attention is paid to one’s wrongdoing, but at least some are standing up to take notice…..Read below and stay tuned!
