You Can’t Have An Omelet If The Chicken Hasn`t Laid The Egg Yet!
A reader of my blog emailed me three short YouTube Videos that shows in black and white in papers filed in courts across the country how employees of law firms and lenders are creating false affidavits and assignments then submitting these in courts as part of the Bank`s campaign to take borrower`s homes even though they have not established the legal right to do so. I love his quote, which I have printed above and give him great credit for pulling together video and documents that demonstrate some of the notaryaffidavit fraud that is rampant in foreclosure cases around the country. For those of you that have other examples, please send to me for posting. If you are an attorney or someone interested at all in foreclosure and the fraud being perpetrated in courts across the country, take a few minutes to watch the video.
[youtube]LoSPTjd_PXM[/youtube]What these clips demonstrate is how law firms file foreclosure cases on behalf of lenders but then don`t bother to have the proper paperwork they need to file the case created until after the case if filed. I have previously posted information about a woman named “Erica A. Johnson-Seck”. According to a deposition transcript taken of Ms. Seck and posted on this blog elsewhere, one of Ms. Seck`s primary job functions is to sign the Assignments of Mortgage that banks use to throw a borrower out of a home. What these videos demonstrate is that there are a handful of people like Ms. Seck whose job it is to sit in offices across the country, signing documents allegedly on behalf of lenders and MERS, which documents then form the basis for the lender to throw the borrower out of the home. Examples of Affidavit Fraud Several problems are developing with these affidavits. First, an affidavit must be based on a person`s personal knowledge. As detailed in the depositions of these “Robo Signers” their knowledge is limited to scribbling something that resembles a name on a piece of paper. They cannot possibly have personal knowledge of the facts they are swearing to given the volume of papers they are signing and the multitude of companies they are signing allegedly on behalf of. Next, as is demonstrated in the YouTube videos these documents, particularly the Assignments of Mortgage, are typically created after the lawsuit was filed. Such post-dated assignments are becoming increasingly problematic for the banks and their shady lawyers because when an Assignment is dated after the case has been filed, that is an implicit admission that it did not exist (and thus the Plaintiff did not have a right to file the lawsuit) before the Assignment was executed. Now, the shady lawyers and banks are trying to get around this pesky problem with creative language in the Assignments such as “This Assignment Occurred Prior to When This Document Was Drafted”, and they will eventually draft their pleadings so that they are not bothered by these pesky details, but for the millions of post dated assignments that currently exist and the tens of thousands of final judgments of foreclosure out there that such posted dated assignments were based upon, they are a real problem. Next, there are real questions about where the affidavits were physically signed and whether the witnesses and notary publics were actually present when these documents were signed. Signatures which must be notarized must be physically signed in front of the Notary Public in order for that Notary Public to affix their notary seal and signature to that document. We know from depositions and other evidence that in many cases, the Robo Signer sits in one room or one office while the Notary Public is in another office or building completely. And finally, we come to one of my favorite examples of affidavitevidence fraud. Years ago I was in a final hearing before a judge when I noticed that an Affidavit was signed by an attorney that worked in the law office of the Plaintiff who was prosecuting the foreclosure. The attorney admitted that the affiant worked in the office and in fact told the judge and I that they did it all the time. After the judge`s stern warnings, I sort of naively believed the practice might have stopped, but that belief was plain foolish on my part. I`ve recently learned that this practice has picked up again with attorneys of Plaintiff`s law firms signing the critical affidavits their firm needs in order to prove up their case. This is highly questionable behavior for advocates who have a duty to be truthful to the courts, but we`re learning every day that ethics, honesty and the integrity of the court systems are taking a back seat to the lenders and the institutions that are continuing to wreak havoc in communities across the country.
So what`s an attorney or consumer to do? Subpoena. If you`re in a foreclosure issue a subpoena to every person who has submitted an affidavit or executed an assignment or other document. In many cases I think you`ll find that neither the lenders or the attorneys will allow that affiant to testify about their “personal knowledge” under oath. For those of you out there with other examples…..please send them my way!
