QuoteO.C. pair nabbed in ‘massive’ home repo fraud
November 22nd, 2011, 4:00 pm · ·
An Irvine man and a Santa Ana woman became the first people in the nation to face criminal charges in the massive “robo-signing†case, a scandal involving the filing of improperly reviewed foreclosure documents on delinquent homes.
A Las Vegas grand jury working with the Nevada Attorney General’s Office handed down a 606-count indictment against the two, accusing them of directing employees to file “tens of thousands†of documents containing forged signatures that had been fraudulently notarized.
However, a law professor quoted in an online news story questioned whether the Nevada authorities who obtained indictments against the two were going after low-level participants in the scandal instead of pursuing people who designed and profited from the fraudulent system.
The charges accused two title officers of directing the operation: Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine and Geraldine “Gerri†Sheppard, 62, of Santa Ana.
Neither was in custody as of Tuesday, but the two have been asked to voluntarily surrender to Nevada authorities, an attorney general’s spokeswoman said. Authorities set bail at $500,000 apiece.
The indictments come as a collection of state attorneys general and the Obama Administration are negotiating with five major banks over what they will pay in damages for their role in allowing thousands of homes to seized in the foreclosure process without proper review and supervision of the documents.
The 440-page indictment accused the two of directing the filing of fraudulent Notices of Default on Clark County, Nev., homes between 2005 and 2008, initiating the foreclosure process against homeowners who are 90 days or more late on mortgage payments.
The Attorney General’s Office said Trafford and Sheppard directed their employees to forge their names on foreclosure documents, then to notarize the forged signatures. They then directed that the documents be filed with the Clark County Recorder’s office, another violation.
In a separate news release, the Attorney General’s Office said that a Nevada notary pleaded guilty to one count of improperly notarizing documents in the case. Presumably, she will be cooperating with prosecutors in Trafford’s and Shepperd’s cases.
The Jacksonville, Fla., mortgage servicing firm Lender Processing Services issued a statement confirming that Trafford and Sheppard were its employees, but said the firm itself had been told it’s not a target of the Nevada investigation.
“LPS acknowledges the signing procedures on some of these documents were flawed; however, the company also believes these documents were properly authorized and their recording did not result in a wrongful foreclosure,†the company statement said.
The Huffington Post quoted University of Minnesota law professor Prentiss Cox as praising Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto for pursuing the robo-signing case.
But Cox, a former assistant state attorney general, added, “When criminal prosecutions are done for robo-signing, I would hope the target of those prosecutions would be the people who designed the system and profited from it, not just the low-level people doing what they were told.â€
Register staff writer Sean Emery found a Santa Ana number for a Geraldine Sheppard. But when he called it, a man answered and said, “I’m sorry, she has no comment,†and hung up. Numbers for Trafford were out of service.
http://lansner.ocregister.com/2011/11/22/o-c-residents-named-as-robo-signers/152583/
And the plot thickens:
QuoteForeclosure fraud whistleblower found dead
By msnbc.com staff
A notary public who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a massive foreclosure scam before blowing the whistle on the scandal has been found dead in her Las Vegas home.
NBC station KSNV of Las Vegas reported that the woman, Tracy Lawrence, 43, was scheduled to be sentenced Monday morning after she pleaded guilty this month to notarizing the signature of an individual not in her presence. She failed to show up for her hearing, and police found her body at her home later in the day.
It could not immediately be determined whether Lawrence, who faced up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000, died of susicide or of natural causes, KSNV reported. Detectives said they had ruled out homicide.
Lawrence came forward earlier this month and blew the whistle on the operation, in which title officers Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine, Calif., and Geraldine Sheppard, 62, of Santa Ana, Calif. â€" who worked for a Florida processing company used by most major banks to process repossessions â€" allegedly forged signatures on tens of thousands of default notices from 2005 to 2008.
Trafford and Sheppard were charged two weeks ago with 606 counts of offering false instruments for recording, false certification on certain instruments and notarization of the signature of a person not in the presence of a notary public. You can read a .pdf version of their indictment here.
Police said at the time that the alleged scam had thrown into question the legality of most Las Vegas home foreclosures in the past few years, leaving many people living in foreclosed-upon homes that they unknowingly don't actually own.
"I would suggest you review your documents and bring them to an expert and an attorney," said John Kelleher, chief deputy attorney general for Nevada's fraud unit.
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9099162-foreclosure-fraud-whistleblower-found-dead