Prosecutors Say Florida AG Fired Them For Going After Mortgage Lenders

TPM Muckracker ^ | July 26, 2011, 10:26AM | Ryan J. Reilly

[JerseyHighlander]

Two former Florida prosecutors are accusing the state Attorney General of firing them for going after mortgage lenders too aggressively.

The Sun Sentinel reported that Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson were abruptly fired by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at the end of May and say the attention they were focusing on combating mortgage fraud was the reason.

"Obviously we did our job too well," Edwards told the Sentinel. "We were making too much noise."

Bondi's chief of staff Carlos Muniz released a long statement to the newspaper which said that Edwards and Clarkson were let go because of problems related to "proper identification and analysis of legal issues ... judgment in discussing matters related to pending investigations with third parties ... and ... professionalism to opposing counsel."

But both women had consistently received strong evaluations, according to the Sentinel. So what gives?

Edwards told the newspaper in an email that she and Clarkson "were pleased that the Attorney General's Office was dedicating more attorneys to foreclosure fraud, but said she also found it curious that they would do so without letting the two lawyers provide any transition notes on their cases," the newspaper reported.

"I will be interested to see the results of all the hours and energy that is now being used on these investigations," Edwards wrote. Reported the Sentinel:

Edwards and Clarkson attracted widespread media attention for the exposure of foreclosure mills, turning up fraudulent signatures and fake names on documents being used to oust people from their homes. Documents didn't have the correct dates. Large financial institutions couldn't always produce the proper paperwork.

But as the women were racking up cases, Bondi also came under fire for being soft on mortgage lenders.

[Zhang Fei]

So, like the other guy said, what in your world would stop me and every other freeper from filing foreclosure on your loan with papers we create just to 'speed up' the process?

Two things:

1 - The MBS's are backed by loan documents, signed by both parties. Unless you have those documents, you're not in a position to foreclose. For the banks, that was always the easy part. It's chasing down title documents that they're having real difficulty with.

2 - These MBS's are serviced by an administrator, typically a bank. When the deadbeat home buyer was making payments, the money was being routed to the owners of the MBS's, via the administrator. Unless that "you and every other freeper" are that administrator, and can show that you received those payments in the past, you're not in a position to foreclose on the property.

[sarasmom]

Thank you, Elle Bee.
Zhang Fei, your avoiding the property title.

The banks committed fraud when they “sold” interests in all those mortgages, without filing that pesky little $35.00 property fee as mandated by law, each time the “mortgage” was sold.

MERS electronic tracking does not count. The banks elected to separate the property titles from the debt, to save the fee.
The banks made a ton of money, selling a share of what are now essentially unsecured loans to “investors”.

What banking or investment entity(s) have true legal claim to the property title?

Massive, systemic banking fraud is happening here.

Time for all parties involved to not only lose both property and money, but also to pay fines for RICO.