Lawson told the News Service on Wednesday that he did indeed ask about those two companies, after their lawyers expressed concerns about the way Edwards and Clarkson were handling the cases – and, in particular about a public presentation the two gave in a public forum that gave their “impressions and theories” about the Lender Processing Services, and characterized certain companies as foreclosure mills.

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So, it sounds like LPS didn’t like these ladies poking around and the poor wittle foreclosure mills were offended by their characterizations…

Guess that didn’t sit well with ‘DICK’ for some reason. Wonder what that reason was?

He was hired by Pam Bondi shortly after she came into office btw… Hmmm…

Just so you all know, the presentation that “DICK” is referring to, as Barry Ritholtz puts it, as yeoman’s work, is the UNFAIR, DECEPTIVE AND UNCONSCIONABLE ACTS IN FORECLOSURE CASES report that was created, presented and praised under the previous administration.

I even got word that June and Theresa actually got an award for their groundbreaking work that was presented to the “public” at the December conference of the Florida Association of Court Clerks and Comptrollers by the attorney general’s economic crimes division.

The certain “companies” that they categorized as “Foreclosure Mills” that “DICK” is referring to are The “Law Offices” of David J. Stern, Shapiro $ Fishman, Marshall C. Watson, The Florida Default Law Group, Ben-Ezra Katz, Kahane, Consuegra, Albertelli, etc…

Oh my, slanderous… /sarcasm.

Okay folks, their true colors are starting to show here.

This is why you never react with emotion, because when you do, you fail…

Quotes from the New Director of Bondi’s Economic Crimes Division Richard “DICK” Lawson on Fraudclosuregate…

But first, the latest comment from Blondi…

“The decision that supervisors made to end the employment of these two employees, like every decision made in my office, was made based on sound policy and responsible management,” she wrote. “Any suggestion otherwise is both unfounded and offensive.”

Yea, sound policy and responsible management, right…

Now the latest from DICK Lawson…

Richard Lawson, the director of Bondi’s Economic Crimes Office, said that he had met with the women three times in their South Florida office to discuss his problems with their work. However, there is no documentation of these meetings, and their annual performance reviews for the past few years were complimentary. Edwards’ direct supervisor, Bob Julian, said in an interim evaluation in April that “I cannot overstate the degree to which I respect Ms. Edwards and her work with this unit.

Lawson said Wednesday that his first meeting with the two women was shortly after he’d started his job last spring, so he did not believe the meeting warranted formal paperwork. He also said that he was unsure why Julian did not also see problems with their work.

Okay, two things here…

One, this guy comes aboard not knowing a thing about foreclosuregate, (we met with him for about an hour in March after he claims of this meeting with June & Theresa and he still had no clue) and criticizes something he knows nothing about shortly after he started? Really?

Try harder there DICK. No pun intended…

Two, I think we should all be concerned for Clarkson’s and Edward’s previous supervisor Bill Julian with the way DICK is trying to discredit his opinion of these ladies…

He also said that he was unsure why Julian did not also see problems with their work.

I hope Bob’s job is now not in jeopardy.

To continue…

Lawson also denied that the office was easing up on Lender Processing Services, a Jacksonville firm that recently hired Joe Jacquot, a lawyer from Bondi’s office who was a holdover from former Attorney General Bill McCollum‘s office. Edwards and Clarkson had said publicly that Lawson had questioned them extensively about the firm.

Lawson said he and several assistant attorneys general from other states had met with LPS about their practices a day before the first story on Edwards and Clarkson broke and that he was “frustrated” by accusations that the office was easing up on its investigations.

So, this guy, Joe Jacquot, was hired by LPS the same week that June and Theresa were fired. His new position, Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for Lender Processing Services, Inc.

WOW, talk about a coincidence. Go from an office that is investigating LPS for fraud to its Senior Vice President of Government Affairs for Lender Processing Services, Inc. What a lucky guy!

From LPS’ web site. (You can’t make this stuff up folks!)

As Senior Vice President, Government Affairs, for Lender Processing Services (LPS), Joe Jacquot provides leadership and strategic oversight of LPS’ legislative, political, advocacy and other public affairs activities.  Joe is responsible for analyzing and responding to pending legislation and regulation affecting LPS; identifying legal, policy and operational issues for LPS; and building effective relationships with internal and external partners, including government officials and industry professional associations.

But wait, it gets better…

DICK doesn’t know when to stop…

Edwards and Clarkson said publicly in newspaper stories that their boss, Richard Lawson, who heads up the economic crimes division in Bondi’s office, questioned them extensively about two mortgage processors that are under investigation by the office, Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services and Tampa-based ProVest.

Lawson told the News Service on Wednesday that he did indeed ask about those two companies, after their lawyers expressed concerns about the way Edwards and Clarkson were handling the cases – and, in particular about a public presentation the two gave in a public forum that gave their “impressions and theories” about the Lender Processing Services, and characterized certain companies as foreclosure mills.

Poor wittle LPS, Provest and the foreclosure mills…

I don’t know what else can be further presented to characterize these “impressions and theories” as criminal intent and felonies…

And, the “certain companies” ARE Foreclosure Mills. How else would you define them?

Fraud is fraud and it is rampant. How can you deny it?

If any one of the homeowners did anything remotely close to what these fraudsters have done they would be in jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, directly to jail.

Anyway, we will close this one out with Bondi’s final quote of the day…

Bondi, who was one of several politicians who got “small” campaign donations from Lender Processing Services last year, also released a lengthy statement on the growing controversy on Wednesday.

“The most important directives I have given to the Division of Economic Crimes have been to increase its efforts to pursue foreclosure law firm investigations and to protect consumers,” Bondi said in the statement. “I am proud that based on my direction, we are more aggressively pursuing foreclosure law firm investigations and have substantially increased the amount of time and more than doubled the number of employees working on these investigations. From 2009 to 2010, 1,300 hours were spent on these investigations. From April to July 2011, more than 1,500 hours have been spent on these investigations….

“The two employees who were given the option of resigning or being terminated were failing to meet expectations, and they were held accountable for those shortcomings,” Bondi wrote.

Well if that’s the case, we should be seeing some fines levied, some criminal prosecutions initiated and some bar licenses lost.

Right Pam? Because if two investigators were able to accomplish the amount of work that they did in a year, or about 1300 hours, the new “investigators” should have something out this week if they spent more time and efforts than June and Theresa did over the last 3 months or 1,500 hours than J&T spent over the last year…

If not, we will speculate why…

Is it not true that you think homeowners are a “moral hazard” that can simply take advantage of their lender? Must, protect, the banks…

“Some homeowners may simply default on their loan and use the States’ agreement to obtain a principal reduction — whether or not they actually made an effort to maintain their mortgage,” wrote Bondi, who serves on the negotiating group’s executive board.

She called it a potential “moral hazard” that “rewards those who simply choose not to pay their mortgage — because they can simply take advantage of lenders‘ obligation to honor virtually automatic principal write-downs.”

Oh, yea. I almost forgot…

If you want to contact DICK Lawson and tell him how supportive you are of him and his new fraudclosure team, you can contact him through the methods below…

Richard “Dick” Lawson
Director Economic Crimes Division
Office of the Attorney General
State of Florida
PL-01, The Capitol
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1050
Ph: (850) 414-3300
Fax: (850) 488-1249
Richard.Lawson@myfloridalegal.com

But don’t don’t be disappointed if you do not get a response. We have sent numerous requests to his new fraudclosure “investigators” on who is monitoring and enforcing the Marshall C. Watson “settlement agreement,” in which it appears to have ongoing violations and have received no responses at the time of this posting…

Sign the petition calling for an investigation of Attorney General Bondi’s actions:

http://www.progressflorida.org/bondi

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4closureFraud.org

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The Devil is in the Details – Introducing LPS Government Solutions