A must read in its entirety…
You cant make this stuff up folks…
Quotes from the report…
Three S. Fla. law firms target of probe – South Florida Business Journal
Bill McCollum
“We are seeing a paperwork trail where law firms, through a mill, prepared paperwork with signatures from lenders who had assigned the mortgage,”
“Thousands of final judgments of foreclosure against Florida homeowners may have been the result of the allegedly improper actions of the law firms under investigation,”
McCollum said his office also is looking into whether the law firms created affiliated companies outside of the U.S., where the allegedly false documents are prepared.
McCollum said that, while his office usually doesn’t announce investigations, “we have to protect consumers” and “we want people to know there are tens of thousands of mortgages out there where law firms are misleading the public, and it’s not proper.”
Jeffrey Tew of Tew Cardenas LLP in Miami, who represents David J. Stern
“His client is cooperating and that it is their position they have done nothing wrong.”
Tew said that, in the last few years, Stern’s firm has handled more than 100,000 foreclosure cases, and there have been fewer than 20 instances in which documents were “inadvertently misstated” and, when found, were corrected.
“With that kind of volume, there will be mistakes,” he said. “The firm realized it, they were corrected, withdrawn and proper documents substituted.”
Tew said his client operates under the strict guidelines created by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and that the foreclosure process is supervised by a circuit court judge.
“Everything done is done by the judge who is there to protect the rights of the borrower and lender,” he said. “David Stern didn’t create that problem; he is representing banks who are entitled to foreclose. Since he is the visible person, he will get a lot of bad publicity. There’s been a huge train wreck and David is like the surgeon in the ER: He is part of the process.”
West Palm Beach attorney Gerald Richman, who represents Shapiro & Fishman
“They don’t have any information to indicate that the methods used by his client were illegal.”
“They have done their best to represent their clients, I think the investigation is a fishing expedition,” Richman said. “There may have been some problems with other firms, but there isn’t anything directly related to Shapiro & Fishman.”
Really??? No methods used by his client were illegal???
Nothing related to Shapiro & Fishman???
Well try this on for size…
Link – Foreclosure Fraud, Fraud on the Court, Shapiro & Fishman and Fannie Mae = Case Dismissed WITH Prejudice
Looks like this Judge thinks otherwise…
Whoopsie… Guess Richman missed that one…
On a side note, since we are talking about quotes on Foreclosure Fraud and such, I been meaning to bring this up…
Here are some direct quotes from an article posted in the Daily Business Review last month regarding Judge Sasser…
After a call was made to Sasser’s office seeking comment, attorney “GUESS WHO” in West Palm Beach called the Review. He said he “heard” about the article and wanted to speak in support of the judge on behalf of the American Board of Trial Advocates, which he said normally responds to what might be “unfair criticism of judges.”
When pressed about how he found out the Review was working on this article, he said Palm Beach Circuit Chief Judge Peter Blanc asked him to call in support of Sasser, who is prevented from commenting about pending cases and motions for recusal by judicial canon.
“GUESS WHO”, a past president of the trial advocates group, said the fact that the attempts by the Ice firm to remove the judge from its cases have so far been denied proves that his claims are groundless. “GUESS WHO” said that repeated motions for disqualification generally are a sign of a delaying strategy.
“When you have one after another after another, it becomes fairly obvious that it becomes a litigation tactic,” he said.
He said Judge Sasser’s “reputation is to be as even-handed as she can for both sides … The 4th District Court of Appeal has spoken uniformly denying those attempts as being groundless.”
“GUESS WHO” said judges often become upset if attorneys don’t act professionally, which he said may be the case with the Ice firm.
“They are filing motions for prohibition that are repeatedly unfounded,” he said. “You cannot allow a lawyer or law firm that may be acting unprofessionally to go ahead and prevent the judge from doing their duty.”
Have you guessed yet who it could be that came to save the day in Judge Sassers honor?
None other than West Palm Beach attorney Gerald Richman, who represents Shapiro & Fishman…
But hey, whats the difference. According to a recent quote by Judge Sasser in an article in the Palm Beach Post, “I haven’t seen any widespread problem,” Sasser said.
Not in her courtroom, no way, no how…
Maybe she should read the recent press release from the Attorney Generals Office…
Oh, there’s one more thing that has been bothering me, well there are quite a few things that bother me, but something that is directly related to the discussions above…
It is about another press release that recently came out…
DJSP Enterprises, Inc. Adds General Counsel to Senior Management Team
PLANTATION, Fla., Aug. 4, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — DJSP Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq:DJSP), one of the largest providers of processing services for the mortgage and real estate industries in the United States, today announced that Howard S. Burnston has accepted the position of Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary effective August 5th 2010.
Prior to joining the company, Mr. Burnston was a shareholder with Gunster, Yoakley, & Stewart, P.A., a Florida law firm, where he practiced for 12 years, most recently as chairman of the firm’s Securities and Corporate Governance Practice Group. Mr. Burnston received his Juris Doctorate from New York University School of Law, his Masters of Business Administration in Banking and Finance from Hofstra University, and his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the State University of New York at Albany. Mr. Burnston is a member of the Florida Bar.
You ask why this bothers me?
Well, Howard S. Burnston was a shareholder with Gunster, Yoakley, & Stewart, P.A., a Florida law firm, where he practiced for 12 years…
You ask why does that matter?
Because that is the same firm, Gunster, Yoakley, & Stewart, P.A., where Sasser practiced before being appointed to Judge of the Foreclosure Division of Palm Beach County.
But hey, maybe I am just over analyzing everything…
I guess it could all just be one big coincidence…
No wide spread problems here, right???
Anyway, just another day in Foreclosure World…
~
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