Seeing Through Data

Yesterday the New York Times reported that the Missouri Attorney General, Chris Koster, indicted DocX — home of former superstar robo-signer Linda Green — on 137 counts of fraud related to false releases.  DocX Faces Perjury Charges in Mo. Foreclosures.  Despite the headline the indictment uses the term “Deed of Release” 340 times: this indictment is about people who paid their loans then had their bank breach its obligation — which they were paid for — to mark the obligation as satisfied.

That is, this is the mirror opposite of foreclosure robo-signing: this criminal case is about protecting those who did pay but where the bank, to save a few dollars, didn’t live up to its end of the bargain.

Interestingly, I have a Linda Green signed release myself, on a house I paid off years ago.  I’ve asked the bank and MERS to file a perfected instrument and have been told that shouldn’t be a problem; we’ll see.  They have been filing corrective instruments in foreclosure-related cases, though not — at least to my knowledge — in cases where people paid off their homes either through refi’s or by simply paying.

It’s a bummer to pay for one’s house then have the bank use teenagers forging the name of a bank “Vice President” who’s sole work history before obtaining that job was as a Clerk in an auto-parts store and who “authorized” teenagers working after high-school to sign her name

Let’s check out loan volume in my home County during the boom and after to get a feel for how widespread this problem could be:

Ouch.