Atrocity Du Jour: Enter the Robo-Signers

I learned a new word today!  If I use it thrice, it becomes mine.  Robo-Signer, Robo-Signer, Robo-Signer.

I’ve been very critical of the people that were swept up in the mass-delusion of consequence-free mortgage fraud and the real estate speculation binge.  I’m not one of those “the home owners are the real victim here” guys. 

But!  The mortgage servicers and foreclosure mills are public enemy number one right now in my book…

From ProPublica:

Several states have ordered a freeze on foreclosures by Ally Financial’s GMAC mortgage unit, which has come under fire in court for using “robo-signers” who signed off on thousands of foreclosures attesting to the accuracy of the documents without having much personal knowledge of what they contained.

Several other states are investigating GMAC after the company said last week it was suspending foreclosure evictions and sales in 23 states due to “a procedural error” that could require the servicer to “take corrective action in connection with some foreclosures.

One robo-signer, Jeffrey Stephan, has signed off on as many as 10,000 foreclosures a month, according to court records. The foreclosure affidavits, which established basic facts such as a bank’s ownership of a mortgage, were also required to be signed in the presence of a notary public. That didn’t always happen, either. (Since then, other GMAC employees have also been flagged as possible robo-signers.

Are you kidding me? 

“I was just following orders” say the robo-signers.  And their thick-waisted, coffee-stained middle management overseers. 

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

Source:

GMAC’s ‘Robo-Signers’ Draw Concerns About Faulty Process, Mistaken Foreclosures (ProPublica)