Oakland County, Michigan, July 21, 2011--In April, Oakland County Clerk Bill Bullard Jr. discovered false signatures on assignment of mortgage documents related to home foreclosures, and reported it to Attorney General Bill Scheutte.  That led to statewide headlines and a House Banking and Financial Services Committee hearing that called major financial institutions on the carpet for questionable-and possibly fraudulent-practices.

Now, less than 3 months later, Oakland County Clerk Bill Bullard has uncovered even more evidence that major banks are using false signatures to foreclose on people's homes.
Originally the problem was brought to Bullard's attention by a story on the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes that reported on "signature mills" in which low-paid college students signed as "Vice Presidents" for major banks.  One of the people named in the story was "Linda Green."  Bullard discovered 5 "Linda Green" signatures had been filed with the Oakland County Register of Deeds in foreclosure cases handles by Mortgage Electronic Registry Systems. (MERS)

On July 20th, the Reuters story, "Special Report: Banks Still Robosigning" by Scot J. Paltrow, several more individuals whose names were being used as "Vice President" for banks which were assigning the mortgages to MERS were mentioned.
One of these individuals, Brian Bly, identified in the story as "an employee of Nationwide Title Clearing of Palm Harbor, Florida," has been apparently very busy in Oakland County.
Bly is listed as a "Vice President" for J.P. Morgan Chase, Chase Home Finance, Metlife Home Loans, Citimortgage, and Morgan Stanley Credit Corporation on 104 mortgage assignments filed at the Oakland County Register of Deeds office dating back to 2008.

All of the documents assigned the about to be foreclosed mortgage to MERS.  Most of them are notarized by Florida notary Crystal Moore. 

Interestingly, on two assignment of mortgage documents, Bly is listed as the notary and Moore as the "Vice President."  In that case, Moore is supposedly a Vice President of "Universal Mortgage Corporation," with an address listed as 24901 Northwestern Hwy, Southfield.  The phone number for Universal Mortgage is disconnected.

According to the Reuters story, Bly provided sworn testimony in July 2010 as part of a foreclosure lawsuit that his "signature" was used up to 5,000 times per day to assign mortgages.  He also testified that the assignments were falsely notarized.
Outrageously, more than half of the 104 assignments of properties in Oakland County in foreclosure cases which were "signed" by Bly, are dated after that court testimony.   The majority of them were filed on November 24, 2010 and listed Bly as a "Vice President" of Citimortgage, with another bundle filed on November 16, 2010 identifying Bly as a "Vice President" of J.P. Morgan Chase and Chase Home Finance.

"The proper and accurate recording of property transfers and ownership is essential to protecting our property rights-and therefore our liberty," Bill Bullard said today.  "Our whole economy and way of life depend on that."

Bullard continued, "On a smaller scale, people have the right to know who is holding their mortgage.  While we don't want to make it easier for people to not pay their legitimate bills, homeowners in foreclosure who are making a good faith effort to negotiate with their bank or lending institution right now often have have no clear idea of who to negotiate with."

Bullard is forwarding the Brian Bly documents to Attorney General Bill Schuette, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard, and Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper.  All three have ongoing investigations.  Currently, Sheriff Bouchard has suspended foreclosing on homes assigned to MERS on the basis of a Michigan Court of Appeals decision that ruled MERS has no standing in the state to engage in such practices.