Nevada AG defends robosigning probe

Catherine Cortez Masto

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto is disputing claims by a foreclosure processor that her office has improperly outsourced a foreclosure document robosigning investigation.

The claim was made Friday by Lender Processing Services Inc., a big national foreclosure processor based in Florida, after Masto’s office hit the company with a fraud lawsuit.

LPS complained Masto’s lawsuit included sensational, misleading and false allegations and that its attempts to cooperate in Masto’s robosigning probe have been frustrated by Masto outsourcing its investigation to a Washington, D.C., law firm “in apparent violation of Nevada law.”

"Instead of accepting responsibly for their fraudulent conduct in Nevada and across the country, LPS is trying to distract from allegations in our complaint," Masto said in response. "The fact that LPS is focused on attacking attorneys — with demonstrably false legal conclusions — rather than on the merits of the case is telling. We are prepared to go forward on the merits of our filed complaint and will leave the rest to the courts."

This isn’t the first time companies being investigated by Masto have raised the outsourcing issue.

Homebuilders Pulte Homes Inc. and Lennar Corp. sued Masto in March 2010 claiming she had hired the firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC in Washington, D.C., in violation of the builders' due process rights for a probe of alleged predatory lending practices.

The homebuilders complained that firm — the same business named in the robosigning investigation — was affiliated with unions and had been hired on a contingency basis, giving it an inappropriate profit interest.

Pulte later settled with Nevada, paying $475,000 to close an investigation of deceptive trade practices.

Lennar’s suit against Masto was closed under undisclosed terms in September.

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