Las Vegas Sun NewsFirm named in Nevada robosigning cases countersues Masto
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27 June 2012
7 p.m.
Catherine Cortez Masto
The foreclosure processor sued by Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto in last year’s robosigning cases has now retaliated, suing Masto and alleging due process violations.
In December, Masto’s office sued Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS) of Jacksonville, Fla., claiming it was involved in widespread fraud involving mass document-signing procedures in which foreclosure documents were fraudulently notarized by the thousands. That suit remains active in Clark County District Court.
The investigation that led to her suit also resulted in criminal charges against several notaries and two LPS officers.
On Wednesday, attorneys for LPS sued Masto in federal court in Las Vegas charging its due process rights were violated in the investigation.
Their suit suggests that by hiring an outside law firm with a profit motive to investigate and litigate against LPS, Masto has violated the company’s rights.
‘’By illegally deputizing (law firm) Cohen Milstein and permitting them to stand in her shoes and exercise the state’s sovereign power, not only for the state’s purposes, but also for Cohen Milstein’s own private benefit and ends, the attorney general has violated plaintiff’s constitutional rights and Nevada law,’’ the suit says.
''By ceding and outsourcing authority for the investigation of and litigation against plaintiff to Cohen Milstein pursuant to the contingency fee agreement, the attorney general has caused a personal financial interest to be injected into the targeting of plaintiff in this matter and created a powerful incentive for Cohen Milstein to focus single-mindedly on maximizing the amount of monetary penalties recovered from plaintiff, rather than focusing on the public interest the attorney general is charged with serving,’’ the suit says.
A request for comment was placed with Masto’s office.
The isn’t the first time the law firm, known for representing plaintiffs in class-actions and formally called Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, has been hired by Masto. Cohen Milstein has offices in Washington, New York and other major cities.
In 2010, homebuilding giants Pulte Homes Inc. and Lennar Corp. sued Masto, charging she improperly hired the firm to investigate predatory mortgage lending allegations against the companies.
Their suits complained Cohen Milstein was associated with unions that had been trying to organize subcontractors to the home builders.
Separately, U.S. District Judge James Mahan on June 21 dismissed a homeowners’ class-action lawsuit filed against LPS and other companies involved in the foreclosure process locally.
That suit was based on the same robosigning allegations as are alleged in Masto’s lawsuit filed on behalf of the state.
Mahan said in his ruling that while the class-action suit sought to void allegedly fraudulent foreclosure actions, most of the homeowner plaintiffs had not had their homes foreclosed on so the suit was premature for them.
Mahan also ruled that alleged violations of the Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices act couldn’t be asserted by the homeowners in the suit.
He ruled that’s because the act applies to the sale of goods and services, but not real property transactions.
The state’s criminal charges against two LPS title officers, Gerri Sheppard and Gary Trafford, are pending in Clark County District Court with an April trial date set.
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Green -- good job here. Please keep us informed on what our AG has to say.
"Why don't the banks want us to see the paperwork on all these mortgages? Because the documents represent a death sentence for them..... in America, it's far more shameful to owe money than it is to steal it." -- an article from the November 25, 2010 issue of Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi "Courts Helping Banks Screw Over Homeowners"
So a Judge Mahan threw out the class action lawsuit by the people against the Robosigners.........hmmmmmmmm.......smells fishy to me........am sure he got a nice little manilla envelope for THAT RULING.......
Killer.........I seriously think the banks don't HAVE any paperwork.....they have loaded up the steam driven foreclosure machine........and figured NO ONE would be the wiser.....WRONG ANSWER......we found out.......now the banks have been in damage control mode, while Capitol Hill and the 1%ers have been running interference.......we will never get to the bottom of this scam, the people most effected will never be made whole.....and NO one will end up being held accountable........and all the banks want is to have it swept under the rug and forgotten about.....
Why does LPS think their Due Process rights should be upheld? Regardless of the name LPS, MERS, Fannie,Freddie, Chase, Citi, WF, OPTION ONE, SPS, Mr. Obummer, ALL of them are on the take! For over 65 years they have lied to the public w/no RECOURSE!
Just all scammers, thieves, and liars! I at least got them to RECUSE when they stole my home! I say STEAL someone elses way to pay for their bills! Make sure your ancestors don't have skeletons in their closet as they use this as well. I know cause I figured out I'm the great grand daughter of the the REAL KATIE OHARA!
She wasn't a FICTIONAL CHARACTER as they want the World to believe! They will do anything to terrorize us AMERICANS. I sent CITI a letter letting them know I'm done being TERRORIZED over something I had nothing to do with! Next step is the SUPREME COURT!
Having your home stolen by them is the worst thing ever! Can you imagine being given a ROBO LIFE vs just ROBO SIGNING? This is what they've tried to do to and my family for years now! There is no doing RIGHT IN THEIR EYES! SO STEAL THEIR HOMES AND PENSIONS! ITs probably the only safe investments left! Open the BLIND TRUSTS DON'T BE FOOLED ANYMORE AMERICA! This is a take down of anything you ever believed or knew with these LIARS!
mortgagefraudclosure.blogspot.com or dandkconsultants.blogspot.com
".......now the banks have been in damage control mode, while Capitol Hill and the 1%ers have been running interference.......we will never get to the bottom of this scam, the people most effected will never be made whole.....and NO one will end up being held accountable......."
Xtlman -- it's much worse than that. During the Imperial Bush Regime the states' AGs were set to sue the banks for their dirty deeds and the feds ran interference for the banks. TARP funded an army of lobbyists to kill the new bill in Congress to empower bankruptcy judges to rewrite mortgage terms and a lot of the rest went mostly into their executives' pockets as bonuses. The federal regulators were either warned off or too busy loading their taxpayer-provided hard drives with internet porn (will dig up that link on request). In the end homeowners' are the only ones not being bailed out. Credit should go where it's due -- to the best Congress money can buy.
"The regulators got bailed out, the middle class lose their jobs and their houses. All this desire to trust in the government to make sure that big corporations won't hurt them actually is a backfire on them." -- Rep. Ron Paul to Jon Stewart 9/26/11, citing the example of the real estate crash as example of government regulation gone bad
The irony is NAG Masto and her Chief DAG Ann McDermott backdated court filings twice in my case. This backdating is criminal forgery and must be dealt with - and it will one way or another.
See the sham here on KRNV - http://youtu.be/O-K9Hhx47LQ
and here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4juUJdlr...
and here - http://youtu.be/gbk0rKPnbfs
anyone with any knowledge of the industry knows that Lender Processing Services is a scandalous company, basically organized crime. please, masto, remove them from the face of the earth.