A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from October 29, 2010
Robosigning (Robosigner)

A “robo-signing” scandal made national news on September 22, 2010. Banks had hired “robo-signers” (“robo” for “robot”) who signed off on thousands of mortgages to start foreclosure proceedings; some “robo-signers” signed off on as many as 10,000 foreclosures a month, spending barely a minute to look at the documents.
 
The word “robo-signer” has been used since at least July 1, 2010, when the blog Foreclosure Hamlet published the post: “Beth Cerni. Robo-signer. A Symbol of America’s Foreclosure Crisis.”
 
 
Urban Dictionary
robosigning
The illegal practice of signing off on real estate foreclosure documents without verifying the information within. This is done by persons in the finance and housing industries to speed up the process of foreclosing homes.
A few major banks are under investigation for alleged robosignings, which could result in fraud charges.
by brianbbad Oct 4, 2010
     
Foreclosure Hamlet
Beth Cerni. Robo-signer. A Symbol of America’s Foreclosure Crisis.
Posted by L on July 1, 2010 at 7:00am
Beth Cerni, employee of David J. Stern Enterprises, Inc or The….......ahem…...“Law Offices” of David J. Stern.
 
Foreclosure Hamlet
Database of Signers on Fraudulent Documents (Assignments & Notes) Add yours!
Posted by Admin on October 16, 2009 at 6:25pm in Fraudulent Activity
(...)
COMMENTS
Reply by L on July 10, 2010 at 9:36am
Info on MARGARET DALTON, Robosigner? Scan documents or email info to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
   
Foreclosure Hamlet
robo signers
Posted by shirley jones on July 15, 2010 at 2:02pm in Florida
looking for documents signed by Jessica Ohde, Linda Green or Korrell Harp
   
Foreclosure Hamlet
At 10:32am on September 8, 2010, Doug Taylor said…
Full disclosure: I’m an attorney in upstate NY who has taken on a client served with a foreclosure lawsuit (we are a judicial foreclosure state). The suit was filed by the infamous NY foreclosure mill, Steven Baum, and it has all the “usual” defects: no proof of note ownership, endorsement or assignment; plus assignment of mortgage from MERS signed by “robo-signer” Jeffrey Stephan dated 2 days before the suit was filed.
   
Wall Street Journal
REAL ESTATE
SEPTEMBER 22, 2010.
GMAC Spotlight On ‘Robo-Signer’
By Robbie Whelan
They are called robo-signers, putting their names on thousands of documents tied to mortgages facing foreclosure. Now, under pressure from borrowers, banks are halting foreclosures where the documents are signed by these employees.
 
This week, mortgage-servicing giant GMAC Mortgage Co. halted foreclosures in 23 states due to questions about documents signed by one of its robo-signers, Jeffrey Stephan.
 
Until now, Mr. Stephan was an anonymous middle manager whose job is to sign affidavits, assignments of mortgages and other documents that establish a bank’s ownership of a mortgage, thus giving the bank the right to foreclose.
 
But, as revelations come to light about how Mr. Stephan and other robo-signers do their jobs, a picture is emerging of a foreclosure process that critics say is just as flawed as the lax lending and perverse incentives that created the lending crisis.
 
Marketplace From American Public Media
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
“Robo-signing” comes under scrutiny
The flood of paperworks from foreclosures is overwhelming mortgage servicers. One bank representative detailed the practice of “robo-signing,” signing off on foreclosures without verifying the information in the documents, in sworn depositions.
 
Washington (DC) Post
‘Robo-signer’ played quiet role in huge number of foreclosures
By Brady Dennis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 23, 2010
SELLERSVILLE, PA. - The robo-signer lives on a quiet street in this small town an hour’s drive northwest of Philadelphia.
(...)
From his cubicle inside a sprawling beige stucco building, Stephan works as the leader of the document execution team for GMAC Mortgage. He has signed off on as many as 10,000 foreclosures in a month, according to court documents. That’s barely a minute per case, assuming he works a normal eight-hour day.
 
His signature indicated that the information in the cases was accurate to the best of his knowledge, and that he had signed in the presence of a notary. The problem was, that didn’t always happen, according to depositions that Stephan gave in December and June for court cases involving families trying to keep their homes.
 
He stated that he would glance at a borrower’s name, the debt owed and a few other numbers, but simply assumed most of the information in the files was correct. Stephan, who has more than a dozen people working under him, told attorneys that he had three days of training for the position and that he didn’t know how the “summary judgment” affidavits he signed were used in judicial foreclosure cases
 
MarketWatcch
Sept. 29, 2010, 6:39 p.m. EDT
‘Robo-signer’ controversy spreads
J.P. Morgan’s Chase unit stops some foreclosures to review process

By Alistair Barr, MarketWatch
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Controversy about so-called “robo-signers” in the foreclosure process, during which staffers sign thousands of mortgage-related documents a month, is spreading across the U.S. banking industry.
 
On Wednesday, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. /quotes/comstock/13*!jpm/quotes/nls/jpm (JPM 37.63, +0.12, +0.32%)  spokesman Thomas Kelly said that the bank’s Chase unit is stopping some foreclosures to review how employees in its mortgage-foreclosure operations sign affidavits about loan documents.
 
The news comes about a week after GMAC Mortgage, a unit of Ally Financial, stopped foreclosures in 23 states to deal with a similar problem.
 
Salon.com
TUESDAY Oct 12, 2010 18:42 ET
Robo-signers: Mortgage experience not necessary
By MICHELLE CONLIN, Associated Press
In an effort to rush through thousands of home foreclosures since 2007, financial institutions and their mortgage servicing departments hired hair stylists, Walmart floor workers and people who had worked on assembly lines and installed them in “foreclosure expert” jobs with no formal training, a Florida lawyer says.
 
In depositions released Tuesday, many of those workers testified that they barely knew what a mortgage was.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityBanking/Finance/Insurance • Friday, October 29, 2010 • Permalink


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