REGISTER OF DEEDS JEFF THIGPEN TO REJECT ROBO-SIGNED DOCUMENTS
Guilford County Register of Deeds Jeff Thigpen is joining actions taken today by South Essex Massachusetts Register of Deeds John O’Brien in rejecting two robo-signed documents submitted to O’Brien’s office for recording including the names of Linda Green, Korell Harp and Linda Burton.
Register of Deeds Thigpen will begin rejecting robo-signed documents effective immediately.
Thigpen and Register O’Brien will hold those documents for recording until such time as any law firm and/or the lender presenting the documents for recording, sign a notarized affidavit, under the pains and penalties of perjury, that they certify the authenticity of the signatures, including the notary’s on the recording.
In May, Register of DeedsThigpen sent state and federal regulators over 4,500 robo-signed documents submitted by DocX, a company owned by Lender Processing Services contracted by Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and MERS amongst others. Those documents included 1,947 signed by Linda Green with 15 different signature variations and 373 documents signed by Korell Harp with 4 signature variations.
Thigpen’s findings on robo-signed documents were released after a CBS 60 Minutes segment that interviewed Linda Green, a woman in rural Georgia whose signature was signed on mortgage documents as a vice president of more than 20 banks at the same time. Green said she’d never been a bank vice president. 60 Minutes interviewed a number of employees of Doc X who asserted they had signed and notarized Linda Green’s name on thousands of fraudulent documents. Attorney Lynn Szymoniak interviewed for the CBS segment joined Thigpen in releasing the findings.
Thigpen urges county recorders across the United States to join in taking a similar stand on rejecting robo-signed documents. ”The basic question here is whether we as Recorders are going to sit on our hands, in the face of what appears to be clear fraud or are we going to stand up for 400 years of integrity and fair dealing in commerce? John is on the right side of this question and these are reasonable actions. If we are ever going to return to basic fundamentals in our financial services system, now has to be time and we have a vital role to play”.
