Lawyer: Foreclosure Staffs Had No Training

By Michelle Conlin

The Associated Press

new york» In an effort to

rush through thousands of

homeforeclosures since 2007,

financial institutions and

their mortgage-servicing departments

hired hairstylists,

Wal-Mart floor workers and

peoplewhohad workedon 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. Some couldn’t define

the word “affidavit.” Others

didn’t know what a complaint

was, or even what was

meant by personal property.

Most troubling, several said

they knew they were lying

when they signed the foreclosure

affidavits and that they

agreed with the defense lawyers’

accusations about document

fraud.

“The mortgage servicers

hired people whowould never

question authority,” said

Peter Ticktin, a Deerfield

Beach, Fla., lawyer who is defending

3,000 homeowners

in foreclosure cases.

As part of his work, Ticktin

gathered 150 depositions

from bank employees who

say they signed foreclosure

affidavits without reviewing

the documents or ever laying

eyes on them, earning them

the name “robo-signers.”

The deposed employees

worked for the mortgageservice

divisions of banks

such as Bank of America and

JP Morgan Chase, as well as

for mortgage servicers like

Litton Loan Servicing, a division

of Goldman Sachs.

Ticktin said he would make

the testimony available to

state and federal agencies that

are investigating financial institutions

for allegations of

possible mortgage fraud. This

comeson the eve of an expected

announcement today from

40 state attorneys general that

they will launch a collective

probeinto the mortgage industry.

“This was an industrywide

scheme designed to defraud

homeowners,” Ticktin said.

Thedepositions paint a surreal

picture of foreclosure experts

who didn’t understand

even the most elementary aspects

of the mortgage or foreclosure

process — even

though they were entrusted

as the records custodians of

homeowners’ loans.