Is Robo-Signing Still a Thing?
For those of us in the business during the big crash surely remember the robo-signing fiasco and the wider effect on the industry.
It’s a topic that has not been on the national radar for quite a few years.
So, we asked ourselves if it was still a thing that happens, and unfortunately it is.
What is Robo-Signing?
For the uninitiated among us, robo-signing is a fraudulent practice that was front and center nationally during the financial crisis last decade.
A single person would fake signatures and notarizations for hundreds or thousands of documents, trying to bring legitimacy to court cases stemming from the crisis.
Some of these would be back dated, or notarized “in the past”. Others were done for current dates. The problem being, none of these signings ever occurred (or could not be proven to occurred without the fraudulent documents).
These documents were then presented to the courts, as the large entities tried to, and mostly succeeded, to get over on smaller investors or home owners. Beyond this, differing state laws only intensified the mess.
Some states even viewed robo-signing as legal.
It was a terrible mess that many would call a scourge on the industry, even though it affected only a tiny minority of notaries.
Robo-Signing is Still a Thing
A law firm in Texas now faces charges that it robo-signed documents.
The kicker?
This law firm worked for the government and dealt with collecting taxes. And it is alleged they robo-signed hundreds of documents to try and collect taxes that were not owed.
This was millions of dollars in taxes.
You want another kicker?
Though this case only involves one city, this law firm works for dozens of cities performing the same tasks. So, what is a small and local story right now, may soon be a national nightmare.
Anything Else We Should Know?
Yes, robo-signing is bad. Real bad. But, we are sure you already know that.
Unfortunately, at the moment, this is a recent and quickly moving scandal. Right now the robo-signing portion of the scandal is mixed in with a bunch of other things that are alleged in the complaint.
But, we will keep our eyes on the case, and will let you know when more is known.
And hopefully, we can finally put robo-signing to bed once and for all (yeah, we feel like optimists today).
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