By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer
Osceola County Clerk of Courts Armando Ramirez alleges that major banks have committed fraud locally by filing forged mortgage documents, but so far nothing has been proven by law enforcement officials.
Staff Writer
Osceola County Clerk of Courts Armando Ramirez alleges that major banks have committed fraud locally by filing forged mortgage documents, but so far nothing has been proven by law enforcement officials.
Osceola County Clerk of Court Armando Ramirez
An investigation by the Clerk’s Office has passed from a forensic investigator to the Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office is now in the hands of the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office. Ramirez said 17 boxes of evidence were passed on to the Sheriff regarding possible violations in 156 mortgages filed with the county over the last two years.
Sheriff’s spokesperson Twis Lizasuain said the sheer volume of evidence has made the investigation complex, but nothing illegal has been found yet.
“We took the investigation the State Attorney’s Office forwarded to us that Armando’s office initiated,” Lizasuain said. “We’ve been actively investigating it, but at this time there’s no evidence of any criminal violations. We are continuing to investigate.”
Ramirez said the investigation began when he spoke to about a dozen families who were subject to foreclosure thanks to documents produced by “robo-signers”, or automated notaries that signed off without verifying the information contained in them.
As the investigation is active, Ramirez did not want to share the names of the banks involved, but said they are among “the biggest eight or so on Wall Street” and were involved with the federal bailouts of 2008 when Capitol Hill referred to them as “too big to fail.”
“Those banks admitted to wrongdoing back then, and their response was, ‘We’ll never do that again.’ Well, they’re still doing it,” Ramirez said. “Powerful banks have intimidated elected officials in other places and they want this to just go away. Needless to say, well-known powerful banks allegedly filed the fake documents with the courts in Osceola County.”
Ramirez said his office’s audit was based on one done in Williamson County, Texas, a suburban area of Austin, in 2011. According Brent Coon & Associates, a Texas public policy law firm specializing in these cases, the audit results revealed much of what Ramirez alleges happened locally: alleged “robo” signed documents, illegal notarizations and fraudulent foreclosures as lenders and mortgage service companies worked to avoid county recording systems when filing property deeds.
Ramirez said his office spent $34,500 — state statute says any such project costing more than $35,000 would have required it to go out for competitive bid — to perform a complete forensic investigation that looked at hundreds of mortgages filed with the courthouse. It found the 156 violations, nearly all featuring forged documents and the fake notaries. An 800-page summary resulted, which was turned over to the State Attorney’s Office.
“I am the only Clerk of Court in the state to do this,” Ramirez said. “If we find only one case the Sheriff’s Office can prove, then that’s all I need. Justice will have been done. But I doubt they’ll find just one.”
Sheriff’s spokesperson Twis Lizasuain said the sheer volume of evidence has made the investigation complex, but nothing illegal has been found yet.
“We took the investigation the State Attorney’s Office forwarded to us that Armando’s office initiated,” Lizasuain said. “We’ve been actively investigating it, but at this time there’s no evidence of any criminal violations. We are continuing to investigate.”
Ramirez said the investigation began when he spoke to about a dozen families who were subject to foreclosure thanks to documents produced by “robo-signers”, or automated notaries that signed off without verifying the information contained in them.
As the investigation is active, Ramirez did not want to share the names of the banks involved, but said they are among “the biggest eight or so on Wall Street” and were involved with the federal bailouts of 2008 when Capitol Hill referred to them as “too big to fail.”
“Those banks admitted to wrongdoing back then, and their response was, ‘We’ll never do that again.’ Well, they’re still doing it,” Ramirez said. “Powerful banks have intimidated elected officials in other places and they want this to just go away. Needless to say, well-known powerful banks allegedly filed the fake documents with the courts in Osceola County.”
Ramirez said his office’s audit was based on one done in Williamson County, Texas, a suburban area of Austin, in 2011. According Brent Coon & Associates, a Texas public policy law firm specializing in these cases, the audit results revealed much of what Ramirez alleges happened locally: alleged “robo” signed documents, illegal notarizations and fraudulent foreclosures as lenders and mortgage service companies worked to avoid county recording systems when filing property deeds.
Ramirez said his office spent $34,500 — state statute says any such project costing more than $35,000 would have required it to go out for competitive bid — to perform a complete forensic investigation that looked at hundreds of mortgages filed with the courthouse. It found the 156 violations, nearly all featuring forged documents and the fake notaries. An 800-page summary resulted, which was turned over to the State Attorney’s Office.
“I am the only Clerk of Court in the state to do this,” Ramirez said. “If we find only one case the Sheriff’s Office can prove, then that’s all I need. Justice will have been done. But I doubt they’ll find just one.”
I HAVE A QUESTION. WHO DID THE AUDIT? WHY WAS IT NOT PUT OUT FOR BID? OPEN AND TRANSPARENT?
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