As if Fannie Mae wasn’t in enough hot water, now the inspector general for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) which oversees Fannie Mae, charges that as early as 2003 legal firms retained by Fannie Mae filed false documents and robosigned affadavits and filings attesting to knowledge they did not possess.
After complaints from mortgage lenders started appearing, Fannie Mae allegedly did nothing to correct the behavior and kept using these law firms, despite the allegations.
“It appears that an untold number of borrowers with loans owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae may have suffered abuses that violated their legal rights,” said Elijah Cummings, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
In 2010 a field visit to Florida found that the legal firms were so overwhelmed by the foreclosure volume and were severely underpaid by Fannie Mae so they started taking shortcuts rather than devote the proper amount of time to assure the cases were handled correctly.
In 2006 a New Jersey judge found that lawyers representing Fannie Mae filed 250 motions for permission to seize homes which were robosigned using the signature of an employee who had not worked at the law firm for over a year.
Despite the fact that these grievances were ignored, I wonder what’s happening with these attorneys who blatently violated the law and possibly the rights of the homeowners involved? Are they still practicing or did they get disbarred?
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