If the average American citizen forges documents, they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. However, as many Arizona homeowners have found, when banks practice this same type of behavior, a blind eye is turned. As of June, 2013, thousands of Arizona homeowners have been victims of illegal foreclosure practices. After faithfully paying their mortgage, these homeowners sought a loan modification from their bank. They were advised that unless they stopped paying their mortgage for a minimum of three months, they would not qualify for such a modification. Many homeowners heeded the advice of the banks that held their mortgage and at the end of the three-month mark, many found themselves facing foreclosures. What makes this situation even more despicable is the fact that a large number of these foreclosures are based on fake, forged documents.
A company named DocX, now defunct, seems to be at the heart of it all. They were convicted of created and executing a fraudulent scheme to push homeowners out of their homes. The federal government described the process as one that in a six-year period created and filed a million documents or more all completed with fraudulently signed, forged and illegally notarized mortgage-related documents. Almost all of the documents, tens of thousands, bear the name Linda Green as the head of a number of different banks. The records were then filed with property recorders offices throughout the United States that resulted in foreclosures costing millions of Americans their homes.As Channel 15 Investigators found, there seems to be no good answers as to why the Attorney General’s office has not pursued action against these companies as people continue to lose their homes. Attorney General Tom Horne has stated,” There’s been a major, really major effort to clean up that situation.” However, that does not appear to be the case. DocX was ordered to pay 120 million dollars to a variety of states that had been affected by the “Robo-Signing Scandal”. While Arizona was included in and received their portion of this settlement, few if any victims have seen compensation and some still face possible foreclosure. Despite the settlement and the public recognition of such scandal, many homeowners face uncertainty with the future of their homes.
While the settlement funds have been distributed to states, the fact remains that these forged documents are still being used to foreclose on homeowners in Arizona and across the country and many victims have seen no compensation. It puts into question the ramifications that these documents may have in the future and how the American public will be affected.