Financial Services Law Developments: FYI: Ohio Sec of State Refers Chase to DOJ for Allegedly Improper F/C Affidavits

Thursday, September 30, 2010

FYI: Ohio Sec of State Refers Chase to DOJ for Allegedly Improper F/C Affidavits

In the latest assault on MERS, and in connection with the Ally affidavit news media blitz, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, Ohio's chief elections officer and the Ohio state officer responsible for licensing notary publics, today issued a directive to Ohio boards of elections that foreclosures cannot be used without further investigation to disqualify voters, notably allowing the defaulted mortgagors until Election Day to update their addresses.

The full press release is available at:
http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/PressReleases/2010/20100930.aspx

Ohio Secretary Brunner also referred matters of alleged notary abuse in thousands of home mortgage foreclosures by Chase Home Finance LLC and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. to U.S. District Attorney Steven Dettelbach in Cleveland.

Brunner cited depositions of a Chase employee and a MERS corporate officer. The cited deposition transcripts are available at:

http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/news/18may10cottrellb.pdf
http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/news/20100930-Full-Deposition.pdf

According to the Ohio Secretary, these depositions supposed reveal that 18,000 documents per month are executed and notarized per month by eight people at Chase, supposedly with testimony that: (1) the notary and not the document fills in numbers in the affidavits used in court ordered foreclosures; (2) no oath is administered for the signing of each document; (3) notarized documents are not verified by the person signing and giving oath that they have personal knowledge of the contents of the documents, but rather, signers are relying on verification by others; (4) documents are signed in bulk and notarized in bulk separately; (5) the acknowledging notaries know this at the time they notarize documents in this process.

In addition, according to the Ohio Secretary, the MERS deposition supposedly demonstrates that after corporate status changes occurred for MERS, new designations of authority were not executed, leaving one or more individuals for the former MERS corporation continuing to delegate authority on behalf of the new corporation without authorization by the new corporation.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.

Ralph T. Wutscher

Kahrl Wutscher LLP

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The Editor's Bio

Ralph T. Wutscher
Maurice Wutscher LLP
20 N. Clark Street, 33rd Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60602
Direct: (312) 493-0874
RWutscher@MauriceWutscher.com
https://www.MauriceWutscher.com/

Ralph Wutscher's practice focuses primarily on representing depository and non-depository mortgage lenders and servicers, as well as mortgage loan investors, distressed asset buyers and sellers, loss mitigation companies, automobile and other personal property secured lenders and finance companies, credit card and other unsecured lenders, and other consumer financial services providers. He represents the consumer lending industry as a litigator, and as regulatory compliance counsel.

Ralph has substantial experience in defending private consumer finance lawsuits, including cases ranging from large interstate putative class actions to localized single-asset cases, as well as in responding to regulatory investigations and other governmental proceedings. His litigation successes include not only victories at the trial court level, but also on appeal, and in various jurisdictions. He has successfully defended numerous putative class actions asserting violations of a wide range of federal and state consumer protection statutes. He is frequently consulted to assist other law firms in developing or improving litigation strategies in cases filed around the country.

Ralph also has substantial experience in counseling clients regarding their compliance with federal laws, and with state and local laws primarily of the Midwestern United States. For example, he regularly provides assistance in connection with portfolio or program audits, consumer lending disclosure issues, the design and implementation of marketing and advertising campaigns, licensing and reporting issues, compliance with usury laws and other limitations on pricing, compliance with state and local “predatory lending” laws, drafting or obtaining opinion letters on a single- or multi-state basis, interstate branching and loan production office licensing, evaluations and modifications of new or existing products and procedures, debt collection and servicing practices, proper methods of responding to consumer inquiries and furnishing consumer information, as well as proposed or existing arrangements with settlement service providers and other vendors, and the implementation of procedural or other operational changes following developments in the law.

Ralph is a member of the Governing Committee of the Conference on Consumer Finance Law. He is also the immediate past Chair of the Preemption and Federalism Subcommittee for the ABA's Consumer Financial Services Committee. He served on the Law Committee for the former National Home Equity Mortgage Association, and completed two terms as Co-Chair of the Consumer Credit Committee of the Chicago Bar Association.

Ralph received his Juris Doctor from the University of Illinois College of Law, and his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). He is a member of the national Mortgage Bankers Association, the American Bankers Association, the Conference on Consumer Finance Law, DBA International, the ACA International Members Attorney Program, as well as the American and Chicago Bar Associations.

Ralph is admitted to practice in Illinois, as well as in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Illinois, and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and has been admitted pro hac vice in various jurisdictions around the country.