September 16, 2010

JPMorgan Chase and its counsel Shapiro & Fishman have been found by a Duval County, Florida Judge to have committed fraud upon the court by filing a fraudulent assignment of mortgage from Washington Mutual (WaMu) to Chase (as servicer) when the loan was in fact owned by and carried on the books of Fannie Mae. The opinion states: “The court finds by clear and convincing evidence that WAMU, Chase, and Shapiro & Fishman committed fraud on this Court” and that “these acts committed by WAMU, Chase, and Shapiro amount to a knowing deception intended to prevent the defendants discovery essential to defending the claim”.

We constantly deal with obstructive tactics by foreclosure mills as to discovery we propound, and more and more foreclosure cases we handle are being dismissed by the Court for the foreclosing party’s failure to provide the requested discovery, with a caveat that the case cannot be refiled until the subject discovery is produced. In every such case, not one Plaintiff has produced the court-ordered discovery and has thus not refiled the foreclosure action.

Recall that Shapiro & Fishman is one of the law Firms which was made the subject of an investigation by the Economic Crimes Unit of the Florida Attorney Generals’ Office.

As such, every foreclosure case filed by Shapiro & Fishman should be thoroughly subject to intensive discovery, and every document filed by Shapiro & Fishman in a foreclosure case, including assignments of mortgage, should be thoroughly investigated to ascertain whether the statements in such documents are true or false.

Thanks to one of our dedicated readers for bringing this important decision to our attention today.

Jeff Barnes, Esq., www.ForeclosureDefenseNationwide.com