March 15, 2012

The Guilford County, North Carolina Register of Deeds has filed a 47 page lawsuit against MERS and numerous banks arising out of what has been alleged to be a systematic creation of “falsified, forged and/or fraudulently executed mortgage documents filed with the Register of Deeds by what infamously has become known as ‘robo-signing'”, and that the Defendants’ scheme “was manifested in a private electronic registry many of the Defendants created called the ‘Mortgage Electronic Registration System’ (MERS).

“Through MERS, Defendants effectively privatized the public property recording system and disrupted Guilford County’s responsibility to maintain a reliable public registry of land records, as well as citizens’ fundamental right to determine through public searches who holds interests in property.” The suit goes on to state that the scheme “confused, misled, and deceived the Register of Deeds, as well as borrowers, homeowners, and other citizens who rely on the validity of publicly filed property records.” Note the use of the term “fundamental right” of a citizen to determine who owns their property.

The suit states that “Defendants’ misdeeds in connection with their securitization of billions of dollars of mortgages have been the subject of numerous investigations, state Attorneys General lawsuits, court findings of facts, and consent orders”, and that the actions of the Defendants were “criminal”. The suit takes the reader through the entire securitization process, the creation and operation of MERS, the state attorney and regulatory actions against MERS, fraudulent robo-signing, and sets forth documented examples of admissions of bank officers to signing false affidavits under oath. Examples of misconduct by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and others are set forth in detail.

This is a “must-read” for any attorney who practices foreclosure defense. The style is Guilford County ex rel. Jeff L. Thigpen, Guilford County Register of Deeds v. Lender Processing Services et al., General Court of Justice, Superior Court Division, County of Guilford, State of North Carolina. The case is online.

We thank one of our North Carolina network attorneys for bringing this most important filing to our attention.

Jeff Barnes, Esq., www.ForeclosureDefenseNationwide.com