NOTE: This affidavit has been verified by members of the judicial-corruption team who have viewed the original, signed, notarized version which has also now been scanned and can be viewed here:
2011_Lynn_Szymoniak_Affidavit_for_Satori_Farm_Fraudulent_Foreclosure
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA COMMON PLEAS OF YORK COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA
EMC MORTGAGE CORPORATION,
PLAINTIFF ,
v.
STEPHEN G. CONKLIN, et al., DEFENDANTS.
NO. 2009-SU-005228-04 CIVIL DIVISION
AFFIDAVIT OF LYNN E. SZYMONIAK AS EXPERT ON BEHALF OF DEFENDANTS
STATE OF FLORIDA COUNTY OF PALM BEACH
LYNN E. SZYMONIAK, Esq., having been duly sworn, deposes and states that if sworn as a witness she can testify competently to the facts stated in this affidavit, based upon her personal knowledge:1. I am an adult citizen of the United States, and have resided in Palm Beach County, Florida since 1979. My credentials are summarized in paragraphs 16 – 21 herein.
2. I have examined over 10,000 Mortgage Assignments and I am familiar with such documents, and how they are properly prepared and signed.
3. I have examined a copy of a document entitled “Assignment of Mortgage” a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit A. This Assignment was purportedly signed by Scott Jefferies on November 11, 2005, and notarized in Tarrant County, Texas. Scott Jefferies is identified as “Vice President for Saxon Mortgage Services, Inc., Attorney-In-Fact for JP Morgan Chase Bank, FKA The Chase Manhattan Bank Successor By Merger to Chase Bank of Texas, N.A., FKA Texas Commerce Bank, N.A. As Custodian.”
4. It is my opinion that this Assignment is fraudulent and fatally defective for the following reasons:
a. an examination of the dates shows that the acts therein could not have taken place as represented. The document was supposedly signed by Scott Jefferies on November 11, 2005, but it was notarized on November 8, 2005 – three day prior to the purported date of the Jefferies signature. On its face, the document is invalid.
b. further, in this document, an officer of a corporation, Saxon Mortgage Services, Inc., acts as Attorney-In-Fact for another corporation, JP Morgan Chase Bank, which is acting as a custodian. No Power of Attorney is attached showing the designation of Saxon Mortgage Services as Power of Attorney for JP Morgan Chase Bank. Such Power of Attorney is especially critical in this case because JP Morgan Chase is said to be acting as successor by merger to Chase Bank of Texas, N.A., formerly known as Texas Commerce Bank. There is no indication which entity appointed Saxon Mortgage Services, Inc. as its attorney-in-fact. No reference is made to any document filed in any public record of such appointment. It is not stated whether the appointment was made by JP Morgan Chase, Chase Bank of Texas, N.A. or Texas Commerce Bank, and whether such appointment survived the mergers and acquisitions and insolvencies involving these banks.
c. further, in this document, the Bank is not claiming to own the mortgage in question – the bank is acting as a custodian or trustee. Over two thirds of the residential mortgages in the United States are owned by residential, mortgage-backed securitized trusts (“RMBS”). Each such trust often holds as many as 5,000 mortgages. JP Morgan Chase Bank serves or served as Trustee/Custodian for hundreds of such trusts. In such circumstances, it is the particular trust that owns the mortgage, not the bank acting as Trustee or Custodian. In valid Assignments to and from mortgage-backed trusts, the actual trust is identified.
d. further, this is an attempt to retroactively assign a mortgage to a trust, making the Assignment that occurred in 2005 retroactive to June 11, 2002. Trusts have closing dates. Saxon Asset Securities Trust 2002-3, for example, had a closing date of November 8, 2002. Saxon Asset Securities Trust 2002-2 had a closing date of July 10, 2002.
Saxon Asset Securities Trust 2002-1 had a closing date of March 14, 2002. RMBS Trusts are static; the loans are identified and deposited into the trust by the designated closing date. Retroactive assignments are not permitted by the rules of the trusts. (It is likely not coincidental that Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, the Assignee on Assignment Exhibit A, is the Trustee for each of these Saxon Asset Securities Trusts.)
5. I have also examined a copy of a document entitled “Assignment of Mortgage” a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit B. This Assignment was purportedly signed by Sherry Doza on October 20, 2004, and notarized in Harris County, Texas. Sherry Doza is identified as “Assistant Vice President of Deutsche Bank Trust Company formerly known as Bankers Trust Company, as Trustee and Custodian by: Saxon Mortgage Services, Inc. f/k/a Meritech Mortgage Services, Inc., as their attorney-in-fact.”
6. It is my opinion that this Assignment is also fraudulent and fatally defective for the following reasons:
a. Deutsche Bank Trust Company, the entity that is identified as the Assignee, does not exist. There are two existing Deutsche Bank entities that regularly act as trustees: Deutsche Bank National Trust Company and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas. The Assignee on the prior Assignment was Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas so the Assignor must be Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, (assuming that there were no intervening Assignments).
b. as in the first Assignment, Saxon Mortgage Services, Inc., formerly known as Meritech Mortgage Services, Inc. is a corporation claiming to have authority to act as Attorney-in-Fact for another corporation without attaching any Power of Attorney is attached showing the designation of Saxon Mortgage Services as Power of Attorney for “Deutsche Bank Trust Company.” Such Power of Attorney is especially critical in this case because there is no way to know whether the intended authorizing entity was Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas or Deutsche Bank National Trust Company, if in fact either entity actually designated Saxon Mortgage Services as its Attorney-In- Fact.
c. I have examined many other Mortgage Assignments signed by Sherry Doza in Harris County, Texas. From this examination, it is my opinion that Sherry Doza is not credible. Sherry Doza signs as an officer of many different mortgage companies on these Assignments. Titles used by Doza include the following:
• Vice President, ABN Amro Mortgage Group, Inc.;
• Vice President, Capstead, Inc.;
• Commercial Federal Mortgage Corporation;
• Attorney-In-Fact, CFN Liquidating Trust, as successor to Contimortgage Corporation;
• Vice President, First Citizens Bank and Trust Company, a North Carolina Corporation;
• Vice President, Flagstar Bank, FSB; • Vice President, GE Mortgage Services, LLC FKA GE Capital Mortgage Services, Inc.;
• Vice President, Keybank National Association, a National Banking Association;
• Vice President, Lomas Mortgage USA, f/k/a The Lomas & Nettleton Company;
• Vice President, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.;
• Vice President, Norwest Mortgage, Inc.;
• Authorized Agent, Ohio Savings Bank; and
• Vice President, Washington Mutual Bank, FA successor in interest to North American Mortgage Company.
Copies of Mortgage documents signed by Sherry Doza using many different titles are attached as Exhibit C.
d. The signature(s) attributed to Sherry Doza on many documents vary so significantly that it is my opinion that many different individuals signed the name “Sherry Doza.” An summary of the different signatures for comparison purposes is attached hereto as Exhibit D.
7. On many documents, the following statement appears in or near
the upper left hand corner:
After recording mail to:
SMI/Attn. Sherry Doza P.O. Box 540817 Houston, Texas 77254-0817 Tel. (800) 795-5263
Based on my experience and knowledge of the mortgage servicing industry, it is my belief that when Sherry Doza signed mortgage documents as officers of various banks and other lenders, she was at all times employed by Stewart Mortgage Information, a/k/a SMI, amortgage servicing division of Stewart Information Services Corporation, a company located in Houston, Texas.
8. This pattern of signing many different job titles is consistent with the practices of other employees of mortgage servicing companies. I have written two articles on this practice: “An Officer of Too Many Banks” (January 14, 2010, Fraud Digest) and “Too Many Jobs” (January 19, 2010, Fraud Digest). This practice has also been questioned by various courts, particularly by the Honorable Arthur Schack in Kings County, New York. Most recently, this practice was identified as one of the fraud schemes in a report by the Florida Attorney General.
9. When Sherry Doza signs as an officer of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc., and of various banks and mortgage companies, as on the Assignment in the present case, she fails to disclose that she was actually an employee of Stewart Mortgage Information.
10. Scott Jefferies’ signature on Exhibit A was notarized by Natalie A. Flowers. On other documents, however, Natalie Flowers is identified as the Vice President of Bankers Trust Company, and as the Vice President of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems. Examples of documents with other titles claimed by Natalie Flowers are attached hereto as Exhibit E. Because Natalie Flowers has represented herself to be the vice president of several companies – on the very same day – I do not find documents signed by Flowers to be credible.
11. I am familiar with the mortgage industry and the mortgage securitization process and I have written several articles regarding mortgage securitization. I know that there is a widespread problem of missing documents in securitized trusts, including notes, assignments and mortgages. I also know that many mortgages were sold repeatedly, sometimes over a dozen times, in a very short period of time. In the securitization process, the endorsed note and mortgage and assignment should have been transferred from the originator to the depositor to the sponsor/securities company and finally to the document custodian for the trust, by the closing date of the Trust. This procedure was recently discussed by Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice Ralph Gants as the required chain of assignments in a January 7, 2011, decision, No. SJC- 10694, affirming the Ibanez decision discussed below. 11. The failure of certain mortgage-backed securitized trusts to produce critical documents has been noted by several Courts, including Massachusetts Land Court Judge Keith Long, reaffirming a 2009 ruling (Ibanez) that invalidated foreclosures on two properties because the lenders did not hold clear title to the properties at the time of the foreclosure sale. See, U.S. BANK, N.A. v. Antonio Ibanez, et al., Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Land Court Dept., 08 MISC 384283 (KCL).
12. New York Supreme Court judges, particularly in Kings County, were among the first in the country to recognize that mortgage-backed trusts were often missing critical documents to establish ownership of a mortgage and that documents submitted by these trusts, when prepared by mortgage servicing companies, were unreliable. The Brooklyn, New York Supreme Court judges were disallowing documents produced by “robo-signers” for several years before that term appeared in the media and court decisions.
13. In thousands of mortgage-related documents from trusts that I have examined, new “replacement” documents, including Notes and Assignments have been prepared and presented to Courts without any disclosure to the Court or to the Homeowner/Defendants that the original documents were lost. Trustees use mortgage servicing companies to provide the replacements for these missing documents.
14. Many courts have now recognized that documents produced by mortgage servicing companies are unreliable when such documents are signed en masse by robo-signers, clerical employees who sign without any actual knowledge, expertise, training and often without having even reading the documents they sign. These mass-produced documents have caused courts in Florida, Maryland, New Jersey and New York to implement rules to safeguard the Courts and litigants from unreliable documents submitted in foreclosures. On January 19, 2011, Sheila Bair, the head of the FDIC, called for the establishment of a foreclosure claims commission “to provide remedies for borrowers harmed by past practices.”
15. For all of the reasons set forth above, it is my opinion that the Assignments in this case are fraudulent and/or fatally defective and void ab initio.
SUMMARY OF CREDENTIALS
16. I am an attorney and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1980. My business address is: The Szymoniak Firm, P.A., The Metropolitan, PH2- 05, 403 S. Sapodilla Avenue, West Palm Beach, Florida 33401.
Telephone: (561) 630-6928. I have practiced law in Palm Beach County for 31 years. I am a graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and Villanova Law School in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
17. For the past twenty years, my practice has primarily been in cases involving white-collar crime allegations, particularly, in representing major insurance companies in claims that they have been defrauded by large policyholders.
18. In the last ten years, I have also served as an expert witness in civil and criminal cases. In criminal cases, I have served as an expert witness for the United States of America and the State of California. I have testified at trial in four federal court cases including two in Jacksonville, Florida, where the allegations involved false and fabricated documents including fabricated insurance policies and certificates of insurance. The two Jacksonville cases were United States v. Thomas King, Case No. 3:05-cr-52-J-99MMH, Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division and United States v. Donald Touchet, et al., Case No. 3:2007cr00090, Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division. My designation as an expert and the use of my testimony were affirmed in an 11th Circuit opinion, United States v. Robert D. Jennings, Case No. 08-13434 (11th Cir. Jan. 5, 2010). I also submitted an expert opinion for the government in a New York Northern District federal case that ended in a guilty plea: United States v. James Kernan, Case No. 5:2008cr00061. I have also been designated an expert on insurance regulatory matters in Florida and testified at trial in April, 2010, in a federal criminal trial involving financial guaranty insurance, United States v. Michael Zapetis, et al., Case No. 8:2006cr00026, Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. This case also resulted in a guilty verdict. On July 19, 2010, I testified in a criminal insurance fraud trial in Charleston, South Carolina, that also ended in a guilty verdict, United States v. Robert Kohn, Case No. 2:2009cr01127. I have also worked as a consultant/expert for the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs and the South Carolina Department of Insurance. I also submitted an expert opinion in a California state case involving fraudulent insurance practices and documents that resulted in a guilty plea in March, 2010, the People of the State of California v. Mitchell Zogob, Orange County, California. I have testified as an expert in a foreclosure case in Harris County, Texas.
19. I have written several articles on mortgage foreclosures and residential mortgage-backed securitized trusts, including the following: “An Officer of Too Many Banks,” Fraud Digest, January 14, 2010; “Too Many Jobs,” Fraud Digest, January 19, 2010; “Mortgage Assignments As Evidence of Fraud,” Fraud Digest, February 9, 2010; “Inroads on Foreclosure Fraud by Mortgage Servicers” Fraud Digest, April 7, 2010; “Mass-Produced Affidavits Filed by Foreclosure Firms,” Fraud Digest, April 13, 2010; “How Lender Processing Services, Inc. Solves Deutsche Bank’s Missing Paperwork Problem in Foreclosures,” Fraud Digest, April 16, 2010 and “The Real Employers of the Signers of Mortgage Assignments to Trusts,” Fraud Digest, May 14, 2010. I have also lectured at a Continuing Legal Education Seminar approved for credit by the Florida Bar Association on forged and fraudulent documents used in foreclosures and on mortgage securitization.
20. I was formerly a Certified Fraud Examiner, and have had nine hours training by the National Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in identifying forged and fabricated documents, in a course taught by retired agents of the FBI.
21. I have submitted expert opinions in over 100 cases involving suspect mortgage documents prepared by mortgage servicing companies.
FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NOT.
______________________________ LYNN E. SZYMONIAK
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