The Nevada Attorney General’s offices has filed a civil lawsuit accusing a national mortgage servicing company of running a massive “robo-signing” operation that initiated “countless” foreclosures in the state — a suit that underscores the risks of pushing employees to engage in improper notarization practices and other misconduct.
Among its many allegations, the lawsuit accuses Lender Processing Services Inc. (LPS) of engaging in a pattern of conduct that included fraudulently notarizing documents “without ensuring that the Notary did so in the presence” of the signer and implementing “a widespread scheme to forge signatures on key documents to ensure that volume and speed quotas were met.”
The lawsuit was announced in the wake of a 606-count criminal indictment being filed against two California-based supervisors for the company, who are accused of directing a number of Las Vegas Notary employees to forge and notarize their signatures on thousands of foreclosure documents over a five year period.The two supervisors pleaded not guilty to the charges last week. Three former Notary employees have been charged with misdemeanor counts of notarizing documents outside the presence of the signer and a fourth Notary pleaded guilty to the same charge.
The lawsuit and criminal cases illustrate the growing effort to hold employers accountable for the actions of their Notary employees, and the need for supervisors and managers to understand duties and requirements of the Notary office.