Foreclosure fraud whistleblower found dead

[Newsjock]

Source: MSNBC

A notary public who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a massive foreclosure scam before blowing the whistle on the scandal has been found dead in her Las Vegas home.

NBC station KSNV of Las Vegas reported that the woman, Tracy Lawrence, 43, was scheduled to be sentenced Monday morning after she pleaded guilty this month to notarizing the signature of an individual not in her presence. She failed to show up for her hearing, and police found her body at her home later in the day.

It could not immediately be determined whether Lawrence, who faced up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000, died of susicide or of natural causes, KSNV reported. Detectives said they had ruled out homicide.

Lawrence came forward earlier this month and blew the whistle on the operation, in which title officers Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine, Calif., and Geraldine Sheppard, 62, of Santa Ana, Calif. — who worked for a Florida processing company used by most major banks to process repossessions — allegedly forged signatures on tens of thousands of default notices from 2005 to 2008.

Read more: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9099162-foreclosure-fraud-whistleblower-found-dead

---

(Edited to provide better original story and headline. Original story and link... )
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/nov/29/woman-implicated-alleged-robo-signing-scheme-found/

A 43-year-old woman who pleaded guilty in an alleged robo-signing scheme was found dead Monday at her northwest valley home, authorities said.

Tracy Lawrence, a Las Vegas notary, was scheduled to appear in court at 8:30 a.m. Monday for her sentencing hearing after she pleaded guilty Nov. 14 to one count of notarizing the signature of an individual not in her presence, according to Jennifer Lopez, public information officer for the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. Notary fraud carries a potential jail sentence of one year and a fine of up to $2,000.

Lawrence had been charged in a larger case investigated by the attorney general’s mortgage fraud task force, according to Chief Deputy Attorney General John Kelleher.

... Metro’s homicide unit is investigating the case, but the death is not being considered a homicide, police said.

[mike_c]

1. sad, really....

She's probably just another person trying to keep a job whose life was ruined by association with greedy banksters. Not saying what she did was excusable, just that it's sad she went that route and ended up where she is now.

[girl gone mad]

2. She was a whistle blower..

about to be handed a light sentence in exchange for her testimony against higher ups.

[MADem]

4. Huh? Where are you getting that information? That's not what the article says.

If she was being "handed a light sentence" then the damage would have already been done. You kill someone BEFORE they impart information, not after. She was on her way to jail, that's a more plausible explanation--and she was upset about it. Time will tell:

When Lawrence failed to show up for court, the attorney general’s office sent an investigator to check on Lawrence at her home at the 4600 block of North Rainbow Boulevard, Lopez said.

Investigators found the woman dead about 11:30 a.m. and notified Metro Police, Lopez said.

The Clark County coroner’s office said a determination on the cause of death is pending results of a toxicology report that will take six to eight weeks.

[Newsjock]

7. OP updated

The MSNBC story has this detail; odd that the original LV Sun report did not. I changed the OP and the headline to match.

[MADem]

8. Jesus, I should say so! That's somewhat KEY info relative to the whole tale...! nt

[femrap]

5. so she was 'suicided' nt.

[stevedeshazer]

3. Baxterized?

Hmmm.

[GliderGuider]

6. How

conveeenient...

[MedicalAdmin]

97. She needed to be dead.

Alive she could provide corobersting testimony to future cases that could prove a conspiracy case and trigger the Rico laws.

Dead? She just another loser.



This stinks.

[kpete]

9. Notary who blew whistle on foreclosure fraud found dead

Source: KSNV MyNews3

LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) -- The notary who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a massive robo-signing scandal case was found dead in her home on Monday.

The notary, 43-year-old Tracy Lawrence, was supposed to be in court at 8:30 Monday morning for her sentencing hearing. When her attorney did not hear from her for more than an hour, Sr. Deputy Attorney General Robert Giunta asked for a bench warrant to be issued for Lawrence. The judge denied the request.

Police were sent to Lawrence's house to check on her after her lawyer expressed concern for her client's well-being. They found her body inside her home.

...........

Lawrence came forward earlier this month and admitted that she had notarized around 25,000 fraudulent documents as part of a foreclosure fraud scheme.

Read more: http://www.mynews3.com/content/news/story/Notary-who-blew-whistle-on-foreclosure-fraud/gdZL4mIJ50CzCFK8GI33_A.cspx

[teddy51]

10. Sad movies, I'm most certain she will be missed. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Holy shit.

These guys are playing for keeps.

[freshwest]

16. +1

:hide:

[cstanleytech]

18. And the evidence that she was murdered is what exactly?

Mind you I am not saying its impossible but the fact is people do die from a variety of causes every single day in this world.

[2banon]

36. Lol! Just a Co-inky-dinky, of course!

[cstanleytech]

59. Considering the fact that there is zero evidence atm to show otherwise

then yes it could just be a coincidence, of course I cant and wont stop you from assuming without any evidence that she was murdered in a nefarious plot to silence her for some reason if you want to do so.

[JackRiddler]

88. Did you perform the autopsy yourself? How do you know the state of the evidence?

Do you know more than the general statements presented in the news reports?

[cstanleytech]

109. No which is why I am saying that atm there is zero evidence to support a conclusion of murder

and until such evidence appears that some people might want to consider controlling their tongues or in this case their typing.

[treestar]

84. That alone is not enough for such a conclusion as

"she was murdered."

[jobycom]

55. Everybody was murdered, man!

Don't you get it? Everybody! They'll get me, too, just for AGHHHH......

[defendandprotect]

32. +1 --

Always have been "playing for keeps" --

[Yo_Mama]

79. If you are going to kill someone, you do it BEFORE they testify

Police have already ruled out murder. That seems a bit premature, but they clearly suspect suicide, and apparently her lawyer did too.

[dixiegrrrrl]

80. Unless you are sending a message to others who would testify....

[MedicalAdmin]

98. In a conspiracy (future charge perhaps)

Then future charges is what could be avoided here by silencing testimony.

[treestar]

83. Do you make most decisions on so little evidence?

Please get out of jury duty. Nobody who wanted any form of justice would want someone who decides that quickly.

[MedicalAdmin]

116. Do you often have to have so much indecision?

Starbucks must be agony....:)

[MrMickeysMom]

12. Post Mortem, if you please...

Let's see what the probable cause of death was and hope Columbo is on the case, for fuck's sake.

Absolutely right... they are playing for keeps.

[Edweird]

13. They couldn't get her in an airplane?

[James48]

21. Haven't you heard?

Airplane crash rates are way, way down these days. It's no longer safe to kill somebody in an airplane crash. It would look too suspicious.

[lunasun]

23. my 1st thought too!!!!

[Firebrand Gary]

14. She was clearly murdered.

They will do anything to keep the status quo.

[cstanleytech]

19. Odd, thats not what the article says.

[gateley]

30. Clearly? Maybe you didn't read the article at the link:

"Detectives said this afternoon that they have ruled out homicide as a cause of death."

It's possible she may have committed suicide. People do, you know.

[RaleighNCDUer]

40. Detectives don't rule on a cause of death. Coroners do.

When an article says the coroner ruled out homicide, then I'll buy it.

[orbitalman]

46. Murder does NOT make sense. Suicide does. n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

47. Nonsense. The cases against the people who started the fraud

are still pending, with hundreds of counts against them. She plead guilty and was going to testify againt them. She was looking at maybe 5 years - they are looking at 25 years+. And, as I mentioned above, there's hundreds of millions at play.

it's suicide that doesn't make sense.

[caseymoz]

57. Actually, suicide, murder and natural causes all make sense here.

Bad timing is not evidence of murder, except in fiction, which trains people to think it is in real life. Times of death, overall, being random, it's bound to happen at very inopportune times.

Facing five years, she had motive for suicide.

Being a material witness, there was motive for murder.

And being under great stress, there is the possibility of natural causes. There's always the possibility of that regardless.

Without any evidence, there's no way you could say it was murder. Now if they said, "Witness found poisoned" then you have evidence.

[truedelphi]

58. On the other hand, there is no city in the world as mob infested as Vegas.

And it is not like the coroner or the police there haven't bowed down to "special interests" before.

[caseymoz]

66. On the other hand, bankers aren't known to use organized criminals for hits.

And mob bosses aren't generally bankers, either. So far it's like you're saying what's true for the cows is true for the chickens. You don't have a link between the mob and the bankers yet, and you don't have any evidence of murder in the first place. The death was inopportuned, and that isn't evidence.

Unless you have a statistical pattern of those crossing the banks dying at inopportuned times as you definitely have with the mob.

[truedelphi]

95. I am not saying I am "proving" anything.

For Pete's sake, this a blog.

All I am saying is that if you have a society that is already known to be corrupt, having a different group of corrupt people come along and "need a favor" - is it that far fetched?

She could have committed suicide. It's true. But other scenarios can be considered as well.

Like Janet Reno was so fond of saying, we will probably "never ever know."

[caseymoz]

100. Yes, our society is known to be corrupt

But if there's one thing this society has besides corruption is too many wild conspiracy theories, and we shouldn't get distracted. What's really happening, the things that can be verified, are already bad enough.

Of course we can consider alternatives. But on what basis can we do any considering right now? We're not at the scene of the death, we have no description of it. We don't have police reports. We don't have a coroner's report, and any second or third hand information has not been reported in the press yet as far as I know. We can't go considering because we have an empty tank and a dead battery. What we'll start to do instead is make fiction. Then the fiction tends to get more compelling than the reality and many people end up rejecting facts as they come out, explaining them away with an ever wider conspiracy.

It's possible to make note of the fact that she might have been murdered and not forget about it and watch for follow-ups without going on wild conjectures about it.

[MedicalAdmin]

99. WTF? Organized crime is up to their keesters in banking.

Or do you think they clean all that cash by waving a fairy wand?

[caseymoz]

102. So, the mob pays banks for doing a service. That's hardly up to their keesters.

(Though that's a matter of semantics. How high is high?) Up to their keesters is more like patronage power: if the mob got the banker his job. "Do this for me and I pay you a fee" isn't deep enough. To be intertwined, connections between banks and the mob have to be stronger than mere trade for service, which is the same arrangement criminals have with their non-criminal auto mechanics and grocers.

Bankers are supposed to transfer money, so they're plying their trade, though illegally, with the mob. They're not really doing anything for the mob they don't do for other big customers, but when it's illegal, the banks receive higher payment for it. Otherwise, it's largely the same arrangement the mobsters have with their grocers, and you wouldn't consider grocers part of the mob, would you?

Now, do you think the mob would do hit for their neighborhood grocer if that man were going down? Similarly, with the banker, would the mob want to expose themselves by doing a high-profile hit on a witness? Something that's guaranteed to make a pissed off prosecutor look closely? Mobsters only do that to save their own necks.

At the same time, bankers aren't good at professional murder. They would need the mob to do it. And I can't recall too many cases where the banks hire the mob to do a hit on a witness. Not that it hasn't happened, but those exceptional scattered examples are still not evidence of it here, and since random inopportune death happens much more commonly than homicide, there's no reason to think this is homicide- - yet.

Now, despite everything I've said, it could be murder, but it could also be suicide or "natural" death. With no other details, we can't tell. All guessing now does is mislead us before the facts, and prime us to dig in our heels if we're wrong because nobody likes to be wrong. We shouldn't be brainstorming fiction on this incident, unless we want to sell fiction, and mark it as such.

[MedicalAdmin]

106. Righhhhhht.

Because exchanging billions in small bills into internationally tranferable electronic banking is business as usual. Just like selling groceries.

[Name removed]

107. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[truedelphi]

111. And then there is the fact that since one third of Mexico's economy is

Drug related, often the bigger cartels clean up one member of the family and send him to the USA. Where he uses the family money to uh, BUY AN ENTIRE BANK!

Oh, and that cleaned up, sober individual often makes huge campaign contributions to any candidate running with the pledge of keeping drugs illegal.

We are so screwn. Screwn. Screwn.

[caseymoz]

112. And those particular banks were involved in the robosigning scandal?

Those particular banks would be up to their keesters.

[MedicalAdmin]

115. ONe thing I know having worked in criminal investigations....

.... when an individual of organization is willing to break one law, they will actively look for other lucrative opportunities. Can you think of a bigger heist that has happened recently?

[truedelphi]

118. One of the biggest rumors out there, in late eighties and early

Nineties, is that the major mafia families were going to go "legit."

Which is one way of saying that the Biggest Businesses in America were going to go into criminality.

However there has always been a tight connection between some industries and the mob. Who better to ask, if you are the executive of some major nuclear power waste management firm to "distribute" your waste than someone in the Mafia who already has plenty of trucking connections. (Actually, the actaul asking gets done bu someone lower down in the food chain, but they know it is what their boss wants.)

But then reading an OP here on DU yesterday, about how much intimidation is being carried on against progressives in Wisconsin,and it is easy to realize that the Koch Bros might not have a single mob connection, but might be operating to a similar policy.

After all, the Mafia stole their business plan from the way that the upper crust in Italy operated. The Mafia hails from Sicily, because the poor Sicilian families were ripe pickings for the people in Italy who were basically their "Feudal Lords."

[caseymoz]

113. Let me restate that:

Before there were money-laundering laws, banks used to exchange large amounts of small bills and even millions in change all the time, and still do for legal customers. Think of the NY Transit Authority making a deposit of millions in small bills and coins. Nothing is unusual about doing it. The problem with drug dealers was and is: they can't be as conspicuous about it as the NYTA, and they are making the deposits specifically to hide their businesses. Yes, in fact, just like a grocer handles a millions of peanuts, a bank is set up to handle millions in small bills at a time. It was true before the drug market exploded, it was before electronic banking, it's true now. So, for any legal customer, it would be business as usual. The difference is, it's done to hide money.

My comparison to grocers obviously has limits, and I already knew that, other reader knows it, so putting "Riiight" in front of an obvious point doesn't make your point clever. It is comparable to a grocer, auto mechanic or doctor in one detail: it's a tit-for-tat capitalistic relationship that doesn't imply any deeper involvement between the seller and the customer. Do you disagree that a customer buying goods or services from any of those other three do not imply any further involvement?

So if you can't accept a comparison to a grocer, I'll stick with a bank: do the NYTA's legal deposits of small bills imply that they're up to their elbows in the banking business?

Somehow I think all this is lost on you and you're just going to get more caustic the more thoroughly I make the point. So, for shorthand, just remember this: "Banks bad, mobsters bad, banks and mobsters friends. Casey says no. Casey bad."

And see Hollywood if you want a further education.

I'm done with you.

[MedicalAdmin]

114. Okay - I guess that is one way to handle it....

If you change your mind then perhaps this might interest you. They are article about banks and money laundering. It is conservatively estimated to be at least 300 billion a year and is being done with the full knowledge and help of the banks. And yes, Virginia, it is from drugs, human trafficking and other scummy activities. And the bloody well know it.

http://www.rense.com/general28/money.htm

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/money-laundering-the-drug-problem-at-banks/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-04-04/politics/29988642_1_wachovia-anti-money-bank-secrecy-act


Are you honestly trying to equate a public commercial carrier handing in their change to money laundering. Really? FTR I don't think you are bad, just woefully uninformed about this. I was too a few years ago until a friend of mine (she's a nationally recognized expert in exploited children and women) sat me down and showed me some data and case studies. Everyone knows this is happening and it gets a nod and wink because it is only happening to kids and addicts and women and immigrants. And that freaking sucks.

And anyone who talks or testifies about any of it ends up deader than a doornail. And that really freaking sucks.

[caseymoz]

117. You're getting me off topic, but I'm far more skeptical about the size of trafficking.

And you seem to think that any of what I said entails statistical doubts about the banks. Like $300 billion has any bearing on the character of the industries. I believe nothing I will read in those articles will surprise me, nor will I have a dispute any of the facts. With these articles, you're convincing the convinced. You're reading my tone and not what I say.

And I bet everything you cite in them still does not add up to this case being a homicide.

It seems your main objection is that I should fear more and think less. So, you object that I would make a comparison of grocers to banks in any way it might be valid? A sign of hysteria is: a paranoia or condescension to people who don't show the expected level of fear.

Now I hate to jump tracks and dispute your friend, but estimates of the size of trafficked teens/children in this country have varied between 100,000 and a million. Much of it is put forward by experts or people quoting experts, and all of those numbers have been pulled from somebody's ass, and quoted multiple times, and then used for the basis of studies.

Hysteria can be academically based, and can seem scientific at the time. That's how the Satanic Ritual Abuse disgrace started, remember? There still may be some prison serving time for that atrocity.

Here's the first scientifically valid study about domestic child trafficking:

http://goo.gl/lE1xY

Some conclusions:

*There are about 4,000 underage prostitutes in all of New York City.

*45 percent are males.

*90 percent are US born. (Thought there might be bias in the way the study was done.}

*Only 10 percent have pimps of any kind.

*45 percent got into the business through friends.

*They started on average at 15.

*70 percent sought aid through a youth service agency at least once.

*Almost all said that they exchanged sex for money as the surest way of supporting themselves.

I'm not a saying trafficking doesn't happen, that it isn't a horrid crime, that it shouldn't be stomped out wherever we could find it, nor that it isn't an international problem. It's definitely much more common than the previous hysteria, Satanic Ritual Abuse. However, how much of it is really happening?

To give a collaborating statistic in this article: NY police have made a total of 31 arrests for underage prostitution in a 4 year period. That's a little over seven arrests a year, in the the largest city in the country, seven arrest a year. So, where are all trafficked kids? I remember when they broke a major trafficking ring in the Midwest a few years ago. It made national headlines, and involved about a dozen kids. So, if it was so spectacular that it made national headlines, and the industry is huge, and this was broken because a few kids talked to police, how come we're not hearing about many more of these busts in the press?

If trafficking is a problem of such proportions, why the wide variance in the figures then? I mean, I could see if they're a little off, but they can vary by a factor of ten, and it seems that widely implausible figures are quoted without question as much as the lower estimates.

You don't solve any problem, trafficking or money laundering, by ridiculing people who make perfectly valid limited statements about it, and presuming oh, they must be uninformed, they don't sound scared enough. So you tell him bankers and grocers can't be the same. (And I agreed.) Tell him about $300 billion dollars. (Like that has any bearing on the comparison, see Arthur-Daniels-Midland.)

And now you bring up trafficking to demonstrate how well-informed you must be about banks. It just tells me that trafficking might become the next big hysteria with innocent people actually imprisoned while the banks get away scot-free.

Sheesh.

[Uncle Joe]

108. Where did you get five years? According the Las Vegas Sun link, she was facing one year

and a $2,000.00 fine.

Tracy Lawrence, a Las Vegas notary, was scheduled to appear in court at 8:30 a.m. Monday for her sentencing hearing after she pleaded guilty Nov. 14 to one count of notarizing the signature of an individual not in her presence, according to Jennifer Lopez, public information officer for the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. Notary fraud carries a potential jail sentence of one year and a fine of up to $2,000.

Lawrence had been charged in a larger case investigated by the attorney general’s mortgage fraud task force, according to Chief Deputy Attorney General John Kelleher.

It seems to me, she must have worked out some form of plea bargain, probably to testify against higher up powers.

The coroner hasn't reported on the cause of death yet, that may take a few weeks.

[Lorien]

53. How does suicide make any sense whatsoever? nt

[cstanleytech]

60. Suicide rarely makes sense to others or to those who havent ever considered it.

[RobinA]

92. Suicide

makes perfect sense to me. Shame.

[treestar]

93. That's true, too

I was thinking with one year in jail being the top sentence, that would be a bit much, but it is a mistake to judge it like that. Often people say of suicide victims that they had everything to live for.

[gateley]

89. Don't the usually have an ME on site with them? But your

point is well taken.

But since we haven't heard from the coroner, how can you pronounce it a homicide?

[defendandprotect]

33. Presume her testimony is now as gone as she is ????

[treestar]

87. Now that she is dead, it is possible that transcripts can be

used - and she can't be cross examined again. Which brings up the equally ridiculous possibility that the side that wanted to call her thought the transcript would be better and so murdered her - well if we're going to be ridiculous, might as well take it all the way.

[defendandprotect]

91. Thanks --

Think it is much easier to dispute a dead witness who can't defend their testimony.

Sadly, the only way the RW can rise is through violence, lies, stolen elections --

and a lot of money to pull it all off and keep it covered up.

We've had more than 50 years of RW political violence -- assassinations -- and I think

it would be ridiculous to ignore that.



:hi:

[LanternWaste]

71. If she had already spilled the beans...

If she had already spilled the beans, what then was the relevant motive for killing her after the fact?

[treestar]

82. Why didn't "they" "murder" her before her testimony/plea then?

[Tsiyu]

15. Money Money Money

I hope this woman died of natural causes.

But I doubt she did.

Money is Gawd in Murika. Money makes ALL the rules.

[jimlup]

17. Oh be absolutely certain she died of natural causes

The Coroner will almost certainly be either paid off or otherwise given an "offer he/she can't refuse" to be certain that it was natural causes.

[Tsiyu]

20. It sucks to be so cynical

but here I am, agreeing with you.

Why didn't anybody provide protection for this witness?

[Deep13]

24. That would have made it difficult to kill her. nt

[cstanleytech]

61. Perhaps because she might not have been all that important of a witness ?

Just a guess though.

[bertman]

22. Wow!! What a coincidence. Scheduled to appear to testify but is found dead. Amazing. REC. nt

[lonestarnot]

25. says sentencing hearing, read again.

[treestar]

86. "scheduled to be sentenced."

[bertman]

94. I stand corrected by lonestarnot and treestar (corrected by the stars?). Mea culpa.

[DeSwiss]

26. How convenient.....

''Metro Homicide Detectives are working currently the case. It is unclear if her death was due to natural causes, or if it was a suicide. Detectives said this afternoon that they have ruled out homicide as a cause of death.
http://www.mynews3.com/content/news/story/Notary-who-blew-whistle-on-foreclosure-fraud/gdZL4mIJ50CzCFK8GI33_A.cspx">link


- They say that they don't know how she died, but they've already ruled out homicide? Right. TPTB never leaves a murdered corpse unless that's the message they want to send to others........

K&R

[RC]

29. All that means is that there are no suspicious/bloody holes in the epidermis.

And no big bruises about the head or neck.

[DeSwiss]

37. Not buying it.

It was improper to make such a statement and 24 hours haven't even passed since they've found the body. It's a statement made to the press that shouldn't have been uttered at this point. All it does is raise suspicions when a detective claims it's not a homicide but they don't know the exact cause of death.

[Lorien]

52. Exactly.But it's already very clear who law enforcement works for

and it ain't we, the people.

[DeSwiss]

54. Precisely.

- They are the thin blue line between the Proles and the Outer Party.



''We've always been at war with Eastasia.''

[No Elephants]

27. Message received. It almost doesn't matter what the cause of death actually was.

[Orrex]

28. Why is everyone assuming murder?

I can see how someone who signed 25,000 fraudulent documents and was about to be sentenced for it might be tempted to resolve the issue for herself.

[RaleighNCDUer]

42. She pled guilty as part of a deal for her testimony against the

two that were the originators of the scheme. Tens of thousands of mortgages - we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars at play.

And you think she was NOT murdered?

[Orrex]

68. I think that, at present, we lack suffficient information to conclude that she WAS murdered

In addition, regardless of the relatively small size of her own penalty, she would have to live with the knowledge of the role she played in screwing over thousands of homeowners and contributing in no small way to the destruction of the world economy.

I can see where such knowledge would be a difficult load for some to bear.

[me b zola]

43. Watch the video at the link

The plea deal she took gave her max 2 yrs and/OR $2,000 dollar fine. She may have only received a $2,000 fine. You believe that would make a person commit suicide?

[cstanleytech]

62. I believe its possible, do I know it for sure? Nope but nor do I know that she was murdered or that

she didnt die from a brain aneurysm.

[Orrex]

69. Sure it could.

I know someone who tried to kill herself because her prom dress couldn't be altered in time. The motivations to suicide are many and varied.


Knowing that I'd played a major role in fucking up 25,000 mortgages and, by extension, befouling the world economy, might be a significant motivator, even if a paltry $2000 fine in itself were not.

[jobycom]

56. Because they watch too much CSI.

It's always murder on tv, doncha know.

[Orrex]

70. She probably knew who planted the tactical nuke in WTC7

[No Elephants]

75. Everyone isn't assuming murder.

[Orrex]

76. At the time that I posted, most people in the thread were doing so.

And in hope of heading off a debate amount semantics, "everyone" doesn't necessarily mean "absolutely all people." In context, it means "of the set of all people who are assuming murder, why are they assuming murder?"

[treestar]

85. True, but just one year and a few thousand dollars

Many people have served more severe sentences.

Maybe she was depressed and the thought of even a year in jail too much.

[Bryn]

31. I watch Forensic Files on TV

Yes, it's possible to kill someone and make it look like a natural cause. This case should require a completely/throughly check, not half ass thing just to close it. We should be watching this case closely.

[scotchleaf]

34. Guess she won't be able to strike a plea bargain by turning state's evidence

Guess she won't be able to strike a plea bargain by turning state's evidence. Call me paranoid.

[alfredo]

77. You plea bargain before the case goes to jury. You give info

in hope of getting a reduced sentence.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

35. who else was involved?

[SoapBox]

38. wow...what a story.

[JJW]

39. How do they rule out homicide so quickly

but not suicide. Sounds very suspicious. But, then perhaps they don't want to be on the hit list.

[redqueen]

73. My thoughts exactly. (nt)

[Odin2005]

41. Not a homicide? BULLSHIT!!!

[Pryderi]

44. How many times have deaths like this one been ruled as "not homicide"??? besides the plane crashesnt

[dixiegrrrrl]

90. Remember Sean Hoare, found dead in July? He blew the whistle on Murdoch.

News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead

Death of Sean Hoare – who was first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson knew of hacking – not being treated as suspicious.
"The death is currently being treated as unexplained but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/news-of-the-world-sean-hoare

A few days ago the coroner ruled he had died...suddenly..of liver disease.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15855935

[Pryderi]

103. Thanks! That was the other recent murder. n/t

[KamaAina]

45. Another case of Baxter's disease?

:tinfoilhat:

[nolabels]

64. Accidentally suicided

Yea load the old revolver with rat-shot and let the hammer fly, that kind of thing happens all the time :shrug:

[midnight]

48. K&R...

[avaistheone1]

49. She went naturally or took her own life just like the Washington Madam.

:sarcasm:

[usrname]

51. Ding! Ding! Ding!

You got the prize!

[cstanleytech]

63. Can you prove she didnt though?

Not asking what you believe but rather what can you prove.

[Divine Discontent]

67. commenters aren't paid to discover the facts, we have to hope someone who is paid will tell them,

whatever they may be. It is, however, a very suspicious death considering who she is, and what she may have been stating in court against others down the line, but now cannot, which is what everyone here should be troubled about...



Get it now, or one of a million other designs! http://www.zazzle.com/republicans_2012_keeping_millions_out_of_work_bumper_sticker-128659602907896843?rf=238107662556833486

[cstanleytech]

72. Oh I do agree its suspicious and it

certainly needs to be investigated but until evidence is discovered that proves it actually was murder I wont be claiming it was murder like some here are doing.

[alfredo]

78. It would be more suspicious if it was before the trial.

[usrname]

50. Most likely suicide

With two bullets to the back of the head, arms bound and a gag around the mouth.

The rich have a way to deal with those who don't play in their little sandbox. They don't mess around.

[krispos42]

65. Well, isn't that convenient.

Fascinating.

[Gringostan]

81. Ooops... NT

[Odin2005]

74. What a coinkydink!

[suffragette]

96. The company, Lender Processing Services (LPS) is one of, maybe the largest, foreclosure

processor in the nation.



This is about the case with the two midlevel employees indicted with Lawrence’s cooperation:


http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/11/17/nevada-indicts-two-lps-employees-on-606-counts-of-robo-signing/


A grand jury in Nevada yesterday indicted two title officers, Gary Trafford and Gerri Sheppard, on 606 counts of robo-signing between 2005 and 2008, a scheme that resulted in the fraudulent filing of tens of thousands of other documents with the Clark County register of deeds. This has the potential to be a groundbreaking case; it’s the first I can think of which actually indicts a robo-signer on criminal charges for fraud. And by going after the title officers, the Attorney General of Nevada, Catherine Cortez Masto, appears to be laying out a strategy to go up the chain and hollow out the entire industry and their illegal document fraud.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the two defendants were employed by Lender Processing Services, the leading foreclosure document processing company in the country, and one under a near-constant state of controversy over the past few years of the foreclosure crisis. In the indictment, Trafford and Sheppard are accused of directing fraudulent notarization and filing of foreclosure documents. This included having their employees forge Trafford and Sheppard’s names on the documents, typically Notices of Default, and then having them notarized. So in addition to a robo-signing scheme, where the notaries and affiants have no underlying knowledge of the documents, this was a forgery scheme. And banks filed these fraudulent documents with the country register of deeds, in violation of existing statutes under Nevada law. These are category C and D felonies, in addition to gross misdemeanors. One woman who worked with Trafford and Sheppard says she signed 25,000 Notices of Default this way.

~~~

LPS hasn’t been indicted, but you can see where this is going. We know enough now to know that this casual forgery and document fraud was official policy for the company. Indictments of Trafford and Sheppard will almost certainly not end there. Everyone who worked for LPS in Nevada will be culpable.

~~~

The fact that they are LPS employees also suggests this is just a first step. This could be a way to get at the software that LPS uses to create documents, which would prove pattern and practice. LPS was central to the entire robo-signing scheme across foreclosure mill law firms and mortgage servicers. And they consistently maintain that they worked at the direction of the servicers and with their full knowledge. So that ropes in the servicers as well.




LPS is apparently trying to blame it all on the midlevel employees in the hopes the investigation won’t continue up the chain:

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/11/17/in-response-lps-admits-to-robo-signing-deficiencies-for-indicted-ex-employees/

This is pretty stunning. In the boldface part, there is an admission on guilt – on behalf of its employees who are facing life in prison! – with the usual alibi that the deadbeats had it coming anyway, and nobody was wrongly foreclosed as a result.
As for the notion that LPS wasn’t a target of the investigation: that’s true for now. But Masto’s spokeswoman would not confirm or deny any investigation into the executive suite at LPS. And…
A spokeswoman for Masto declined to confirm or deny whether the attorney general’s office is pursuing an investigation into higher-level LPS employees. As for the company’s clients, Kelleher told American Banker, “We simply don’t know if the major banks were aware of what these individuals were doing.” Kelleher added that the state would consider future actions if it were to discover that banks had sanctioned robo-signing.

Of course they would. I don’t think this ends with the midlevel staffers who were operating under orders. Unless you believe they came up with such a scheme on their own, they would have good reason to explain that they were merely carrying out official policy. This is just the first rung on the ladder.








I wonder about the impact of this in terms of those employees being willing to take the type of plea deal Lawrence did?






More on implications of Masto’s investigation here:

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/11/matt-stoller-nevada-attorney-general-catherine-cortez-masto-cracks-open-the-financial-crisis.html
Learn the name Catherine Cortez Masto, because she just took a big leap in front of every public servant in the country in terms of restoring faith in government. As Nevada AG, she actually indicted someone for blowing up our housing system. Specifically, she handed down 606 counts of felony or gross misdemeanor indictments on robo-signing against two employees of big bank subcontractor Lender Processing Services.
It’s pretty clear from the indictment that these are mid-level employees, one level up supervisors of fraud rather than top CEOs. And yet, even if this were as far as it goes, it would still be a big deal. These would be the only charges served involving the housing crisis and its link with the structurally corrupt securitization chain so far. By itself, these indictments signify that the fraudulent foreclosure game is over for the big mortgage servicers in Nevada, which is the center of the foreclosure epidemic. It says the rule of law matters, in at least one corner of the country. But you don’t throw 606 counts against someone if all you’re going for is jail time for that person; this is about starting at the bottom, and flipping people. It could be the takedown of the mortgage servicer mafia, and then back to the origination.
~~~

Masto has been by far the most aggressive AG on the civil side, suing Bank of America for multiple violations of a consent order on mortgage servicing, and even making the dreaded nuclear chain of title claim on foreclosures. It’s no surprise she’s taking the lead on criminal matters. Given that her office basically has no native resources or sector expertise in mortgage backed securities, it does make me wonder just what every other AG in the country and DOJ official is doing now that she’s proved bringing charges for fraud is not in fact impossible.
At this point, Masto has gone further than any other official in terms of restoring some sort of social contract. And that’s saying something. Leadership can come from anywhere, especially when the corruption seems to be everywhere. And with California AG Kamala Harris putting immense pressure on Fannie/Freddie on foreclosures, it suggests the tide is turning on this issue somewhat.





A couple more interesting related items:
The CEO/President of LPS retired this summer for (ahem) “health-relates reasons.”
Florida’s AG fired staff investigating LPS.


http://jacksonville.com/business/2011-07-07/story/president-ceo-lps-resigns-cites-health-reasons

Lender Processing Services Inc. announced Wednesday that President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Carbiener is resigning because of "significant health-related reasons," effective immediately. The Jacksonville-based company gave no other details.
LPS said Executive Chairman and former CEO Lee Kennedy will replace Carbiener on an interim basis, and the board of directors has established a committee to search for a replacement. Carbiener will continue to serve in an advisory capacity to Kennedy and the board of directors, but he also has resigned from the board.
LPS provides technology services to mortgage lenders through all phases of the loan process, from origination through foreclosure if the loan goes bad. The company has been under fire because of allegations that one of its subsidiaries falsified foreclosure documents. Although LPS said it has corrected that problem, the company has remained under investigation by federal and state authorities for its role in the nationwide foreclosure mess.


http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/07/22/florida-ags-politically-motivated-firings-protect-the-foreclosure-fraud-industry/


Maybe it’s because I’ve done so much reporting on the foreclosure fraud issue, but I have to admit to some surprise that the firing of two Assistant Attorney Generals down in Florida, the hotbed of the housing crisis, hasn’t gotten much attention nationally. In my mind, this is the state-based equivalent of the US Attorney scandal. You have a conservative Attorney General who has fired two investigators who were tasked by a previous Republican regime with finding violations of the law. When they proved too effective for the next regime to stomach, they were canned. And now, the new AG, Pam Bondi, is smearing their reputations.
Let’s first give some background. Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson were heading up investigations in the Florida Attorney General’s office on a series of crimes for over a year. Former AG Bill McCollum put them on this task, and they executed. Their interviews and collections of data were essential in rooting out fraud among document processors like Lender Processing Services, and the scores of foreclosure mill law firms operating in the state. Their presentation, “Unfair, Deceptive and Unconscionable Acts in Foreclosure Cases,” was so influential on the issues of fabricated and forged documents, that it is being used as evidence in a New York foreclosure fraud case against HSBC. The servicer for many HSBC loans, Ocwen, is cited repeatedly in Clarkson and Edwards’ report.


~~~

Clarkson and Edwards claim that under Bondi, they felt pressure to ease up on their investigations. Their supervisors suddenly began questioning their findings. “Obviously we did our job too well,” Theresa Edwards told the Orlando Sentinel.
This is disgusting and deserves wide attention. You have a Republican Attorney General engaged in politically motivated firings that will allow criminals to go free and hurt hundreds of thousands of homeowners being ripped off by the system.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-08-12/news/os-foreclosure-firings-fallout-20110812_1_foreclosure-fraud-marshall-c-watson-investigation
Eight months after she took office as a first-time elected official, Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing a management crisis replete with allegations of old-fashioned political interference in cases and a revolving door between lawyers and the companies they investigate.
An outside investigator is looking into the circumstances surrounding the May firings of foreclosure fraud investigators June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards. This week, another investigator abruptly resigned after giving the media a 16-page memo noting that two other high-profile lawyers in the attorney general's office had taken jobs with companies under investigation, and accusing top management of interfering in an investigation of a prominent Tampa car dealership.

~~~
The latest blast came from Andrew Spark, who resigned from Bondi's Tampa economic crimes office and said in a 16-page, memo that he was speaking out because the public deserved "fair and honest government, independent of personal connections and powerful interests."
He complained that two top lawyers, former assistant attorney general Joe Jacquot and former Economic Crimes Division Director Mary Leontakianakos, had both taken jobs with foreclosure companies under state investigation, Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services and the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson in Fort Lauderdale. Both had worked for Bondi's predecessor, Bill McCollum, who lost a primary bid for governor last fall.

[muriel_volestrangler]

101. Witness in LPS foreclosure case an apparent suicide

A key witness in a Nevada criminal foreclosure fraud case who was found dead on Monday apparently committed suicide, individuals close to the investigation of her death said.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that police had found the body of Tracy Lawrence, a notary, in her Las Vegas apartment shortly after she failed to appear in court for sentencing on a misdemeanor count related to the case.

On Wednesday people with direct knowledge of what the police found in her apartment said that empty or partially empty bottles of prescription and over-the-counter medicines were located near her body, strongly suggesting that she had committed suicide. No suicide note was found.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has said that there was no sign of foul play and that Lawrence's death was not being investigated as a homicide.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/30/usa-foreclosures-lps-death-idUSN1E7AT24Z20111130

[Divine Discontent]

110. suicide-d? certainly is awful coincidental. sad story.

http://www.zazzle.com/gop_2012_keeping_millions_out_of_work_to_put_one_bumper_sticker-128944374900409113?rf=238107662556833486

[burrowowl]

104. INTERESTING! VERY!

wondering, is it murder?

[goforit]

105. Wow,,,,, unbelievable