David J. Stern's Allegedly Bogus Foreclosure Documents? Let The Whistleblowing Begin

The Tampa Tribune reports:

• [N]ow, in a foreclosure industry bloated by the lingering effects of the housing crisis, a former employee in one of the firms under investigation describes in detail a secret system designed for speed at any cost.

• Attorneys and staff members forged signatures and changed dates, casually passed around notary stamps, and notarized stacks of blank documents to be filled in later, said the employee, Tammie Lou Kapusta, in an interview with attorney general's staff.

• At the Law Offices of David J. Stern in Broward County, where Kapusta worked, long "signing tables" were set up across eight floors and employees would process 250 documents per floor each day, she said during the interview.

• Two or three employees sat around practicing the signature of Chief Financial Officer Cheryl Samons, at Samons' direction, Kapusta said. Company lawyers were overheard saying they worried about breaking the law or getting disbarred, but Kapusta said they worried more about losing their jobs.

• Toward the end of the interview, which was conducted under oath with Kapusta's attorney present, she also describes romantic relations among people who worked in the office, including Stern.(1)

For more, see Fired worker says home foreclosure firm forged documents.

Go here to read the entire Deposition of Tammie Lou Kapusta taken by the Florida AG's office.

(1) As the "loose thread" that runs through these alleged bogus document-manufacturing foreclosure mill law firms keeps getting pulled, one question that arises is whether the "race to the prosecutor's office" has begun. See United States v. Moody, 206 F.3d 609, 617 (6th Cir. 2000) (Wiseman, J., concurring) for one Federal judge's observation, made in the context of drug conspiracy cases, on the so-called "race to the courthouse/prosecutor's office" (in my view, this observation is equally suited to other types of major, multi-defendant felony cases) (bold text is my emphasis, not in the original text):

• In practical terms, drug conspiracy cases have become a race to the courthouse. When a conspiracy is exposed by an arrest or execution of search warrants, soon-to-be defendants know that the first one to "belly up" and tell what he knows receives the best deal. The pressure is to bargain and bargain early, even if an indictment has not been filed.