Sunday, February 27, 2011

Florida AG Adds Another Foreclosure Mill To Its Target List In Ongoing Probe Into Allegedly Sloppy, Fraudulent Filings

The Tampa Tribune reports:
  • The Florida Attorney General's Office opened a formal investigation this week into another south Florida foreclosure law firm it says presented false and misleading court documents. The firm, Ben-Ezra & Katz, is based in and processes thousands of foreclosures for lenders.

  • The attorney general already is investigating four other firms for sloppy or fraudulent documentation used to take back homes. Earlier this month, the office said it had launched preliminary investigations into three more firms, including two in Tampa.(1)

  • The investigation into Ben-Ezra & Katz joins the Plantation-based Law Offices of David J. Stern; Florida Default Law Group in Tampa; Shapiro & Fishman, which has offices in Boca Raton and Tampa; and Marshall C. Watson in Fort Lauderdale. The Attorney General's Office has called these firms "foreclosure mills."

For the story, see Another law firm gets attention of Attorney General.

(1) According to the story, the Tampa firms under preliminary investigation are Daniel C. Consuegra and Albertelli Law. Those two firms, along with Plantation-based Kahane & Associates, received letters of inquiry in early December from the Economic Crimes Division of the attorney general's office, the story states.