MI County Officials Gain Attention From FBI, State AG, Other Law Enforcement Agencies After 60 Minutes Story On Forged, Robosigned F'closure Documents

The Michigan Messenger reports:

• Curtis Hertel Jr., Register of Deeds for Ingham County, says that a discovery he made involving alleged fraudulent mortgage documents is now being investigated by both the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI.

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• As Register of Deeds, Hertel is responsible for overseeing all the documentation of property sales in the county, including mortgage assignments. Mortgage assignments are documents that transfer ownership of a mortgage from one lending company to another. Hertel says he was tipped off to the alleged fraud when he saw a report on CBS’ 60 Minutes.

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• Hertel tells Michigan Messenger that he has spoken with registers of deeds from at least half of the state’s 83 counties. Each register told Hertel they found allegedly fraudulent documents. In Hertel’s case, he has already identified 60 such cases in Ingham county and he has barely begun to dig through the thousands of documents being held in his office.
• In addition to the investigations by the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI, the story has also gotten the attention of Michigan State Sen. Steve Bieda. He serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I will be requesting that the Senate Judiciary Committee conduct an investigation on this,” Bieda tells Michigan Messenger.

For the story, see FBI investigating possible mortgage fraud in Ingham County.

In related stories, see:

Benzinga: Michigan AG Schuette Probing Questionable Mortgage Documents:

• Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced [] that he is working with Oakland County Register of Deeds Bill Bullard, and other local and federal authorities, to look into questionable mortgage documentation filed with Michigan's Register of Deeds offices during the current foreclosure crisis.

Housing Wire: Michigan AG to probe DocX signatures.