Possible Retaliation In Play As Bankster Names Homeowner's Son In Refiled Foreclosure Against Fraud Expert Who Recently 'Blew Whistle' On '60 Minutes'

In Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, The Huffington Post reports:

• Deutsche Bank appears to have retaliated against a high-profile foreclosure fraud expert, whose years-long battle against her own foreclosure helped reveal a wave of apparent malfeasance, by suing her son.
• The expert, Lynn Szymoniak, an attorney who specializes in white-collar crime, is widely considered on Capitol Hill to be one of the nation's top experts on foreclosure law. When Deutsche Bank attempted to jack up the interest rate on the mortgage for her Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., home in May 2008, she contested the move, setting off an investigation which unveiled mountains of forged signatures and fraudulent bank paperwork associated with the foreclosure process.
• Szymoniak alerted other attorneys, neighborhood advocates, lawmakers and the media about the apparent rampant fraud. She appeared on "60 Minutes" in April to discuss the broader foreclosure scandal.

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• Shortly after appearing on "60 Minutes" Szymoniak won a major victory in her own foreclosure case. The court found that Deutsche Bank was unable to demonstrate ownership of her mortgage, which had originally been issued by the defunct subprime mortgage lender Option One, and threw the case out.
• Deutsche Bank was permitted to refile their case if they could obtain proper documentation, however. And on Friday, May 6, Szymoniak received a notification from the bank's lawyers that she was again being sued for foreclosure.
• But Deutsche Bank wasn't just going after her. The bank was also attempting to sue her son, Mark Cullen, who is currently pursuing a graduate degree in poetry at the New School in New York. Cullen hasn't lived in Szymoniak's house for seven years and is not a party to any aspect of her mortgage -- he has no interest in either the property or the loan, and never has had any such interest, according to Szymoniak.
• "It is just absolute harassment," Szymoniak said. "He doesn't own anything, for god's sake! He's getting a masters in poetry. He not only doesn't have any money, he's never going to have any money."
• And other Florida foreclosure experts say it's difficult to interpret Deutsche Bank's move as anything other than retaliation for Szymoniak's media presence. If it is not, in fact, retaliation, they argue, then Deutsche Bank's lawyers have demonstrated rank incompetence.
• "It sounds crazy," said Margery Golant, a principal with the foreclosure defense law firm of Golant & Golant PA in Florida. "I can think of no legitimate reason, if he doesn't have some connection to the property or to the mortgage, to include him in an action to foreclosure."
• "It's an intimidation tool," said Matt Englett, a partner at the Florida law firm Kaufman Englett Lynd PLLC. "Most people, they get scared and they get nervous and I think that's the effect that they're trying to have on him and his mother."
• "If he's not an owner of the house, it's pretty clearly just vindictive," said Joshua Rosner, the managing director of Graham Fisher & Co., a mortgage investment firm. "If they're doing it intentionally, that's one hell of a statement. If they're doing it randomly, that's still pretty incredible."
• The experts said the lawsuit against Szymoniak's son could also have negative implications for him beyond the immediate costs of fighting the foreclosure case, even though he has no financial interest in anything related to it. "He's going to have a lawsuit out there against him," Englett said, "so if someone were to do some kind of background check against him, that would come up."

For more, see Deutsche Bank Sues Foreclosure Fraud Expert's Son With No Financial Interest In Her Case.

Thanks to Deontos for the heads-up on the story.