Sunday, June 26, 2011

Georgia Grand Jury Slaps Indictment On Alleged Home Hijacker Over Recorded Bogus Land Documents Used In Do-It-Yourself Mortgage Cancellation Scam

In Cobb County, Georgia, WSB-TV Channel 2 reports:
  • A Cobb County woman who showed how she canceled her own mortgage to avoid foreclosure has now been indicted for racketeering and theft. Channel 2 investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer first interviewed Susan Weidman last fall. "I didn't really set out to think that I could possibly get a free house. I just wanted to stall," Weidman said at the time.
  • She showed how she researched her own mortgage to uncover fraud and filed repeated notices with the Cobb County clerk of court. The trail of documents led to one where she canceled her own mortgage by signing her name, on behalf of World Savings Bank.
  • "You actually signed this as attorney in fact for the CEO of the mortgage company?" Fleischer asked. "That's right, for John Stumpf," Weidman replied proudly. She said she gave the bank CEO fair warning and asked questions his staff couldn't answer. At the time, she hadn't paid her mortgage in more than a year and was still in the house.
  • "She believed if the bank didn't prosecute her that she was going to get away with it, but it's never been legal," says Cobb County Clerk of Court Jay Stephenson. On Thursday morning, he showed the grand jury all of that paperwork. They came back with a nine-count indictment on charges of racketeering, false statements, and theft.

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  • In May, Fleischer conducted another investigation that, she said, revealed Weidman filed paperwork taking ownership of a million-dollar foreclosed home in DeKalb County, then rented it to someone else.

For the story, see Woman Indicted On Charges Of Stealing Houses.

For an earlier post on Susan Weidman, see Do-It-Yourself Mortgage Cancellation Racket A New Foreclosure Avoidance Technique?