Brown to Serve 5 Years for Robo-Signing Role

Lorraine Brown, the former CEO ofrnLender Processing Services (LPS) subsidiary DocX, LLC and an allegedrnkey player in what came to be known as the robo-signing scandal, wasrnsentenced today to five years in prison. Brown, also a formerrnexecutive of the parent company, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy torncommit mail and wire fraud last November for her role in a scheme tornfraudulently execute thousands of mortgage related documents tornfacilitate foreclosures and bankruptcy related proceedings. Inrnaddition to her prison term, Brown was sentenced to serve two yearsrnof supervised release and ordered to pay a fine of $15,000.</p

The Department of Justice said Brownrnhad participated in a six-year scheme to prepare and file more than 1rnmillion fraudulently signed and notarized mortgage-related documentsrnwith property recorders offices throughout the country. Brown’s plearnagreement detailed how employees of DocX began forging and falsifyingrnsignatures of those employees who were authorized by clients tornexecutive the documents; the documents were then fraudulentlyrnnotarized as though they had been signed by the delegated personnel. </p

This practice was allegedly implemented by Brown to enable DocX torngenerate greater profit and to that end the company also hiredrntemporary employees to act as signers. These temps worked for muchrnlower costs and without the quality control represented by Brown tornher company’s clients. Some were able to sign thousands ofrnmortgage-related instruments a day.  Between 2003 and 2009, DocXrngenerated approximately $60 million in gross revenue.        rn</p

Many of these documents, once filed andrnrecorded, were relied upon in court proceedings, including propertyrnforeclosures and federal bankruptcy actions.  Brown admitted shernunderstood that property recorders, courts, title insurers andrnhomeowners relied upon the documents as genuine.</p

“LorrainernBrown will spend five years in prison for her central role in arnscheme to fraudulently execute thousands of mortgage-relatedrndocuments while our nation’s housing market was at its mostrnvulnerable point in generations,” said Acting Assistant AttorneyrnGeneral Mythili Raman of the Justice Department’s CriminalrnDivision. “Today’s sentencing represents appropriate punishmentrnfor someone who sought to capitalize on the nation’s housingrncrisis.”</p

Sentencing was handed down by SeniorrnU.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. in the Middle District ofrnFlorida. This case was prosecuted by the JusticernDepartments Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and the U.S.rnAttorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida and wasrninvestigated by the FBI and the state of Florida’s Department ofrnFinancial Services.   

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