Notary Problems Force RoD’s To Call For An Investigation

Steve Dibert, MFI-Miami

Last week, I posted an article about how documents filed at Register of Deeds offices across Michigan by Orlans Associates, a multi-state Foreclosure Mill based in suburban Detroit, contained signatures of notaries that did not match their signatures on their applications on file with the Michigan Secretary of State and how this coupled with the apparent robo-signing of one of their attorneys, Marshall R. Isaacs creates a huge problem for Linda Orlans and her law firms that she operates across five states.

I was surprised by the positive response to the article from the general public and my media sources.  The silliness of one individual surprised me considering this guy’s profession.  Mike Szudarek from Marx Layne, the public relations firm hired by Linda Orlans to do public relations and crisis management, tried to convince an editor of an online publication that I fabricated the data (which is all a matter of public record) and that Orlans is preparing a defamation lawsuit against MFI-Miami.  Of course it was all bullshit and was nothing more than an attempt to bully them into pulling the article.  Szudarek later retracted these statements after he learned word of his comments had gotten back to me.

This juvenile behavior is after Marshall Isaacs had filed a false police report claiming I committed a felony by posting public information on this site and who under oath had no idea who or what MERS was all about considering he is a “Vice-President” in the MERS organization.

I did receive one response that was interesting, it came from Suzie Baker, a former title agency owner and a contract closing agent.   After reading my article, she noticed that the expiration date Anthony Collins states on one document does not match another document he also notarized.

Here’s an example of what she was talking about:

Notary Collins

As you can clearly see, on the above documents Collins notarized, he states his expiration date is September 19, 2014 one document and on another document he claims September 5, 2016.  At first glance, you would think that this is just a mistake made by an Orlans secretary but if you look closely you’ll also notice the two very distinct signatures of Michigan’s favorite robo-signer, Marshall R. Isaacs.  So the question now becomes, are these documents voidable?

Normally when a notary notarizes a document, the notary is supposed to use their notary stamp that they receive from the state of Michigan.  This would eliminate any questions about the legitimacy of the notary’s stamp.   In the hundreds of documents  that MFI-Miami has reviewed from Orlans, it appears only one of their notaries actually used their stamp.  Although I question the legitimacy of the signature on this document, the document is the only notarized document from eTitle or Orlans that appears to have been stamped by the Notary.

Notary Caramagno

After reading my blogs about robo-signing and Linda Orlans’ political ties to Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, Tom Holtz from Progress Michigan has called on Johnson and Attorney General Bill Schuette to put together an independent investigation into the matter.  In Todd Heywood’s piece in the Michigan Messenger on Tuesday, it pretty apparent that Republican leadership in Lansing are totally clueless when it comes to this issue.   Jase Bolger, the Speaker of the Michigan House was quoted the Heywood piece as saying,

“The Speaker has respect for and demands compliance with all statutory requirements. It’s not just about following the law, but also providing confidence in legal proceedings and the judicial branch as a whole. No one wants anyone to lose their house and every effort should be made to require compliance with all laws. Beyond that, however, there is a much larger issue here. We need to improve Michigan’s economic climate for people to continue paying on their homes and avoiding a foreclosure in the first place. The lack of the right signature does not necessarily mean the property is not in foreclosure or that people no longer need to make good on their mortgage. We continually say that the number one issue facing Michigan is jobs, and these cases prove that yet again. If we could make Michigan more competitive for job providers we would have more Michiganders working, the economy would improve and the constant headlines about home foreclosures would finally subside.”

Am I missing something here? What does Michigan’s stagnant economy have to do with alleged attorney misconduct or a law firm illegally foreclosing on someone’s home? It’s apparent that Bolger is saying, ” I know nothing about this issue, so I’m going to refer to the bullet points I received from the Koch Brothers.”

Will Bolger, Schuette or Johnson launch an independent investigation?  That remains to be seen.  However, GOP leadership in Lansing will probably be forced to launch one within the next 60-90 days because this is an apocalyptic scenario the Michigan GOP.   They will not want this as the focus of next year’s post redistricting Presidential election year when Democratic turn out will be extremely high.   Last thing they are going to want are campaign commercials showing Linda Orlans stuffing wads of cash into the pockets of Bill Schuette or Ruth Johnson morphing into images of the Orlans’ law firm illegally foreclosing on military personnel fighting overseas or women dying of cancer.