Chain of Title by David Dayen

Author:David Dayen
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781620971598
Publisher: The New Press
Published: 2016-03-22T04:00:00+00:00

Florida judges started to get it. Summary judgments were reversed. Motions to dismiss were granted. Foreclosures were stopped. Judge Tepper dismissed a Pasco County case with prejudice, meaning it couldn’t be refiled. Judge Traynor did the same in St. Johns County: “The plaintiff is not a proper party to the suit.” Judge Bailey in Miami-Dade imposed sanctions on Florida Default Law Group, thundering in her order, “I want responsible attorneys who meet the basic standards of knowing what the Sam Hill is going on in their files.” Lisa started keeping a list.

With the judges more receptive, Lisa had another idea: attend the Florida Bar Association’s annual convention at the lavish Boca Raton Resort and Club, and educate more attorneys. Lisa asked the bar association if it could accommodate a seminar about foreclosure fraud, but a representative said all the rooms were taken. So Lisa called the hotel and asked, “What’s the closest conference room to the bar association convention as possible?” The hotel told her she could take the Mizner Room, right next door.

Lisa dragged Michael along to reserve the room. The resort’s giant pink tower would have stood out anywhere but in Boca. Lisa and Michael walked into the ornate lobby; the marble floors and vaulted ceilings might as well have been wallpapered with $100 bills. Convention staff showed Lisa and Michael the conference room and told them it was free to rent for the day; all they had to do was spend $2,000 or more for catering. How are we going to spend $2,000 on food? Lisa thought. Then she saw the menu. A quart of orange juice was $36. Twelve cookies were $48.

They bought the bare minimum to reach the $2,000 threshold, and it wasn’t enough for a decent spread. Lisa supplemented it with items from Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s, probably a first for the Boca Resort. Carol Asbury, 4closureFraud’s underwriter, paid the bill. The team also offset costs with a “fraudulent document graveyard.” For $20, you could have the foreclosure document of your choosing pasted to a headstone and displayed before bar association attorneys.

On the day of the convention, Lisa distributed information cards surreptitiously in the other conference rooms, hinting that their seminar was an official bar event. Dozens of people came, maybe for the high-priced cookies and juice. Most stayed for the presentations, from the likes of Lynn, Carol Asbury, and Matt Weidner. Lisa and Michael handed out awards to the heroes of the crisis—people like April Charney, Tom Ice, and judges Jennifer Bailey and Michael Traynor. The sign-in list included judges, attorneys, and elected officials. Even Alex Sink, the Democratic candidate for governor, stopped by. Two men dressed entirely in black and wearing wireless earpieces stood in the back. Were they Secret Service? It wasn’t clear. But Michael recorded the event for a 4closureFraud live stream, and when he pulled the report of who watched, he found visitors from the Department of Homeland Security, the CIA, and eop.gov, the Web server for the executive office of the president of the United States.

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