Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced today he' s filing a criminal charge against Lorraine Brown.
Brown is the former president of a mortgage records company in Alpharetta, Georgia. She's accused of 'robo-signing' more than 1,000 signatures on home mortgage documents from Michigan.
The Detroit Free Press reports that Brown will be charged with racketeering:
The charge is part of a state investigation, begun in April 2011, into the practice of “robo-signing.” At a late morning conference, Schuette said Brown orchestrated a robo-signing scheme and directed her employees to sign another bank official’s name to mortgage documents, speeding up the process and making more money for her firm. He said arrangements are being made for Brown to surrender to Michigan authorities. "She got greedy, and as a result she's facing a 20-year felony," Schuette said.
Brown pleaded guilty to similar charges in Florida. From Reuters:
"Lorraine Brown participated in a scheme to fabricate mortgage-related documents at the height of the financial crisis," Assistant Attorney General Breuer said in a statement. "She was responsible for more than a million fraudulent documents entering the system, directing company employees to forge and falsify documents relied on by property recorders, title insurers and others."
Reuters reports Brown has also agreed to plead guilty to Missouri state charges of forgery, perjury and a misdemeanor count of making a false declaration.
