HOW TO STOP A FORECLOSURE FRAUD INVESTIGATION

FOR FULL STORY AND DETAILS SEE: http://takeyourhomeback.com/?p=910

An investigator in Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office has resigned after releasing a scathing memo accusing the office’s management of political influence-peddling and noting that several top lawyers had recently left for jobs with foreclosure-related companies under investigation.

Andrew Spark, an assistant attorney general, in the AG’s Tampa Economic Crimes division, said his 16-page criticism of Bondi’s office was sparked by her May firings of foreclosure fraud investigators June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards. Read his insider’s take on the office here. Excerpt below:

 From Andrew Bennett Spark, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa Economic Crimes

By way of introduction, I have served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Economic
Crimes Division of the Florida Attorney General’s Office since March of 2004, first in
Orlando, and the last 6 ½ years in Tampa. I have been reading articles concerning the
controversies swirling around the Attorney General’s Office with respect to the forced
resignations of June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards (from whom I took over day-to-day
handling of the ProVest investigation), and the employment of Joe Jacquot with Lender
Processing Services, one of the companies at the heart of the foreclosure robo-signing
issues. While I have a significantly different philosophy concerning these cases than
Clarkson, Edwards, and most other homeowner advocates, the people of the State of
Florida are entitled to fair and honest government, independent of personal connections
and powerful interests, and I have decided to speak out.

As an important caveat, please note that the below contains various factual statements,
and asks questions. If I ask a question, it is because I truly do not know the answer, not
because I am implying any particular answer to the question.

Former Director of Economic Crimes Mary Leontakianakos now works for
foreclosure law firm Marshall Watson

Joe Jacquot is not the only high-ranking recent member of the Attorney General’s Office
to now be working with a company which has been the subject of one of our foreclosure
investigations. Mary Leontakianakos, who was Director of Economic Crimes until
approximately January 3 of this year has, according to The Florida Bar, taken a job at
foreclosure firm Marshall Watson.

http://www.floridabar.org/names.nsf/0/C1D818F4CF8FA1EE85256A8400081E2D?OpenDocument

Leontakianakos was centrally involved in the foreclosure investigations
while leading our Division, including the investigation of Marshall Watson:

http://www.abc-7.com/Global/story.asp?S=12968488

It appears that Watson and/or Leontakianakos have been secreting her employment from the public. By using a personal email address as her contact email address rather than the Marshall Watson email address suffix MarshallWatson.com, Leontakianakos has been able to avoid search functions which would reveal her affiliation. It is through the use of email suffixes that one may search the Florida Bar’s database for former employees of the foreclosure firms under investigation. In addition, Watson has taken down the portion of his website showing the attorneys in the firm; it appears to be the only portion of his website that is inaccessible from elsewhere on the firm’s website (interestingly enough, Watson’s own attorney profile on that portion of the website is easily found directly from a Google search, and so does Caryn Graham’s, but there’s none for Leontakianakos)..

As has been widely reported, the Attorney General’s Office entered into a settlement with
Marshall Watson in March of this year. A copy of the settlement agreement with
Marshall Watson is found here:

http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/SKNS-8FAHED/$file/WatsonAVC.pdf

Note that Paragraph 4.1 of the agreement requires Marshall Watson to name a liaison to the Attorney General’s Office. Is Mary Leontakianakos that liaison? I do not know. However, Leontakianakos’ address on The Florida Bar website is listed as Fort Lauderdale, and yet a search of the website of the Broward County Clerk of Court reveals that she has not appeared as an attorney in a lawsuit in Broward County – ever.

If Leontakianakos is that liaison, would she have been switching sides during the course
of a controversy, Rule 4-1.9 of The Florida Bar states,

“[a] lawyer who has formerly represented a client in a matter shall not thereafter:
(a) represent another person in the same or a substantially related matter in which that
person’s interests are materially adverse to the interests of the former client unless
the former client gives informed consent;”

Of course, the Economic Crimes Division acts in a parens patriae role as a representative of the people of the State of Florida. Consent of the people of the state cannot meaningfully be given in such a situation – and judging by the reaction of so many of people in the state the past few weeks since the Clarkson/Edwards/Jacquot story broke, it is safe to say such consent by the people would not be given even if it meaningfully could be given.

The Case Report for the investigation indicates that attorney Caryn Graham is the “point
person” to contact at Watson for concerns about the AVC. According to The Florida Bar
website, Graham is still with the Watson firm. Watson recently hired former Broward
Chief Judge Tobin in a supervisory capacity. In a move stunned the legal community, Broward County Chief Circuit Court Judge Victor Tobin has notified Governor Rick Scott of his intent to resign as the Chief Judge of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit effective June 30, 2011. Broward County, Florida has been the epicenter for attorney fraud and mortgage fraud/foreclosure for years. Thanks to the “rocket-docket” implemented by Judge Tobin, the practice of due process has disappeared from the Broward Circuit Court system. Many foreclosure defense attorneys refer to the 17th Circuit Courthouse as the P.O.J. ( Palace of Occasion Justice) Tobin’s reign at the top of the judiciary included several “administrative orders” changing the way the county handles foreclosures, many of them favoring lawyers representing the banks. The most contested of them forbids foreclosure sales from being canceled ten days before the auction is set to take place. That means homeowners who strike a last-minute deal with a bank to save their home have no choice but to watch their house go to the highest bidder. Wasylik says the rule solidified “the perception that Broward is a place where it’s easier for banks to litigate.”

Last summer, Tobin added to the pro-bank rules by instituting what’s referred to as the “rocket docket.” It requires foreclosure judges to move hundreds of cases a day with almost no discussion. Judges simply have no time to consider complex paperwork filed by foreclosure defense attorneys.

It’s doubtful justice can be done in three and a half minutes in front of a judge who has to hear hundreds of cases in a day.

The issue isn’t whether a judge thinks they are biased; it’s whether homeowners could reasonably think the Judge is biased.  As Henry Trawick appropriately notes, that is the standard for disqualification in Florida. 

Efforts to create a mediation program that could help homeowners settle with banks were also rebuffed by Tobin, attorneys say. He finally instituted a mediation program last year, but only after the Florida Supreme Court issued an administrative order requiring every circuit court to do so.

And just two weeks ago, Tobin instituted another rule hampering homeowners who want to fight foreclosures. Previously, attorneys representing homeowners could schedule online what’s called a “special set” hearing. The hearing allows homeowners’ attorneys to make complex legal arguments that can’t be heard during the rocket docket. Tobin’s new rule required that a hearing be set during the rocket docket in which attorneys must ask for a longer hearing. Homeowners typically have little money to fight foreclosures, and the extra bureaucracy means they must pay their attorney to appear at a hearing simply to ask for another hearing.

Indeed, the Miami Herald reported that
Tobin said he would not spend much time in the courtroom.

If Leontakianakos is not actually the liaison, despite the entry about Graham in the Case
Report, this begs a few questions, one of which is what, if anything, Leontakianakos is
doing there?

The other question that arises is whether Leontakianakos’ hiring by Watson is connected to the settlement. The settlement agreement does not specify as such; however, I have been told by someone in my office that in another case some years back, another high ranking individual with Economic Crimes received a job with a subsequent employer out of settlement proceeds from a case – and the connection between the settlement and the job was not disclosed. Perhaps tellingly, the Attorney General’s press release concerning the Watson settlement states, “The Marshall Watson firm fully cooperated with the investigation since its inception.”

 http://myfloridalegal.com/__852562220065EE67.nsf/0/478149A91AA0E2528525785E006C1EED?Open&Highlight=0,marshall,watson

During her tenure as Director of Economic Crimes, Leontakianakos encouraged side agreements that were contemporaneous with but not memorialized in the formal settlement documents (“AVC”s). Perhaps as some sort of Freudian-like slip reflective of what may be in effect a golden parachute, on the Bar website Leontakianakos still describes her practice in the “Occupation” field as “Government attorney.”

The Marshall Watson settlement contains an unusual provision, paragraph 6.1, requiring the Attorney General to close the investigation upon the execution by all parties. It is typical for our office to close investigations following execution, and parties do typically want the public to know that the investigation is closed; what it is unusual, however, at least in my experience, is for the settlement agreement to explicitly state as such memorializing the closing as a priority. Why the extra concern? (Interestingly enough, despite that provision, I should note that the investigation is now open – I don’t know whether it remained opened or was reopened).

“While I have a significantly different philosophy concerning these cases than Clarkson, Edwards, and most other homeowner advocates, the people of the State of Florida are entitled to fair and honest government, independent of personal connections and powerful interests, and I have decided to speak out,” he wrote.

But Bondi released a statement that said Spark himself was under investigation within the office “for using the services of a business he was investigating,” and had resigned Wednesday before her office could place him on administrative leave.

“Mr. Spark’s lengthy memo failed to include that he was the subject of an ongoing investigation for using the services of a business he was investigating,” Bondi said in the release. “It is exceptionally troubling for the people of Florida that Spark’s memo disclosed information pertaining to active investigations into foreclosure-related businesses that could compromise those cases.  This will not be tolerated.

“Yesterday, we attempted to place Spark on administrative leave while the inspector general investigated the public dissemination of information on active investigations; however, before we could do so, he resigned.”

Spark did not return a phone call.

Dogged by accusations that politics led to the ousting of the two foreclosure-fraud attorneys, Bondi last week said she would seek an outside review of what led to the forced resignation of the two foreclosure investigators.

Bondi said that the decision to ask Edwards and Clarkson to resign in May was made by three of her top aides and that she stands behind them. However, she added that she has questions about how it was ultimately handled.

Outside groups have made repeated calls for an investigation and requested public records related to the case.

This week, three Democratic lawmakers said they planned to file legislation banning lawyers within state agencies from going to work for companies their agencies were investigating — a move instigated by Spark’s memo, which singled out, among others, former AG lawyer Joe Jacquot who recently took a job with Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services, which is under state investigation for foreclosure-related practices.

Jacquot specialized in the AG’s health-care lawsuit and said Thursday he had recused himself from any involvement in the LPS investigation last fall when he began looking for a new job, following Attorney General Bill McCollum’s loss in the gubernatorial primary.

Before their dismissal, Edwards and Clarkson had generated national headlines for busting questionable mortgage lenders and law firms and had recently won a $2 million settlement with a Fort Lauderdale firm.

Bondi’s office asked to them to resign or be fired, citing problems that Richard Lawson, director of the Economic Crimes unit, had seen with their work. But both women had exemplary employee records and glowing yearly evaluations. Edwards’ direct supervisor, Bob Julian, wrote in an interim evaluation in April that “I cannot overstate the degree to which I respect Ms. Edwards and her work with this unit.”

Lawson — appointed by Bondi to his post earlier this year — said he had spoken to the women three times about their shortcomings, saying they kept messy case files and had spoken to third parties about subpoenas coming in from other states related to mortgage fraud. However, no documentation of those meetings exists

Two Democratic lawmakers continued to hammer state Attorney General Pam Bondi with questions and records requests concerning her dismissal of two foreclosure fraud investigators in May.

State Rep. Darren Soto of Orlando and state Sen. Eleanor Sobel of Hollywood asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday to review the forced resignations of Assistant Attorneys General June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards.

The lawmakers said they were launching a probe of their own, a move Bondi’s office called “politically motivated.”

Clarkson and Edwards had received high performance marks from Bondi’s predecessor, Bill McCollum. The two said this week that their dismissals were “sudden” and that the order, they were told, had come “from the top.”

Critics have suggested the terminations were political because Clarkson and Edwards were investigating at least one company, Lender Processing Services, that contributed to the state GOP and several GOP candidates, including Bondi.

Bondi denies politics played any role and said she stands by the decision, which she attributed to three senior managers in her office. One of those managers, Deputy Attorney General Carlos Muniz, has cited several performance-based reasons for the pair’s dismissal, including “judgment in discussing matters related to pending investigations with third parties.”

Bondi has acknowledged a lack of documentation of the ousters and has asked the inspector general in Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater’s office to review the situation.

Soto and Sobel’s probe could create new headaches for Bondi, and possibly for Gov. Rick Scott.

The two lawmakers are probing a possible connection between the terminations and Joe Jacquot, Bondi’s former special counsel who left to become a senior vice president at Lender Processing Services shortly before Clarkson and Edwards were dismissed. Soto and Sobel also are raising questions about Provest, a Tampa-based mortgage servicing company that Edwards and Clarkson were investigating, and about an unnamed LPS executive who previously worked for Scott’s former health care company, Solantic.

Jacquot, who was deputy attorney general under McCollum, did not respond to a request for comment.

Soto and Sobel are requesting that Bondi turn over written and electronic communications, including text messages, between LPS, Provest, Jacquot and senior managers in Bondi’s office.

Bondi spokeswoman Jennifer Meale responded: “While these requests are politically motivated and not made in good faith, we will, of course, comply with public records law.”

Powerful interests have influence.