Robo-Signing Allegations in Prince William Co.

A Prince William County community organization accused lenders of pushing through foreclosures without verifying basic information.

Meg Carroll, a Manassas resident and property manager in the Georgetown South neighborhood, joined the group VOICE in presenting evidence they say supports allegations that lenders may have used fraudulent documents to speed up foreclosures. It’s known as robo-signing.

“If a home is every American’s dream, and it takes a lifetime to attain that dream, why do the banks get to rush it and rush these people through the process to a point that they don’t understand it or that they’re actually misrepresenting, and they obviously, with the robo-signing, they were misrepresenting,” Carroll said.

About 30 citizens volunteered to spend their summers poring over foreclosure documents at the Prince William County Courthouse.

“Incomplete notarization, dates that don’t match, incomplete information, it becomes apparent to anyone who cares to look,” said the Rev. Nancy McDonald Ladd, of VOICE.

Investigators said they found that signatures that were supposed to come from the same notary public don’t match. They also discovered a certain bank officer’s signature appeared over and over on documents for different institutions

“What we see here in this top example is a bank official who signed as a vice president for no less than seven different lending institutions,” Ladd said.

Attorneys general across the country are looking into robo-signing, but VOICE wants Virginia leaders to investigate it better locally. VOICE also wants bank executives to pay for non-profit housing counselors to help homeowners modify their loans.

Several banking groups did not respond to inquiries by News4.

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