Here’s a scan of the original documents, exhibits, and affidavits of Lynn Szymoniak to verify legitimacy.
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA COMMON PLEAS OF YORK COUNTY PENNSYLVANIA
EMC MORTGAGE CORPORATION,
PLAINTIFF ,
v.
STEPHEN G. CONKLIN, et al., DEFENDANTS.
NO. 2009-SU-005228-04 CIVIL DIVISION
AFFIDAVIT OF LYNN E. SZYMONIAK AS EXPERT ON BEHALF OF DEFENDANTS
STATE OF FLORIDA COUNTY OF PALM BEACH
LYNN E. SZYMONIAK, Esq., having been duly sworn, deposes and states that if sworn as a witness she can testify competently to the facts stated in this affidavit, based upon her personal knowledge:1. I am an adult citizen of the United States, and have resided in Palm Beach County, Florida since 1979. My credentials are summarized in paragraphs 16 – 21 herein.
2. I have examined over 10,000 Mortgage Documents and I am familiar with such documents, and how they are properly prepared and signed.
3. I have examined a copy of a document entitled “Original Verification for Civil Action – Complaint in Mortgage Foreclosure Per Order of Court Dated December 28, 2006.” This pleading was dated January 7, 2007. This verification was signed by Rick Wilken as “Assistant Secretary, EMC Mortgage Corporation.”
4. It is my opinion that this Verification is fraudulent because Rick Wilken was not a corporate officer of EMC Mortgage Corporation as represented. From my experience with the mortgage industry and mortgage documents, I know that Rick Wilken was actually a clerical employee for Lender Processing Services, a mortgage servicing document mill in Mendota Heights, Dakota County, Minnesota.
5. I am familiar with a magazine entitled The Summit, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit A. This magazine was the in-house magazine for FIS Foreclosure Solutions, Inc., which is identified as a Division of Fidelity National Default Solutions. This company was the predecessor company to Lender Processing Services, Inc. On page 9 of this magazine, Rick Wilken is identified as an employee who is celebrating his anniversary of five or more years’ employment with FIS Foreclosure Solutions. This issue was printed in December, 2007.
Since Wilken was employed for five years’ or more at FIS Foreclosure Solutions in December, 2007, he was not an officer of EMC Mortgage in January, 2007, the approximate date of the verification.
6. Rick Wilken has signed other mortgage documents using many different conflicting job titles. Some of the titles claimed by Rick Wilken and the dates he used such titles include the following:
• Vice President, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as Nominee for Aegis Wholesale Corporation (March 10, 2008);
• Assistant Secretary, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as Nominee for First Horizon Home Loan Corporation (April 3, 2008);
• Assistant Secretary, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as Nominee for Amnet Mortgage, Inc. d/b/a American Mortgage Network of Florida (April 25, 2008);
• Assistant Secretary, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as Nominee for Fremont Investment and Loan (September 24, 2008);
• Vice President, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as Nominee for First NLC Financial Corporation (November 3, 2008);
• Vice President, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as Nominee for EquiFirst Corporation (December 17, 2008);
• Vice President, Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. as Nominee for GE Money Bank (February 12, 2009);
• Attorney-in-Fact, HSBC Mortgage Corporation (May 12, 2009); and • Attorney-in-Fact, JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. Successor In Interest To Washington Mutual Bank, Successor in Interest to Long Beach Mortgage Company (October 7, 2009).
Copies of Mortgage Assignments signed by Rick Wilken using these many different titles, often within days of each other, are attached hereto as Exhibit B.
7. In its quarterly statement to the Securities & Exchange Commission, filed August 9, 2010, Lender Processing Services (“LPS”) reported that its document production operations were the subject of state and federal investigations and that it had also conducted its own investigation and taken certain “remediation” procedures. Specifically, LPS reported as follows:
Due to the heavily regulated nature of the mortgage industry, from time to time we receive inquiries and requests for information from various state and federal regulatory agencies, including state insurance departments, attorneys general and other agencies, about various matters relating to our business. These inquiries take various forms, including informal or formal requests, reviews, investigations and subpoenas. We attempt to cooperate with all such inquiries. As previously disclosed, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Middle District of Florida has been conducting an inquiry concerning certain business processes of our document solutions business. The Florida Attorney General has initiated a similar civil inquiry. We have been cooperating and we have expressed our willingness to continue to fully cooperate with these inquiries, and we do not believe that the outcome of these inquiries will have a material adverse impact on our business or results of operations.
8. To the best of my knowledge, LPS has not disclosed or identified the specific mortgage-related documents that it produced that were wrong and necessitated “remediation efforts” as reported in its Quarterly and Annual Statement.
9. The services provided by Lender Processing Services include “drafting missing documents” to facilitate foreclosures for over 50 large banks, including Deutsche Bank. The price list of Lender Processing Services includes customary charges to “Create Missing Assignments” ($35) and to “Cure Defective Assignment” ($12.95).
10. On June 14, 2010, the Florida Attorney General’s Office announced that it was conducting a civil investigation of Lender Processing Services. To the best of my knowledge, that investigation is ongoing.
11. Because of the high volume of documents produced by Lender Processing Services, the many errors on these documents, the many different job titles claimed by employees of Lender Processing Services on documents and the lack of candor with courts in disclosing the actual employer of these signers of documents, it is my conclusion that documents signed by employees of Lender Processing Services, including Rick Wilken, the signer of the Verified Complaint herein ,are fraudulent.
SUMMARY OF CREDENTIALS
12. I am an attorney and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1980. My business address is: The Szymoniak Firm, P.A., The Metropolitan, PH2-05, 403 S. Sapodilla Avenue, West Palm Beach, Florida 33401. Telephone: (561) 630-6928. I have practiced law in Palm Beach County for 31 years. I am a graduate of Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and Villanova Law School in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
13. For the past twenty years, my practice has primarily been in cases involving white-collar crime allegations, particularly, in representing major insurance companies in claims that they have been defrauded by large policyholders.
14. In the last ten years, I have also served as an expert witness in civil and criminal cases. In criminal cases, I have served as an expert witness for the United States of America and the State of California. I have testified at trial in four federal court cases including two in Jacksonville, Florida, where the allegations involved false and fabricated documents including fabricated insurance policies and certificates of insurance. The two Jacksonville cases were United States v. Thomas King, Case No. 3:05-cr-52-J-99MMH, Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division and United States v. Donald Touchet, et al., Case No. 3:2007cr00090, Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division. My designation as an expert and the use of my testimony were affirmed in an 11th Circuit opinion, United States v. Robert D. Jennings, Case No. 08-13434 (11th Cir. Jan. 5, 2010). I also submitted an expert opinion for the government in a New York Northern District federal case that ended in a guilty plea: United States v. James Kernan, Case No. 5:2008cr00061. I have also been designated an expert on insurance regulatory matters in Florida and testified at trial in April, 2010, in a federal criminal trial involving financial guaranty insurance, United States v. Michael Zapetis, et al., Case No. 8:2006cr00026, Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. This case also resulted in a guilty verdict. On July 19, 2010, I testified in a criminal insurance fraud trial in Charleston, South Carolina, that also ended in a guilty verdict, United States v. Robert Kohn, Case No. 2:2009cr01127. I have also worked as a consultant/expert for the South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs and the South Carolina Department of Insurance. I also submitted an expert opinion in a California state case involving fraudulent insurance practices and documents that resulted in a guilty plea in March, 2010, the People of the State of California v. Mitchell Zogob, Orange County, California. I have testified as an expert in a foreclosure case in Harris County, Texas.
15. I have written several articles on mortgage foreclosures and residential mortgage-backed securitized trusts, including the following: “An Officer of Too Many Banks,” Fraud Digest, January 14, 2010; “Too Many Jobs,” Fraud Digest, January 19, 2010; “Mortgage Assignments As Evidence of Fraud,” Fraud Digest, February 9, 2010; “Inroads on Foreclosure Fraud by Mortgage Servicers” Fraud Digest, April 7, 2010; “Mass-Produced Affidavits Filed by Foreclosure Firms,” Fraud Digest, April 13, 2010; “How Lender Processing Services, Inc. Solves Deutsche Bank’s Missing Paperwork Problem in Foreclosures,” Fraud Digest, April 16, 2010 and “The Real Employers of the Signers of Mortgage Assignments to Trusts,” Fraud Digest, May 14, 2010. I have also lectured at a Continuing Legal Education Seminar approved for credit by the Florida Bar Association on forged and fraudulent documents used in foreclosures and on mortgage securitization.
16. I was formerly a Certified Fraud Examiner, and have had nine hours training by the National Association of Certified Fraud Examiners in identifying forged and fabricated documents, in a course taught by retired agents of the FBI.
17. I have submitted expert opinions in over 100 cases involving suspect mortgage documents prepared by mortgage servicing companies.
FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NOT.
______________________________ LYNN E. SZYMONIAK