In this case, it's the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, who has
agreed to pay a $2 million settlement to resolve charges of fraud:
A Florida law firm agreed Friday to pay the state $2 million in penalties for allegedly mishandling foreclosures — the first deal of its kind since the uproar over the issue began last fall.
The Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson was among the prominent law firms investigated by state authorities after major lenders, including Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, admitted last fall that their employees had “robo-signed” foreclosure cases without reading them and improperly notarized some documents.
Investigations into these practices are being conducted on several parallel tracks. Besides investigations by various states, federal regulators are conducting a review of national banks. Attorneys general from 50 states have joined with the Obama administration to try to negotiate a broader settlement with the mortgage industry.
………
They added that their foreclosure notices were not served properly. In some cases, relatives with no stake in the process were served notices and the homeowners were billed to cover the cost of those actions.
The settlement does not include any admission of guilt by the law firm.
You know, after pulling this kind of sh%$ routinely, I would think that they should:
- Pay more than the cost of a dozen of the houses that they have foreclosed on.
- Have the state bar looking at pulling his law licence.
- Have the Attorney General looking at throwing his ass in jail.
But I guess I am just a rube for believing that the rule of law and property rights meaning anything at all.
This has become standard practice in a number of instances, where fraudulent activities generate huge incomes, the fraud finaly comes to light, it is "investigated", and the perpetrator pays a fine that is a fraction of the money stolen, admits no guilt, and the whole thing is declared closed. We loose again.
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