Are JP Morgan Chase abandoned credit card debt lawsuits tied to robo-signing?

Written by Biloxi

It was a matter of time when credit card debt collection lawsuits were going to haunt JP Morgan Chase. We just learned this week that JP Morgan Chase dismissed thousands of credit card debt collection lawsuits against consumers in several states.

JP Morgan Chase abandoned these lawsuits in the states of California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and New York since April, 2011 according to reporter Jessica Silver-Greenberg of Wall Street Journal. Ms. Silver-Greenberg reported that:

It isn't clear how common the problem is, though Philip Straniere, a state-court judge in Richmond County, N.Y., and other judges say deficiencies are worse than in foreclosure cases. "It's a significant problem . . . that's widespread and yet given virtually no attention," Judge Straniere said. Last year, Judge Straniere dismissed 150 credit-card-collection suits filed by J.P. Morgan, concluding paperwork submitted by the bank "appeared to be signed in large numbers by only a few individuals."

And here was Judge Straniere's ruling in the Chase Bank USA, N.A., Plaintiff, v. John A. Cardello case. Click here. This abandonment of lawsuits by Chase certainly raises the question to whether JP Morgan Chase was afraid of being caught with robo-signed credit card debt collection documents in the courtroom since robo-signing has a major issue in the foreclosure crisis. Remember Linda Almonte, the former Chase employee and whistleblower? Certainly, Ms. Almonte's case last year raises questions into Chase's abrupt lawsuit dismissals. More from  reporter Jessica Silver-Greenberg:

In a federal-court lawsuit filed last year against J.P. Morgan in San Antonio, a former assistant vice president at the bank who worked on sales of delinquent credit-card loans, alleged that employees known as "attorney liaisons" signed "multiple stacks of affidavits" filed as part of credit-card lawsuits without "looking at any accounts at all."


The former J.P. Morgan assistant vice president, Linda Almonte, made similar claims in a whistleblower complaint filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last year. The SEC hasn't responded to the claims. Mr. Hartwick, the J.P. Morgan spokesman, declined to comment on Ms. Almonte's allegations.

J.P. Morgan and Ms. Almonte agreed in April to settle her federal-court suit, which alleged she was fired after telling her bosses that nearly half the 23,000 accounts in a $200 million credit-card debt sale were missing proof of court judgments the bank claimed it had won.


Thousands of the accounts contained incorrect information about how much the borrower owed, she alleged.

You can read  the entire case of Ms. Almonte against Chase from Legal Morass website. Click here.

And I just learned on Friday of an unconfirmed report on Legal Morass website that Ms. Almonte's colleague, Vice President and Operations Manager of Chase Credit Card Litigation Jason Lazinbat, who signed off as the Custodian of Records within the sale of the Chase $200MM portfolio to DebtOne of Metairie, Louisiana, was stripped of all his duties on June 24, 2011.  And Mr. Lazinbat certainly not the only Chase employee that held responsibilities as the Custodian of Records. In the Chase Bank USA, N.A. v Gergis case, NY civil court dismissed the case without prejudice:

For its first witness, plaintiff called Martin Lavergne, who worked for CHASE BANK USA, N.A.("Chase") in various roles over a period of approximately 17 years. Presently, he holds the title of "custodian of records." While Mr. Lavergne maintained that he had personal knowledge of the practices and procedures that Chase utilized in creating and maintaining consumer credit card account records, he never described these practices and procedures and never testified as to how he acquired personal knowledge of them. Mr. Lavergne was shown what was purported to the account records for defendant's three credit card accounts with Chase. He maintained that the records were "created in the ordinary course of Chase's business," that it was "the regular course of Chase's business to make" the documents, that the documents were "created contemporaneously or within a reasonable time after the transactions they reflect," and that Chase relied "upon the these[documents] in conducting its business." Mr. Lavergne testified that all of Chase's records of credit card [*2] accounts are stored electronically and that hard copy is not kept. He maintained that he compared the records that were shown to him at trial with the Chase'selectronic records and that both were identical.


Notably, some of the records that were shown to Mr. Lavergne were apparently created by Washington Mutual Bank. Mr. Lavergne explained this by stating that at some point in time, Chase had acquired Washington Mutual Bank. No testimony was elicited from Mr. Lavergne that he had worked for Washington Mutual Bank or that he had personal knowledge of the practices and procedures that Washington Mutual Bank employed increating and maintaining consumer credit card account records.

It is only a matter of time when robosigning in credit card debt collection cases is added to the list for the 50 state Attorneys General and federal agencies to pursue criminal investigations. If they need help, they should notify Linda Almonte.