By Mark Puente, Times Staff Writer
Two employees of a Palm Harbor title company embroiled in the nation’s robo-signing controversy are still signing hundreds of mortgage documents in other states.
The signatures of Bryan Bly and Crystal Moore, who work for Nationwide Title Clearing, showed up on 445 mortgage-related records with suspect signatures from October through June 30 in Guilford County, N.C.
The signatures appear on records from Mortgage Electronic Registration System, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and other lenders. Bly signed 290 documents; Moore, 155. The mortgage assignments and certificates of satisfaction transfer loans from one bank to another or certify a loan has been paid off, according to Jeff Thigpen, the Guilford County registrar of deeds.
Nationwide Title Clearing reassigned Bly and Moore after the robo-signing controversy erupted last year, said Pennsylvania-based spokesman Rick Grant. Nothing prevents them from signing new paperwork, he added. Grant stressed that the duo is not signing foreclosure documents.
Thigpen said Tuesday that a Nationwide official assured him that the firm has the proper authorization for Bly and Moore to sign the records.
The industry, however, needs to establish measures to protect the integrity of documents submitted for public records, Thigpen said in an e-mailed statement.
“Quite frankly, as a public recorder, I don’t want to be a policeman nor an accessory to fraud,” he said.
After the outrage in the fall, robo-signers simply shifted to another segment of the industry, said lawyer April Charney, a foreclosure expert with Jacksonville Area Legal Aid. She wants company executives held criminally responsible for allowing the practice of mass-signing documents.
Charney compared robo-signers to fire ants.
“You shoot them with Roundup in the hole, and they just pick up and set up shop somewhere else,” she said. “This is a never-ending, unfortunate situation. It’s fraud.”
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