Updated: 8:52 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012
Posted: 6:03 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012
By KIMBERLY MILLER, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Theresa Edwards (left) and June Clarkson, who led Florida’s foreclosure fraud investigations, were routinely praised in performance reviews before losing their jobs.
The Nevada attorney general calls signing another person's name on documents used to repossess a home "forgery" and a "scheme."
Michigan's attorney general launched a criminal investigation that includes whether "falsified signatures" were used in foreclosure cases.
But Theresa Edwards and June Clarkson were forced to resign their jobs as foreclosure fraud investigators for the Florida Attorney General's Office, in part, for referring to so-called "surrogate signing" as forgery.
According to a Florida Inspector General report that cleared Attorney General Pam Bondi's office of wrongdoing in the firings, the duo repeatedly used the word "forgery" in a 2010 presentation that included documents from the Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services. The company complained and drew the attention of economic crimes boss Richard Lawson.
