BRADENTON – As Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's office remains low key in response to the widespread requests for answers surrounding the forced resignations of two of the state's star investigators who'd helped to uncover systemic foreclosure fraud practices, state lawmakers and activists groups are pressing for a federal probe to investigate possible wrongdoing.

Bondi, who has a long-standing reputation as being very accessible to the media, was surprisingly silent following the resignations and has still continued to speak through brief statements issued by staff. She has acknowledged that her office has a troubling lack of documentation regarding the forced resignations of two investigators who had received stellar reviews from her predecessor, former AG and fellow Republican Bill McCollum, but still says she stands behind the firings.

In a statement, the two investigators, June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards, said that they were shocked when called into South Florida Bureau Chief Robert Julian's office and told that they were to resign immediately or be fired; that he said he had asked why, but was not given a reason, only told that the firings “came from the top" (click here to read full statement). The two had previously described a major change in atmosphere when Bondi's staff took over, saying that they were immediately questioned about Lender Processing Services, a “foreclosure mill” affidavit processing company that has been under continuing investigation by the Florida Attorney General's office since before Bondi took over on January 4.

LPS had contributed financially to Bondi's campaign, as well as other prominent Republicans, creating suspicion that the firings were politically-motivated payback. As one of the foreclosure-processing firms notorious for using “robo-signers” to facilitate an inconceivable load of foreclosure filings for its clients, LPS came under fire from McCollum's office last year, when the investigation was opened. Activist group Progress Florida, along with several state lawmakers, want to know why Bondi didn't return thousands of dollars in political contributions from a company under investigation by the office she was seeking, saying that her firing the two fellow attorneys after she then took office sends up a red flag.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi

LPS is not the only company under investigation that helped financially in getting Bondi elected. ProVest, who's also under investigation by the AG's office, gave generously to the Elect Bondi campaign, with its CEO and multiple executives and family members making maximum contributions. Critics contend that since McCollum's investigation made national headlines during the peak of the 2010 campaign, with several citing LPS by name (including dozens in Florida papers and even the Wall Street Journal on more than one occasion), it's impossible that Bondi didn't know that her benefactors were under the gun.

“Attorney General Pam Bondi’s admission today that there should be an investigation into her termination of two attorneys who have lead foreclosure fraud investigations is a slow-coming acknowledgment and a step in the right direction,” said state rep. Darren Soto (D-Orlando). “But I believe a truly independent investigation is warranted, which may require a review by authorities outside Florida.” Soto and state Senator Eleanor Sobel (D-Hollywood) sent letters to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday to ask for assistance in securing a federal investigation.

Since Bondi is a Republican and LPS has strong ties to the Republican party, which holds and iron-clad grip on both legislative houses, the Governor's mansion and every cabinet position, there is an obvious fear that any investigation at the state level might be influenced by any number of political factors. LPS has been referred to as one of the most prolific and egregious players in the national foreclosure scandal that has threatened to undermine the entire concept of property law in the United States.

LPS has repeatedly come under fire for having unqualified and under-trained staff sign off as having “reviewed” documents for default affidavits for client law firms who specialized in high volume foreclosure filings on behalf of banks and other financial institutions. Investigations and court testimony revealed standard practices that included low-level administrative employees shrouded in misleading titles that often implied they worked for those financial institutions, who would sign off on hundreds of documents a day, most of which they'd never even seen and often were lost or did not exist – documents that there was no indication they'd be qualified to review at all, let alone at that volume. One court referred to it as a farce and a sham.

Default affidavits are a key part of the foreclosure process and taken seriously by the court. As a Federal Judge issuing an opinion against LPS in a US Bankruptcy Court in Louisiana said in his opinion, “They are an accommodation to the lending community based on a belief by the courts that the facts they present are virtually unassailable. The submission of evidence by affidavit allows lenders to save countless hours and expense establishing a borrower’s default without the need for testimony from a lending representative. While they can be refuted by a borrower, too often, a debtor’s offer of alternative and conflicting facts is dismissed by those who believe that a lender’s word is more credible than that of a debtor. The deference afforded the lending community has resulted in an abuse of trust.”

Unfortunately, the result of that abuse too often is damage to the borrower, who is foreclosed upon unlawfully, sometimes not even by the institution that actually holds their note. With the number of Floridians facing foreclosure cases – often by the very same institutions who used similarly unethical tactics to initiate the mortgages in the first place – at an all-time high, there will likely be very little public sympathy for any elected official shown to have helped such firms evade justice.

Related:

AG Firings Need to be Investigated