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Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto has filed a lawsuit against ""Lender Processing Services"":http://www.lpsvcs.com (LPS), alleging the company engaged in deceptive practices against Nevada consumers by executing fraudulent documents to support foreclosure proceedings.
[IMAGE]Masto's announcement came as a surprise, considering just last month LPS disclosed publicly that the attorney general's office assured the company it was not a target of the state's investigation, which has already resulted in the indictment of six former LPS employees for alleged robo-signing abuses.
LPS says it ""strongly disputes"" Masto's latest allegations and has been cooperating fully with the attorney general's office for more than 14 months.
""Unfortunately, the company's efforts to engage in meaningful discussions with the Nevada attorney general's office have been frustrated"" by Masto's decision to outsource the investigation to a D.C.-based law firm, LPS explained in a statement.
[COLUMN_BREAK]LPS says such a move is in apparent violation of Nevada law, and contends that Masto's complaint ""highlights misconceptions about LPS and seeks to sensationalize a variety of false allegations.""
Despite earlier assurances, Masto's office says it has undertaken an ""extensive investigation"" into LPS' default servicing practices in Nevada, specifically loans in foreclosure.
""The lawsuit alleges"":http://bit.ly/LPScomplaint LPS falsified and forged foreclosure documents, notarizations, and key signatures. The complaint also charges LPS with imposing arbitrary deadlines on foreclosure attorneys, obstructing communication between foreclosure attorneys and their clients, and misrepresenting kickback fees for referred foreclosure cases as ""attorney fees.""
According to the attorney general's office, LPS required employees to execute and notarize up to 4,000 foreclosure documents every day.
""The robo-signing crisis in Nevada has been fueled by two main problems: chaos and speed,"" said Attorney General Masto. ""We will protect the integrity of the foreclosure process. This lawsuit is the next, logical step in holding the key players in the foreclosure fraud crisis accountable.""
LPS has previously disclosed that it discovered, during its own internal reviews, potential issues related to some of its past document execution practices, but the company maintains that it is not aware of any person who was wrongfully foreclosed upon as a result.
LPS says it ""will vigorously defend against the complaint filed by the Nevada attorney general.""
