Bank of America, JPMorgan Get Texas Subpoenas on Foreclosures

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase and Co. and seven other banks or loan servicers were subpoenaed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for information about their foreclosure practices, a spokesman said.

“The state is subpoenaing information and documents,” Jerry Strickland, the spokesman, said yesterday in an interview. He didn’t elaborate. The state also subpoenaed Ally Financial Inc., CitiMortgage Inc. and Wells Fargo and Co.

Abbott began investigating foreclosure practices in Texas following the disclosure of a December deposition in which an employee of Ally’s GMAC Mortgage unit testified that his team signed about 10,000 documents a month without verifying their accuracy. On Oct. 13, all 50 state attorneys general announced a joint investigation of foreclosures.

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Lindsay Lohan - Process Server Fails To Hand Lohan Legal Papers

A photographer who is suing Lindsay Lohan is struggling to serve the actress with legal papers - a process worker was turned away recently as he tried to present her with the lawsuit during her stay in rehab.

The Mean Girls actress is accused of failing to honor a deal to give snapper Scot Nathan a one per cent share in her clothing line 6126 in exchange for a photo shoot.

He launched legal action against Lohan in April (10) and a process server attempted to visit the troubled star at the Betty Ford Clinic in Rancho Mirage, California earlier this month (17Oct10) - but he was denied access and instead gave the papers to the security guard.

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SLO Process Server Gets New Felony Charge

Lyza Johnsen, a process server with the San Luis Obispo-based Johnsen & Johnsen Legal Support Services, was taken into custody on Oct. 20 during an appearance at SLO County Superior Court.

Facing three felony charges and one misdemeanor ranging from writing bad checks to grand theft, Johnsen was originally scheduled for an arraignment. But on Oct. 19, the District Attorney’s Office filed another felony charge claiming that Johnsen wrote another bad check just days before her court appearance.

Deputy District Attorney Matt Kerrigan asked Judge Michael Duffy to sign an arrest warrant for the latest case before Johnsen was arraigned on her other felony charges. According to Kerrigan, Johnsen wrote a check for about $1,500, using an account that was closed after she allegedly wrote about $50,000 in bad checks, for which she is now facing felony charges.

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MBS Investors Get Themselves Organized for Repurchase Lawsuits

GMAC Mortgage is following the lead of Bank of America, assuring the public about independent reviews and returning to the foreclosure process in the 23 judicial states when those reviews are completed. They continue the party line of all servicers that they have “found no evidence to date of any inappropriate foreclosures.”

This flies in the face of the standard practice to reward fraud at the foreclosure mill law firms.

"Some employees of Florida’s largest “foreclosure mill” were given jewelry, cars and houses from the firm, in exchange for altering and forging key documents used to obtain foreclosures, according to a statement released today by the Florida Attorney General’s Office.

The office released transcripts of two interviews it conducted for its investigation into the law offices of David J. Stern. The sworn statements were from Kelly Scott, a former employee of Stern’s and Mary R. Cordova, a former employee of G&Z, a process server used by Stern’s office. The women’s testimonies appear to back up that of former Stern’s employee Tammie Lou Kapusta, whose statement was released last week. The three statements paint a picture of a secret system designed to speed up the foreclosure process. Attorneys and staff members forged signatures, changed dates, passed around notary stamps, the women say in interviews with attorney general’s staff.

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TEMECULA: City Having a Hard Time Serving Tribe With Suit

The city of Temecula hit an early hurdle with its lawsuit against the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians: The tribe won't allow a process server to enter the reservation to formally serve the suit, city officials said Wednesday.

Mayor Jeff Comerchero said he's been briefed on the situation and he said the city plans to continue to make every attempt to serve the tribe.

If the tribe ultimately succeeds in stymieing the city's process server, however, Comerchero said there are other options.

"We go into the court and demonstrate that (the difficulty in serving the tribe), and that should suffice," he said.

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Charges dog a SLO process server

At first, Brian Stacy believed everything Lyza Johnsen told him. He originally hired her as a process server in his lawsuit against French Hospital Medical Center. Soon, though, Johnsen was providing him advice and putting him in contact with experts who would help his case—or so he thought.

When Johnsen first told Stacy she would put him in touch with a clever Santa Monica-based paralegal named Hope O’Connell, he didn’t think much of it—he just wrote a check. When he saw that O’Connell’s e-mail was a Gmail account, he didn’t think much of it—and he wrote some more checks. After writing about $24,000 worth of checks to Johnsen, a woman who was recommended to him, he started to get suspicious.

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Broward Law Firm Challenges Foreclosure Subpoena

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A Broward County judge is mulling over a law firm's challenge to the validity of Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's investigation into foreclosure practices.

Attorneys for the Law Offices of David J. Stern claimed Tuesday that the attorney general's office has no authority to investigate. State lawyers contend they have authority in their role as consumer advocates.

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Laura Dern Surprised By Divorce Papers

A process server went to Laura Dern's home on Saturday with divorce papers and demanded that she come to the door ... or else, sources tell TMZ.

We're told the couple's nanny came to the door and told the process server she would accept the divorce papers Ben Harper filed late Friday afternoon, but sources say the process server

fired back that if Laura didn't come to the door he'd find her out in public and embarrass her.

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New Subpoenas Issued In John Edwards Campaign Probe

Federal prosecutors have issued a new round of subpoenas in their probe of John Edwards' campaign finances -- giving the investigation seemingly stalled for a year fresh signs of life, the Associated Press reported.

Lawyer Wade Smith told the AP that he learned from other attorneys and sources that several new subpoenas were issued, but declined to discuss who received the subpoenas or what those subpoenas were seeking. Smith did not immediately return a message left by TPMMuckraker, and Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said the department was declining comment.

But according to CNN Producer Raelyn Johnson, prosecutors are casting net "much wider than they did a year ago."

"They're talking about people who were schedulers, staffers, small-time staffers, including very, very big people involved with the campaign," she said Thursday.

Edwards, who ran for president in 2004 and 2008, admitted in 2008 that he'd had an affair with Rielle Hunter, a videographer on his campaign -- though, initially, his former aide Andrew Young announced he was the father of Hunter's child. Earlier this year, Edwards publicly admitted for the first time that he fathered Hunter's child and Edwards and his wife Elizabeth separated after 30 years of marriage.

The feds are looking at whether the Edwards campaign used funds to cover up his affair. Hunter and Young made appearances at a federal courthouse in Raleigh, N.C. last year to testify before a grand jury. Young said he did not receive a subpoena this time around.

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Call Girl Hits Back at Beckham, Files Lawsuit Claiming She Told Truth

As if he didn't have enough issues to deal with, David Beckham is getting hit with a countersuit by former call girl Irma Nici.

Nici has been making the rounds claiming she had a one-night stand with the soccer stud—leading him to sue In Touch, which first printed her story. Now, she says the backlash sent her to the hospital and Beckham must pay!

Nici and her lawyer, Paul Rolf Jensen, issued a carefully worded statement Friday announcing their legal action seeking to have Beckham's lawsuit tossed.

"The former call girl who was sent to the hospital earlier this week as a result of the hounding she received at the hands of David Beckham and his legal team has struck back," their statement began.

Without specifically mentioning any affair or the In Touch report, they claim that Nici did "tell the truth to the press" and that should keep her from being targeted in a lawsuit.

"California law does not allow public figures like David Beckham to stifle free speech. Maybe he didn't live here in Los Angeles long enough to learn how precious we here consider our rights to tell the truth in print," says Jensen.

"Beckham must have confused American law with the law back in his home country, where there isn't a such a sacred respect for free speech."

We're not certain how up to speed Becks is with American law, but he's sure getting a crash course this week.

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