Brown to Serve 5 Years for Robo-Signing Role

Lorraine Brown, the former CEO of Lender Processing Services (LPS) subsidiary DocX, LLC and an alleged key player in what came to be known as the robo-signing scandal, was sentenced today to five years in prison. Brown, also a former executive of the parent company, had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud last November for her role in a scheme to fraudulently execute thousands of mortgage related documents to facilitate foreclosures and bankruptcy related proceedings. In addition to her prison term, Brown was sentenced to serve two years of supervised release and ordered to pay a fine of $15,000.

The Department of Justice said Brown had participated in a six-year scheme to prepare and file more than 1 million fraudulently signed and notarized mortgage-related documents with property recorders offices throughout the country. Brown's plea agreement detailed how employees of DocX began forging and falsifying signatures of those employees who were authorized by clients to executive the documents; the documents were then fraudulently notarized as though they had been signed by the delegated personnel.

This practice was allegedly implemented by Brown to enable DocX to generate greater profit and to that end the company also hired temporary employees to act as signers. These temps worked for much lower costs and without the quality control represented by Brown to her company's clients. Some were able to sign thousands of mortgage-related instruments a day.  Between 2003 and 2009, DocX generated approximately $60 million in gross revenue.        

Many of these documents, once filed and recorded, were relied upon in court proceedings, including property foreclosures and federal bankruptcy actions.  Brown admitted she understood that property recorders, courts, title insurers and homeowners relied upon the documents as genuine.

"Lorraine Brown will spend five years in prison for her central role in a scheme to fraudulently execute thousands of mortgage-related documents while our nation's housing market was at its most vulnerable point in generations," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman of the Justice Department's Criminal Division. "Today's sentencing represents appropriate punishment for someone who sought to capitalize on the nation's housing crisis."

Sentencing was handed down by Senior U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. in the Middle District of Florida. This case was prosecuted by the Justice Departments Criminal Division's Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida and was investigated by the FBI and the state of Florida's Department of Financial Services.