A notary public who signed tens of thousands of false documents in a
massive foreclosure scam before blowing the whistle on the scandal has
been found dead in her Las Vegas home.
NBC station KSNV of Las Vegas
reported that the woman, Tracy Lawrence, 43, was scheduled to be
sentenced Monday morning after she pleaded guilty this month to
notarizing the signature of an individual not in her presence. She
failed to show up for her hearing, and police found her body at her home
later in the day.
It could not immediately be determined whether
Lawrence, who faced up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000,
died of suicide or of natural causes, KSNV reported. Detectives said
they had ruled out homicide.
Lawrence came forward earlier this
month and blew the whistle on the operation, in which title officers
Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine, Calif., and Geraldine Sheppard, 62, of
Santa Ana, Calif. — who worked for a Florida processing company used by
most major banks to process repossessions — allegedly forged signatures
on tens of thousands of default notices from 2005 to 2008.
Trafford and Sheppard were charged two weeks ago with 606 counts of
offering false instruments for recording, false certification on certain
instruments and notarization of the signature of a person not in the
presence of a notary public. You can read a .pdf version of their indictment here.
Police
said at the time that the alleged scam had thrown into question the
legality of most Las Vegas home foreclosures in the past few years,
leaving many people living in foreclosed-upon homes that they
unknowingly don't actually own.
"I would suggest you review your
documents and bring them to an expert and an attorney," said John
Kelleher, chief deputy attorney general for Nevada's fraud unit.
No comments:
Post a Comment