Foreclosure fraud whistleblower found dead

Foreclosure fraud whistleblower found dead

usnews.msnbc.msn.com

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.

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.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Here we go again... "whistleblowing" seems to be deadlier than swine flu!

OK, to be fair...

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 susicide or of natural causes, KSNV reported. Detectives said they had ruled out homicide.

What is also highlighted in this article is the ridiculous penalties faced by white collar criminals... up to 1 year in jail and $2000 in fines? Wow... quite the deterrent isn't it.

What about the CEO's who built this type of fraud into the business model? (Oh yeah, they are probably in the revolving door system coming or going to and from congress, the treasury or the fed!)

This is but one example of outright criminal activity which brought upon the economic debacle still being felt today. And one more example of just why people are picking up signs and occupying their cities in protests against the total absence of prosecution against the real criminals.

This case alone dealt with 606 cases. Yes, that's actual families that have potentially been put in the street due to outright fraud that is used to pay for one more yacht in the Caymans.

Of course, we should not overlook the obvious ATS angle... would someone risking a maximum of 1 year and/or $2000 take their own life, or did someone know too much and offer to spill the beans? (Dum, dum, dum...!)

the Billmeister

usnews.msnbc.msn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The mortgage scams run so deep in America, I'm not sure they can really be stopped.
I went through this crap back in 2007-2008, and during that time there were local news stories about how people were committing suicide so their families could pay the mortgage to stop foreclosures using the family member's life insurance money. These scams not just cost people their homes, it's killing people, whistleblowers and homeowners.

reply to post by Billmeister

What is also highlighted in this article is the ridiculous penalties faced by white collar criminals... up to 1 year in jail and $2000 in fines? Wow... quite the deterrent isn't it.

Thats it hunh? For causing homelessness, acute desperation to the point of family members killing themselves ..so they can keep a roof over the heads of their remaining families..

The sad part..is that these victims get thrown to the curb to try and scratch out an existence..sometimes falling to theft in sheer desperation.. or falling into drug use , dealing with extreme depression..

I'll bet some of them would never have committed a crime..had they not been forced into that corner..and I'll bet some of them pay a heftier price than the criminals who put them in that state of desperation.

Frankly I do not have much sympathy for the guy. No more then the death of any other person. Sure he was a whistle -blower, but at one time he was a huge part of the fraud. Did he blow the whistle because of remorse or because they were getting ready to drop the hammer on him? May he RIP with all those who gave up their lives so that their families could pay the mortgage with the insurance money.

Correction: My "guy" is a female...

reply to post by VeniVidi

NBC station KSNV of Las Vegas reported that the WOMAN, Tracy Lawrence

(emphasis mine)

Of course, the person's gender is irrelevant in this case, I just wanted to clarify the facts.

I see where you're coming from, but in some cases, there is a corporate environment of intimidation that comes into play.
Certain "real life" situations such as... could she find immediate employment elsewhere? did she have children to feed? Did she try to deal with the matter internally? ... can affect the decision making process that pins your moral standards against survival.

At least she eventually came out and confessed and faced up to prosecution and jail time.

What about the CEO's who never came forward? Not only did they obviously show no remorse, they have probably been rewarded because of the fraudulent business models.

These are the criminals who deserve to be punished.

That said, I would not wish them the death penalty... unless, this story has a more nefarious angle and that they are somehow involved.

the Billmeister

p.s.
I really don't believe in the death penalty, so that bit was just for added emphasis.

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 susicide or of natural causes, KSNV reported. Detectives said they had ruled out homicide.

What ? First of all, spelling of suicide !?
Second, how in the world would you commit suicide which looks like natural death ??
With the secret "Five point exploding heart" technique from Kill bill ?

Smells fishy. Or "susispicous".

reply to post by Billmeister


Yeah.. or maybe she felt that she might end up dead just for saying no to a fraud scheme the fraudsters had to inform her of in order to get her on board.

I doubt she killed herself over facing a year in jail and 2000 fine. She would have probably just had the fine and probation or 3 months max since she blew the whistle.

Originally posted by svetlana84

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 susicide or of natural causes, KSNV reported. Detectives said they had ruled out homicide.

What ? First of all, spelling of suicide !?
Second, how in the world would you commit suicide which looks like natural death ??
With the secret "Five point exploding heart" technique from Kill bill ?

Smells fishy. Or "susispicous".

edit on 30-11-2011 by svetlana84 because: (no reason given)

Nice catch... it slipped past me.

How's this for a freudian slip: (From The Urban dictionary)

1. sus
scandalous or doing something lame
you sus as #, for stealing her #
buy sus mugs & shirts
scandalous wrong dirty ignorant stupid

2. Short for 'suspect' or 'suspicious'.
"Man, I'm sus(suspicious) on that sus(suspect).

3. The word Sus is meant to suggest that somone is believed to be Shady or false. They are hiding something or are believed to have a serious character flaw which makes them undesirible as a friend or acqaintence. It is derived from its root word Suspect. In some areas it is primarily used to describe a nigga that is Bitch-made or one who is not feminine but suspected of homosexuality or other sexual deviances. Most commonly used to denote suspected homosexual tendencies.
Nigga #1 Tell me why Evans Frusion ass was lookin at my Bobbydangler in the bathroom today. It got so bad i had to bang that nigga like "Stop staring at my dick Cuhz."
Nigga #2: I told you that nigga was sus smh...
White guy: (O.o)?

the Billmeister

Isn't it amazing how things like this happen? Bankers and Wall St. mamby pambies are now having people killed. These are men are girly men who wear makeup like women and primp and....what a degenerate country.

reply to post by Billmeister


I have a quick thought on the penalty she faced, if you don't mind.

The article said she was facing sentencing after pleading guilty. So, she had cut a plea deal with the prosecutor that would limit her sentence. What did she offer? I don't know, but I suspect it was her testimony in the case against the others. Or, less likely, at 62 she might have had a health condition that guided the prosecutor to leniency.

I'M SORRY, I SCREWED UP The woman involved is 43, not 62. That was the age of one of the others.

I smell a rat. She's 41-years-old copped a plea on her guilty charge and *only* had a year of jail to serve. No kidding, "whistle blower" is deadly title to find yourself with. That being said, I'll be watching this case closely. Thanks, OP.

never mind.

So completely and totally unsurprising. It seems to me, though, that there's a certain amount of hint of corruption in the law enforcement folk to when a key witness in such a huge case isn't either in witness protection or under 24 hour surveillance.

Wake up everybody!

This is Tracey Lawrence---whistleblower!

She was going to blow the cover off the entire housing/foreclosure scandal.

And now, at 43 years old, she is dead? On the day she was supposed to testify?

Does this not totally piss you off? Scare you? Alarm you?

Here is another article with a little more detail... (but nothing more on the death.)

Huffington Post article

Lawrence also accused two loan officers of allegedly running the massive robo-signing scheme, saying they forged signatures on tens of thousands of default notices. Nevada now alleges that Gary Trafford, 49, of Irvine, Calif., and Gerri Sheppard, 62, of Santa Ana, Calif., directed their employees to forge foreclosure documents, notarize the signatures on the documents they had forged and file the fraudulent paperwork in order to begin foreclosures on homes throughout the county.

Trafford and Sheppard have been indicted on more than 600 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. Authorities are currently negotiating the terms of their surrender, KSNV MyNews 3 reported.

So, two loan officers were indicted... (more on that HERE) and it is claimed that they masterminded the whole thing and ordered others to follow suit.

The problem I have with that is that they are not very high on the ladder at LPS (Lender Processing Services)

Just going to their web page, we can get a list of management.

Now, I'm not implying any of these people are connected to Mrs. Lawrence's death in any way, but it is always fascinating to me, in these types of charges (the mortgage fraud that is) as to how those who are supposed to be in charge seem to be so far out of the loop.

Yes, this particular case deals with one regional office of a huge corporation, but, in my view, if we are to believe that they had nothing to do with these criminal business practices, and I for one don't, than, if nothing else they should be fired for utter incompetence.

Once again, justice just doesn't seem to apply to those at the very top. I guess it helps to be able to buy of politicians and legislators!

the Billmeister

reply to post by gabby2011

Thats it hunh? For causing homelessness, acute desperation to the point of family members killing themselves ..so they can keep a roof over the heads of their remaining families..

The more abstract the murder weapon, the less severe the punishment. Murder by pen and paper just doesn't stir the emotions so much as by sword and slash.

If I'm not mistaken there was a few threads on this lady a couple of months back. Hopefully someone remembers one and can link it.

This should be the most important thread running on ATS today.

Seriously.

Why?

Because it ties into EVERYTHING we've been talking about for years here. Let me re-cap it's importance:

The bank/foreclosure scandal (most people here agree) was a fraud. It was perpetrated to undermine the economy to help the march of the New World Order.

This woman, Tracy Lawrence, was blowing the whistle on the fraud. She was one of the people processing the foreclosures.

She was set to testify this morning, but ended up dead instead. Someone didn't want her to testify. Who?

This is NWO stuff. This is a hit perpretrated by TPTB. This is a dead woman---dead at the age of 43 because of what she knew. Because of what people didn't want her to say---which was the truth.

This is what is happening in our world. People who can blow the whistle are disappearing. This isn't the first person and it certainly isn't the last.

And this is an important story.

I don't quite get the lack of interest here. One of the posts gracing the front page today is a "I sense something is wrong with the world" post (hello? yes, we know) and here a 43 year old woman is dead...and it's just business as usual.

I don't get it.

reply to post by MRuss


I'm with you on that call. I've been involved in trying to identify the actual people who have committed crimes against humanity with my threads, like "Goldman Sachs is the Federal Government." She knew something, enough to get killed or be "suicided." I'd like to think she was smart enough to put that information in a lock-box controlled by trusted people like her lawyers, whereby if she were to be killed the information would still come to light. I want to see it. I want to know why a robo-signer who was about to spill the beans on the housing crisis is dead. She deserves that if for nothing else. And so do we.