One day in November, June Clarkson stepped out her front door in
Hollywood to see a Local 10 news van parked outside. They were filming a
public-nuisance story on the property next door to hers, which had been
in foreclosure for around two years and was now covered with unsightly,
invasive air-potato vines.
This week's cover story is about Clarkson and Theresa Edwards, two former fraud investigators with the Florida Office of the Attorney General. In May 2011, they were unceremoniously sacked from the office while in the midst of several groundbreaking investigations into fraudulent practices by major mortgage lenders and processing companies.
One of their biggest and most influential targets was Lender
Processing Services (LPS), a nationwide company that has handled
paperwork for half of all American mortgage defaults, by some estimates.
The former investigators now blame their ouster on a too-cozy relationship between
companies like LPS and Attorney General Pam Bondi, who fired them.
Stripped of their former responsibilities, they opened a private
practice. But they kept fighting LPS as private citizens, sometimes
resorting to coy tactics.
Turns out, the next-door foreclosed home the news cameras were filming was managed -- and neglected -- by a division of LPS. Clarkson took the opportunity to criticize them, but didn't reveal the connection with her former work.
"June Clarkson lives right next door, and says her place is under constant attack," said the reporter in the finished segment.
"Have you seen the back yard?" she asked on camera, leading them around to a huge bank of overgrown vines.
The camera then panned to the front door of the foreclosed home, where
there was a doormat that read, "This property managed by LPS Field
Services."
Clarkson was identified only as a neighbor. She didn't mention that she
had spent months investigating LPS, or that she thinks its contributions
and lawyers are partially responsible for her losing her job.
Watch the news story here, and read our long feature story about Clarkson and Edwards.
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