Homeowners facing foreclosure turn to some creative measures to try to fight the banks. For example, there's the Luznar family of Pembroke Pines, whom we followed last year as they hung massive signs on their house saying, "We are fighting back."
Meanwhile, another homeowner -- Lynn Szymoniak of Palm Beach Gardens -- fought back in another way: by becoming a whistleblower against banks for the now-infamous practice of "robo-signing" documents.
Syzmoniak, a lawyer and fraud investigator in West Palm Beach, claimed that four major banks had defrauded the government. As CBS News reports, she just won a hefty payout.
South Florida is the world headquarters of robo-signing, ever since a man with a boat named David J. Stern set up shop in Plantation. He was eventually sued by former employees, and the firm shut down.
Szymoniak used her own foreclosure case to sue J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells
Fargo, Citigroup, and Bank of America, claiming they created fake
documents to continue receiving government payments. The government
joined her complaint.
Now the feds have won a $95 million payout, of which Szymoniak is
entitled to $18 million. She's still in foreclosure, but now she should
be able to do the only thing that can really prevent a foreclosure: buy a
house outright.
The Palm Beach Post also has a story on the case.
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