Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced that he has issued criminal investigative subpoenas against national mortgage servicing support providers in an expansion of his office's investigation into questionable mortgage documentation filed with Michigan's Register of Deeds offices during the current foreclosure crisis. 

"Allegations of forged mortgage documents are very serious and require a thorough investigation," said Schuette.  "I will continue to work closely with federal and local authorities to find answers on behalf of Michigan homeowners."  

Schuette's office had previously filed criminal investigative subpoenas against DocX, which provided mortgage support services, including creating, processing or recording mortgage assignments and other documents before it was shuttered by its parent, Lender Processing Services.  In addition to DocX, Schuette has today subpoenaed three other companies affiliated with DocX, including Lender Processing Services, Inc., Fidelity National Financial, Inc., and CT Corporation System.

Schuette's office has requested documents regarding the mortgage processing companies' operations in relation to foreclosure and/or bankruptcy-related document processing.  The information must be provided to the Attorney General's Office on or before June 30, 2011.

In April 2011, Schuette launched an investigation after county officials across the state reported that they suspected Assignment of Mortgage documents filed in their offices may have been forged, after an April "60 Minutes" segment brought the issues to their attention. 

Schuette is investigating whether certain mortgage processing companies permitted such robosigning of legal documents filed in connection with Michigan foreclosures, and whether mortgage documentation was properly prepared without ever conducting a proper review of the documents, and whether such documents may have been filed with courts in limited cases.

Other state attorney generals have recently opened investigations into mortgage servicing support providers in the wake of the 60 Minutes segment  Attorney Generals in both Illinois and California issued subpoenas to Lender Processing Services in May.  Illinois is also investigating another company, Nationwide Title Clearing.