I have another problem with all of this - of course it may have happened but not mentioned - I would think that these people could be charged with criminal fraud for signing all the papers when they knew that another bank or mortgage company was owed money.  I think there can be instances, for one reason or another, that a lien is filed without their knowledge but you know if you signed loan papers or not and who you owe.  Hopefully somewhere down the line the borrowers were held accountable for not bringing it to anyone's attention - where is their liability?