Robo-signing – the practice of rubber-stamping mortgage and foreclosure documents without first verifying their accuracy – is a big problem to Essex County Register of Deeds John O’Brien. Now, thanks to a new investigation conducted in part by his office, it’s apparently a big problem for former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, too.

In a statement last week, O’Brien and national forensic mortgage fraud examiner Marie McDonnell claimed to have uncovered inconsistencies in the mortgage paperwork for Palin’s Arizona home that contain flaws in the chain of title.

“Through no fault of her own, Sarah Palin has become a victim like thousands of others across the country that have the same problem with their chain of title,” O’Brien said. “It just goes to show you that no one is immune from this type of fraud and irresponsible behavior that these banks participated in.”

Purported robo-signer Linda Green is at the heart of O’Brien’s efforts to rid his registry – and apparently all registries – of flawed and/or fraudulent documents. O’Brien said his office is in possession of more than 6,000 documents which bear a total of 22 different variations of Linda Green’s signature. O’Brien has said he believes this indicates fraud if Green did not, in fact, actually sign the documents herself.

According to O’Brien and McDonnell, Green was involved with a fraudulent deed of release related to Palin’s mortgage.

Palin’s case is a high-profile example of the kinds of fraud O’Brien is taking on, and he’s since taken an unusual step in his effort to maintain the integrity of land records: Requiring banks or attorneys who submit documents he suspects are flawed to sign an affidavit swearing – on pain of perjury – they’ve reviewed their accuracy personally.

“I think the registrar has a responsibility if a document he knows is fraudulent, he’s not going to accept and put on record,” said Kevin Harvey, first assistant register for Essex County. “We’re… saying, ‘in order to submit this you have to attest that the person signing the document or notarizing the document is who they say they are.’”

Questions Of Authority

But attorneys who’ve worked with lenders told Banker & Tradesman they had doubts whether O’Brien has the authority to reject a properly notarized affidavit. Other registers, too, say the move is unprecedented and questioned whether a register had the statutory authority to reject a document for suspicion of fraud.

Carol Foglesong, first vice president of the National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks, said she was unaware of any other register in the country using a similar practice. In general, she said she wasn’t sure a register should reject submitted documents if they appeared to be properly signed and notarized.

“I’m not somebody who could go into a court case and determine if there were fraudulent signatures,” she said. “I would maintain that the job of a recorder is to record documents and make them public. We don’t determine the adequacy of a document. Just because I don’t like it, I can’t refuse to record it.”

Anthony Vigliotti, the Worcester District register of deeds and president of the Massachusetts Registers of Deeds Association, said he too was unaware of any “legal requirement that requires that to be done, and we have no intention of doing that.”

But O’Brien is confident that demanding the affidavit is within his authority, citing a Massachusetts law which makes it illegal to record a document that contains false information. Harvey emphasized that the register himself would fall afoul of the law if he were to accept a document he believed was fraudulent.

Amie Breton, spokeswoman for Attorney General Martha Coakley, said Coakley’s office was aware of the register’s efforts, but declined to comment further. Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin’s office oversees the registers of deeds. Galvin Spokesman Brian McNiff also said the secretary was aware of O’Brien’s decision, but declined to comment.

O’Brien is taking this latest step after rejecting two documents recently submitted to the registry, an assignment and a discharge. Those documents have since been sent back to the lenders in question and will be re-filed upon completion of the signed affidavit, the registry said in a statement.

The documents rejected by O’Brien contain the signatures of what he says are three known robo-signers, Green, Korell Harp and Linda Burton. According to O’Brien, in addition to the multiple variations of Green’s signature, his registry has documents bearing five different signatures between Harp and Burton.

Green was a former employee of Docx, a subsidiary of mortgage servicing company Lender Processing Services, which has been accused of forging assignments and other mortgage documents. Her role in the robo-signing scandal was recently highlighted in a “60 Minutes” expose.

The two latest documents in question with her name involved mortgages held by AIG and Bank of America; both institutions could not be reached for comment.