EXAMINERS

Douglas Rian, MA, CFLA, and Elizabeth Jacobson, CFLA

Forensic document examination is the practice of the application of document examination to the purposes of the law.  Loan history accounting, including escrow and improper application of payments, automatic stay violations, and the like, are of course examined, but PaCE’s forensic document examination/analysis involving real property transactions also encompasses the identification of handwriting, typewriting, the authenticity of signatures, alterations in documents, the significance of inks and papers, photocopying processes, printing processes, writing instruments, sequence of writing, and other elements of a document relative to its authenticity or spuriousness.  The securitization and loss mitigation audit components involve examination of the reporting of the selling of securities in a trust when the trust does not have clear title to assets, examination of compliance of loan servicers to the Servicer Participation Agreements (SPAs) regarding HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program) modifications and other loss mitigation attempts and actions, and an examination of all available SEC filings including those accessible via the Edgar Online search engine. 

It is the stated position of Examiners’ certifying body, NAMU (National Association of Mortgage Underwriters), that the mortgage business has, and always will depend on, accurate documentation and data integrity.  Changing mortgage underwriting trends, industry-wide, continue to require further due diligence, and HUD, GSE entities such as Fannie and Freddie, and, most pertinent to the subject loan, mortgage bond investors nationwide increasingly require more and more documentation.  NAMU further recognizes several studies undertaken since the beginning of the subprime crisis which substantiates that securitization increased the risk of default by undermining careful underwriting.  Also, at its core the entire system of real estate is founded upon the ability of the courts to believe in the mortgage documents, loan servicing documents, and loss mitigation documents issued primarily by the banks most entrusted with TARP and stimulus money public funds, as well as the pre-foreclosure and foreclosure documents filed by court officers.  It is because this latter category of documents also contains facts presumed to be correct and accurate upon which both borrowers and the courts have most relied, that the purpose of this Report inheres in its succinct bringing together for both the borrower and the courts an equally accessible means of determining either inadvertent inattentiveness or deliberate deceptiveness, or both, where irregularities and disclarities exist.

PaCE routinely receives frequent case referrals from (former) Congressman Kratovil’s Office, the Maryland Rural Development Corporation (MRDC), Delmarva Community Action Center, Kent County Circuit Court, Talbot County Circuit Court, Consumer Credit Counseling Service, and various realty companies, legal agencies, and law firms in Maryland, Virginia, California, and Florida in which states PaCE also provides litigation support to attorneys.  PaCE is a group member of the Association of Residential Mortgage Compliance Professionals.

PaCE owners, Examiners Douglas Rian and Elizabeth Jacobson, are nationally certified as both Forensic Loan Auditors and Bank Foreclosure Examiners by NAMU, and are Court-Qualified, appearing in numerous cases as Expert Witnesses in several Maryland Circuit Courts.  They have appeared with homeowners in mediation in Queen Anne’s County, and have upon request of Talbot County Circuit Court Judge Earnest testified to the robosigning activities of Wells Fargo.  They contribute extensive information about mortgage/securitization/foreclosure issues to MSNBC, Bloomberg News, The Washington Post, USA Today, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University’s School of Communication, and the Baltimore Sun, whose reporting prompted passage in October 2010 of an emergency measure approved by Maryland’s highest court allowing Maryland judges to review foreclosures for irregularities and stop them if documents are invalid.  Both Mr. Rian and Ms. Jacobson conduct training courses nationally for attorneys and real estate professionals and educational seminars for homeowners, and are members of Friends of the Forensic Expert Witness Association (FoFEWA).  Their individual curriculum vitae follow.

Elizabeth Jacobson

1. SIFMA is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA)), and served as Foreclosure Prevention Project Coordinator for Mid Shore Pro Bono in Easton, Maryland, where she trained attorneys on foreclosure defense strategies.  While at Mid Shore Pro Bono she simultaneously completed HAMP training from Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD).  Ms. Jacobson’s documented track record of 6 years as the top originating loan officer nationally for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, the nationally leading mortgage loan originator and servicer where she also trained loan officers and underwriters, undergirds her industry expertise.  She penned an article for Harper’s Magazine in 2009 detailing her Wells Fargo experience, the same year she appeared as a witness in Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Wells Fargo Bank N.A.  Her affidavit bolstered Baltimore’s claim for disparate treatment of homeowners under the Fair Housing Act.  Ms. Jacobson’s foreclosure defense training by Civil Justice of Baltimore, Maryland, further prefigured in her receiving Special U.S. Congressional Recognition in 2009 for providing specialized assistance to Maryland homeowners in modifying the terms of their mortgage loans.  She is currently preparing for designation as a CFC (Certified Forensic Consultant) under the Board of the American Board of Forensic Examiners, an advisory Board of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute (ACFEI).

The Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury have over the years called upon Ms. Jacobson’s extensive mortgage industry knowledge.  She has provided televised interviews to CNN, the BBC, and Democracy Now, and was enlisted as a consultant to Michael Moore’s docudrama Capitalism: A Love Story.  She attended the University of Maryland after obtaining an A.A. degree at Stevenson University.

An ABA-certified paralegal since 1985, Ms. Jacobson’s asbestos litigation research over an eight-year period resulted in the largest punitive damage awarded by a jury in Maryland.  She and Doug Rian joined together and created Professional Compliance Examiners (PaCE), LLC, in January 2010, and most recently was certified by NAMU as a Bank Foreclosure Examiner.

Douglas Rian

1. SIFMA is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA)), the Society of American Business Writers and Editors (SABEW), the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), and Pi Sigma Alpha Honor Society.  A research analyst for 25 years, his financial analysis reports and criminal justice analysis reports have been published nationally by Morningstar Associates, by IBM, by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Division, and are cited in publications such as the Journal of Crime and Delinquency.  A policy journalist since 1980, he earned his B.A. (UND, cum laude) in 1985, and obtained a Master’s Degree on full fellowship from the University of Chicago in 1991 involving coursework in its top-rated School of Law.  His intensive securities industry research training followed shortly thereafter from the Investment Analysts Society of Chicago, and in 2008 his examination of an SEC Material Definitive Agreement and a fraudulent MERS assignment resulted in the first known pre-trial dismissal in Tennessee by a major mortgage lending bank against a homeowner.

His television news reporting in recent years has involved anchoring for the Associated Press California and independently reporting for WTVF News (CBS) and WSMV News (NBC) about commercial real property noncompliance that displaced several Nashville residents.  Mr. Rian consulted over the years to the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), senior-level elected officials including a governor, a state planning director, two state attorneys general, longtime U.S. Senate Budget Committee Chair Kent Conrad (who nominated him for the Rhodes Scholarship), and a 50-plus member state legislative caucus in the formulation, drafting, and implementation of major policy issues.  Furthering his interest in ethics and compliance, he worked extensively with lawyers’ ethics at the Board of Professional Responsibility at Tennessee’s Supreme Court within an American-Bar-approved paralegal program.  He is currently preparing for designation as a CFC (Certified Forensic Consultant) under the Board of the American Board of Forensic Examiners, an advisory Board of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute (ACFEI).

Also a college professor, since 1987 Mr. Rian has instructed adult college and university students in public and private universities in micro/macro economics, investment analysis, business law, public policy/government, risk management, international insurance, business writing, and critical thinking, and most recently was a Visiting Professor of Law in 2009 in The International Studies Program at Universidad Espiritu Santo (UEES) in Guayaquil, Ecuador.  He and Elizabeth Jacobson joined together and started Professional Compliance Examiners (PaCE), LLC, in January 2010, and most recently was certified by NAMU as a Bank Foreclosure Examiner.

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