Massacio wrote last week about the subpoena issued by Florida’s state attorney general Bill McCollum investigating Fidelity National Financial, Inc., a.k.a. DOCX.

Specifically, the AG is looking at documentation between DOCX and Florida Default Law Group, P.L., The Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A., and Shapiro & Fishman, L.L.P., and The Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, P.A.

Critically important to this investigation but not clearly spelled out is that these four firms are Fannie Mae’s retained attorneys for the state of Florida (pdf). Because of the volume of business transacted by Fannie Mae, the number of records covered by this subpoena will be quite large.

(There are five other retained attorneys in Florida as well; it’s not clear why their records have not been subpoenaed – at least not yet that we know.)

Another critically important point are the political and financial relationship of these four firms, the state attorney general and Florida’s Republican Party supporters.

David Stern has already become fairly well-known to the media as a high-volume foreclosure servicer — a foreclosure mill. What’s not as well-known is that David Stern’s legal representation, Tew Cardenas, is rather important to Florida’s Republican Party. While Jeffrey Tew has donated only on a rather limited basis to candidates, Alberto Cardenas has donated more than $70,000 to candidates, incumbents and committees during the last two election cycles.   . . .

Among Cardenas’ beneficiaries are Rep. Roy Blunt (MO-07) and Rep. John Mica (FL-07), who respectively sit on the House Energy and Commerce Committee (Blunt), House Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (Blunt), and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Mica), and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (Mica is the ranking member). His family members are likewise generous to Republicans and have donated more than $9000 over the last several years. (See Alberto Cardenas’ contributions at this link.)

There are other entities which have not yet fully emerged in the foreclosure fraud story, or in this particular investigation to date; they are the title insurers which provide services on every mortgage and foreclosure. At some point their role will become more obvious; their weight in political circles is already very obvious to Republicans in and out of Florida.

The intersection in this particular investigation between DOCX, foreclosure servicers and title insurers is right there in front of us. DOCX is a subsidiary of Fidelity National; the parent firm is one of the largest title insurers in the country. Their website claims that Fidelity handles at least half of all title insurance across the country.

And yes, this mega-sized title insurer has ties to both the national and state Republican Party. Fidelity’s chairman William Foley is a generous donor to Republicans; while he has made three donations to Democrats, approximately 93% of a total $150,000 has been donated to Republican candidates, incumbents and committees.

Note that among Foley’s beneficiaries are key committee members like Gary Miller (R-CA, Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity) and Ed Royce (R-CA, Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises). These folks aren’t chairs or ranking, but are likely willing to share information with key donors. Foley’s also given to Ander Crenshaw (FL-04), which seems like a natural since he’s a Floridian — but he sits on Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government. With donations to Crenshaw, it looks like Foley covered the spread of committees affecting his business. (See William Foley’s contributions at this link.)

And of course we cannot forget the man whose name appears on the subpoena, Bill McCollum.

McCollum has received at least $26,000 during the last election cycle from firms or their employees which we can clearly tell provide title insurance or mortgage services, as well as foreclosure servicers and their legal representative, Al Cardenas (Cardenas made a donation of $500 last year to McCollum’s campaign).

There’s surely more than this amount from title insurance or mortgage services firms, but they are more difficult to pick out from over 20,000 campaign contribution records if their business name did not include the word "mortgage" or "title," or if employment and employer were not specified in the campaign finance report. A list follows of the ones which appear on the face of it to be related to title or mortgage industry. And while we can’t begrudge individuals the right to donate to candidates and incumbents of their choosing, we certainly hope that the recipients when elected support and defend state and federal laws in spite of campaign contributions received.

Mortgage Lenders/Brokers/Service firms or employees (date, amount, name)
02/02/10 150 ACHTENHAGEN CATHY (mortgage broker)
05/14/10 500 AMERICAN MORTGAGE FIELD SERVIC
02/18/10 350 CLAUS CALLI CLAUDINE (mortgage broker)
02/18/10 250 COMBANK MORTGAGE COMPANY
05/14/10 500 COUNCE DEAN A. (mortgage
07/06/09 500 FLA. ASSN. OF MORTGAGE BROKERS
07/06/09 500 FLA. ASSN. OF MORTGAGE BROKERS
07/06/09 500 FLA. ASSN. OF MORTGAGE BROKERS
11/16/09 500 GRINDLE MANAGEMENT COMPANY, IN (may be related company)
11/16/09 500 GRINDLE MORTGAGE, INC.
12/18/09 500 GULF BAY MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC
12/18/09 500 GULF BAY MANAGEMENT, INC.
12/18/09 500 GULF BAY MARKETING GROUP, INC.
12/18/09 500 GULF BAY MORTGAGE SERVICES, IN
11/16/09 500 LINDQUIST BRETT C. (mortgage lender)
12/31/09 500 MORTGAGE BANKERS OF FLORIDA PAC
12/07/09 250 NAEGELE JR ROBERT O. (mortgage broker)
06/26/09 250 NAEGELE JR ROBERT O. (mortgage broker)
12/07/09 250 NAEGELE ELLIS F. (may be related person – same address)
06/26/09 250 NAEGELE ELLIS F. (may be related person – same address)
12/15/09 500 NAEGELE COMMUNICATIONS, INC. (may be related company)
12/15/09 500 NAEGELE INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP (may be related company)
03/26/10 500 OVERSTREET DANIEL E. (mortgage lender)
06/04/09 500 ROYAL PALM MORTGAGE GROUP, LLC
06/04/09 500 SOUTH BEACH MORTGAGE, INC.
06/25/09 500 THE HEAVENER COMPANY (may be related company)
06/25/09 500 THE HEAVENER COMPANY FRANCHISE (may be related company)
06/25/09 500 THE HEAVENER COMPANY LEASING, (may be related company)
06/25/09 500 THE HEAVENER COMPANY MORTGAGE,
06/25/09 500 THE HEAVENER COMPNAY EDUCATION (may be related company)

Total: $13,250

Title Insurance/Service firms or employees:
06/30/09 500 AMERISTATE TITLE, LLC
08/06/09 500 ATTORNEYS’ TITLE GUARANTY FUND
09/30/09 500 CHICAGO TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY
06/25/09 500 DATURA TITLE SERVICES, LLC
04/06/10 500 EQUITY LAND TITLE, LLC
07/29/09 500 FIDELITY INSURANCE AGENCY, INC (may be related company)
02/08/10 500 FIDELITY NATIONAL TITLE INSURANCE
07/29/09 500 FIDELITY WARRANTY SERVICES, IN (may be related company)
03/08/10 500 FIRST AMERICAN TITLE INSURANCE
05/19/10 500 FIRST INTERNATIONAL TITLE, INC
04/22/10 290 GERMAIN JEANIE (title agent)
12/14/09 500 HERITAGE TITLE INSURANCE AGENC
05/19/10 500 J & M FL. VIKING, INC. (title company)
06/29/09 500 L.S.C. TITLE, INC.
02/08/10 500 LAWYER’S TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY
04/29/10 50 PERDIDO TITLE AND ABSTRACT, INC.
01/20/10 500 PERFORMANCE TITLE SERVICES, INC.
05/19/10 500 RED VISION SYSTEMS, INC. (title company)
06/29/09 500 STOLL REBECCA (title insurance)
06/29/09 500 STOLL STEVEN M. (may be related person – attorney)
06/29/09 500 STOLL & ORCHARD (may be related company)
09/15/09 500 TICOR TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY
06/14/10 500 TITLE CLERK ASSISTANTS OF FLORIDA (may be related firm – auto titles)
01/20/10 500 TITLE CLERK ASSISTANTS, LLC (may be related firm – auto titles)
06/14/10 500 TITLE CLERK CONSULTING COMPANY
06/09/10 500 TITLE INSURANCE THROUGH LAWYER (PAC)
09/16/09 500 TITLE MATTERS, LLC
02/10/10 500 UNIVERSITY TITLE SERVICES, LLC
05/19/10 500 WATSON TITLE INSURANCE, INC.

Total: $13,840

[Source: http://election.dos.state.fl.us/campaign-finance/contrib.asp]

Next, we’ll be looking at the other three subpoenaed Fannie Mae retained attorney firms to see if there is a similar pattern of campaign contributions. If you happen to know of any title firms in Florida which should be scrutinized, please drop a note in comments.