Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Who Does Greg Brower Serve?



Last night, 8 News Now Las Vegas uncovered a case at State Senator Greg Brower's law firm that he'd rather not discuss. As you can see above and below, he really did not want to talk about it. And I can understand why.

Brower is Nevada's former U.S. Attorney. He's now a partner at a private law firm paid to represent Lender Processing Services. Nevada's attorney general sued that company for what the state calls the largest case of illegal robo-signing. Brower's fellow attorneys filed a court paper which states robo-signing is not illegal; it is expressly permitted, and is not forgery.

The I-Team wanted to see if Brower himself supports robo-signing. At first, he told us, on the phone, he had nothing to do with the high-profile robo-signing case. The I-Team wanted Brower to explain his position. His office canceled one interview and postponed several times. Finally the I-Team caught up to Brower at a Las Vegas legislative hearing at the end of the lunch break. [...]

[8 News reporter Nathan] Baca: "Can you take a look at this [letter] and explain this to me?"

Brower: "I don't know what this is.

Baca: "It's a letter from you."

In the letter to the attorney general's office, Brower says he represents LPS and all questions should go through him.

Brower: Well, this is a letter that I sent to John Kelleher quite some time ago in anticipation of some meeting that I facilitated between LPS and his office. Like I said, I'm not involved in any litigation or case that's pending.

Baca: "And you also visited the office, have you?"

Brower: "I have, yeah."

Baca: "Is robo-signing legal or is it illegal? What would you like to tell voters?"

Brower: "Well, that's a legal question that I'd be happy to get into in some other context. I don't know what the context of your question is and I just don't know where you're going with this."

However, this is a topic that most Nevadans really need addressed. Ever since the real estate bubble began to burst in 2007, neighborhoods across our state have been ravaged by home foreclosures.

What's made this problem worse is the big banks' failure to negotiate with distressed homeowners in good faith. Instead, we've seen all this "robo-signing" that leads to homeowners being foreclosed upon even if they were seeking mediation... And even homeowners being foreclosed upon despite never falling behind in payments!

This is why Nevada homeowners have questions for Greg Brower. Apparently, he voted for legislation last year to curb robo-signing, yet it looks like he profits off this practice. So what does he really believe? And who does he really serve?

This is not the first time that Brower has said one thing while doing the complete opposite. However, this is even more serious in that Brower may have a real conflict of interest. How can he take action to help distressed homeowners when he's supposed to be representing a firm responsible for the very robo-signing that's improperly kicked many thousands of Nevadans out of their homes? Who does Greg Brower really serve?

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