by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
Earle Berghman' s December 2, 2014 affidavit in support of his Petition for the transfer of structured settlement payment rights to Novation Funding LLC d/b/a Novation Settlement Solutions with the 48.69% effective discount rate, was e-filed by Jose Manuel Camacho Jr to the Broward County Court Clerk. The Petition was in the name of Earle B.
What's pretty odd though was that the notary's name was "Jack K". According to Florida Law 117.05(3)(a) A notary public seal shall be affixed to all notarized paper documents and shall be of the rubber stamp type and shall include the words “Notary Public-State of Florida.” The seal shall also include the name of the notary public, the date of expiration of the commission of the notary public, and the commission number.
It is evident from observing the notary section of Earl Berghman's affidavit below, reproduced from the Broward County records, the signature of the notary, printed name of the notary and the notary stamp has been altered, the printed last name of the notary and the commission number is missing although, like a bad tailor, the dufus that did the alterations, covered the expiry date on the stamp but left the commission expiry date. This proved to be the lynch pin, through process of elimination that helps identify Jack Karuzas of Port St. Lucie Florida as the notary.
I placed a call to Mr. Karuzas for comment and finally reached him on January 25, 2016 at 940am. While Jack Karuzas could not specifically recall the Earle Berghman case (or Earle B case) case, Karuzas stated that he always signs his full name and prints his full name on notarized documents and that his stamp has his full name, expiration date of his notary commission and his commission number.
117.107 Prohibited acts.—
- So who did the altering of the notary signature and the notary stamp on this court submitted document?
- Who authorized the alteration of the document?
- If a notarized signature is not in compliance with Florida State Statutes how does that affect the viability of the court approval of a transfer?
- How does an investor in structured settlement payment rights rely on notarized documents that have been altered?
- If a more extensive investigation were done how many other structured settlement transfer documents would be found to be altered?
The structured settlement transfer process is supposed to be transparent and honest and one would like to believe for the most part it is. Unfortunately the Jose Manuel Camacho Jr. structured settlement transfer forgery is a scandal that impugns the integrity of the Florida structured settlement transfer market. The cover up of this scandal is startling. I wonder what else will be found in the next layer of the onion.
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