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Trump's Treasury nominee accused of using illegal foreclosure methods in Northeast Ohio

Posted at 11:11 PM, Jan 31, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-31 23:14:35-05

President Donald Trump's first 100 days in office continued to be mired by drama more suited to his history in reality television than the oval office.

Many of his cabinet nominees hang in limbo. For two of them, there's no telling when they'll get a vote.

Senate committee democrats boycotted, Tuesday, votes for health and human services Secretary Nominee Tom Price and Treasury Secretary Nominee Steve Mnuchin.

It was the moment that changed her life, "I wish this on nobody. It is just horrific." A Cleveland woman, who doesn't want us to reveal her identity, is describing the day she learned her home was being foreclosed.

"I came home to a notice on my door, on my front door" she said.

A few months later, the bank came after her rental property. "They didn't leave a notice, no nothing they just put a lock box on the property" the woman said.

What she didn't know was that this was just the beginning of a long drawn out legal battle. "The process after that took about 2 year, a 2 year court battle" the woman said.

The woman originally got her loan from the now defunct Indy Mac, which was purchased by One West Bank in 2009.

The bank led by Steve Mnuchin quickly got a reputation for its aggressive foreclosure methods.

"I would estimate hundreds easily and that is Cuyahoga County alone, throughout the state of Ohio, I would estimate thousands" said attorney William Behrens

William Behrens with the Dann law firm has worked several cases involving One West.

He says the bank would process loan modification while simultaneously starting foreclosure proceeding, a now illegal practice.

And a One West executive even admitted to robo-signing, meaning she signed off on hundreds of foreclosures a day without even reading the documents.

"She even at one point said that she was signing so many documents that she shortened the way she signed her name to be able to get through them faster… And this is the evidence that is used to take someone's home. This is a crime" said Behrens.

It's that executives signature that appears on several Cleveland foreclosure documents, including the woman in our story.

"There were a lot of good people who were given unnecessary black eyes" the woman said.

But during his confirmation hearing Steve Mnuchin denied that One West robo-signed documents. A statement senator Sherrod Brown tells News 5 is a lie.

"He came to congress, came to the senate during his confirmation hearing to be the most powerful economic official cut out middle...And he lied about what he did" said Senator Brown.

Brown vows to halt the committee vote on Mnuchin, until he comes clean.

Senator Brown says he wants to hold another hearing for Tom Price as well as Steve Mnuchin so he can further explain this resurfaced evidence of robo-signing, before the committee can vote.