Chapter 14 - Dad’s copied signature
The signature analysis was less cinematic than television.
No expert held two pages under ultraviolet light and shouted:
Forgery!
The guaranty signature was compared against genuine samples.
It was highly consistent with a scanned image from one of my previous financial forms.
Then we found the likely source.
During my divorce, Dad had helped compile a net-worth statement for a mortgage refinance.
I signed several documents in his home office.
One PDF contained the exact signature shape.
Same tiny ink gap.
Same slant.
The guaranty signature reproduced those features unusually precisely.
The source file had been stored on Dad’s computer.
Could Mom have accessed?
Yes.
Could Ashley?
Possibly.
Who created the guaranty PDF?
The lender’s system showed it was emailed from Dad’s account.
The attached file metadata showed it had been generated from a PDF-editing application registered to:
George Bennett.
Strong.
Not absolute.
Dad’s attorney eventually stopped denying he had inserted my signature image.
His defense changed.
He said:
Laura authorized me orally to finalize documents.
I did not.
He said:
I believed she had.
Belief and authorization are different.
He said:
No one intended to harm Laura because the family planned to repay the line.
Intent to repay does not validate a forged consent.
The dispute moved from:
Who signed?
to:
Did Dad have authority?
May you like
He did not.
That narrowing was the beginning of the end.
