Columbia, Mo. • Missouri has joined the list of states going after banks and other companies on behalf of consumers apparently caught in a widespread fraud involving forged signatures on phony home loan documents.

State Attorney General Chris Koster filed criminal charges on Feb. 3 against DocX, a now-closed Georgia company accused of cutting corners to make more money by using fake "robo signatures" to speed up the processing of mortgages.

A Boone County grand jury issued a 136-count criminal indictment alleging felony forgery and false declarations, a misdemeanor offense, against the company and its former president, Lorraine Brown.

The Atlanta-area company closed in 2010.

Koster joins his counterparts in states such as Massachusetts, which has sued five major banks over deceptive foreclosure practices; Nevada, which recently sued Lender Processing Services, a DocX holding company based in Jacksonville, Fla.; and Illinois, where the state sued another mortgage processor last week for similar reasons.

Koster upped the ante in Missouri by deciding to seek criminal charges. If convicted, Brown faces up to seven years in prison for each count. DocX could be fined $10,000 for each forgery conviction and $2,000 for each false declaration.

Brown did not respond to a telephone message left at her home in Alpharetta, Ga.

"The grand jury indictment alleges that mass-produced fraudulent signatures on notarized real estate documents constitute forgery," Koster said. The "indictment reflects our firm conviction that when you sign your name to a legal document, it matters."