Sunday, March 11, 2012
Update: The editors of AllGov would like to thank all the people who have been sharing their Bank of America loan stories on this page. To learn more about the government’s limited attempt to help distressed homeowners and how to apply for a review, please look at this story: Government Accused of Allowing Bank of America to Investigate Itself about Foreclosures.
Although Bank of America (BoA), along with other big banks like Wells Fargo, Citibank, Ally/GMAC and JPMorgan Chase, recently reached a very favorable settlement of potential criminal fraud charges related to their mortgage lending practices, two recently unsealed civil fraud lawsuits against BoA reveal they may not be out of the woods just yet. Such whistleblower suits allow individuals, usually former employees, with knowledge of fraud committed against the federal government to bring suit on its behalf and collect a portion of any damages awarded. The federal government has until March 16 to decide whether to intervene in these suits on the side of the plaintiffs.
Two such fraud suits filed against Bank of America shine a bright light on abuses in the mortgage industry that led to the 2007 housing crash and continued as late as 2011. In a case filed in July 2011 and unsealed March 7, former BoA subcontractor employee Gregory Mackler alleges that BoA misled borrowers to keep them from participating in the taxpayer subsidized Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), because mortgage modifications cost BoA money.
Among the tactics allegedly used were stalling the review of applications by assigning them to employees who were on vacation or who had actually already been fired. Concerned borrowers were also told that their complaints were still being reviewed when in fact they had secretly been labeled as “incomplete.
Bank of America also violated a promise, made by BoA to the federal government as a condition of getting $45 billion from the federal bank bailout, to help borrowers get into HAMP, when the bank was actually pushing borrowing to accept non-HAMP loans at worse rates. This conduct, argues Mackler, made “a mockery of a program designed by Congress and the Treasury Department to help millions of struggling American homeowners.”
In another whistleblower case filed in 2009 and unsealed in February 2012, former BoA subsidiary employee Kyle Lagow alleges that Countrywide Financial Corp., now owned by BoA, created a scheme to inflate housing prices by manipulating property appraisals, ultimately leading to more foreclosures. Those inflated prices, the complaint alleges, included thousands of Federal Housing Administration backed loans, the default of which cost the federal government money.
-Matt Bewig
To Learn More
New WhistleblowerCcases Allege Continued Bank Fraud (by Amy Biegelsen and Emma Schwartz, iWatch News)
The Obama Mortgage Settlement is Just Another Bank Bailout in Disguise (by David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
Bank of America Forecloses on Houses without Mortgages (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)
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