Attorney General Martha Coakley said on Thursday the lawsuit was filed in state court in Boston against Bank of America Corp, JPMorgan Chase & Co Inc, Citigroup Inc, Wells Fargo & Co and Ally Financial.
Coakley’s office said the lawsuit was filed after more than a year of negotiations with the banks involving all 50 states.
By the way, while I realize that corporations are “people,” I wonder how many actual people, after committing massive felonies, are allowed “more than a year” to “negotiate” with law enforcement over whether they will be indicted for those felony crimes or not.
UPDATE: A few more details now from Boston Globe…
The suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, also names the private company Mortgage Electronic Registration System Inc. and its parent, MERSCORP Inc., as defendants, according to the attorney general’s office.
“The AG’s lawsuit seeks accountability for the banks’ unlawful and deceptive conduct in the foreclosure process, including unlawful foreclosures, false documentation and robo-signing, MERS, and deceptive practices related to loan modifications,’’ the news release from Coakley’s office said.
And while we’re waiting for more info on the above, let’s not forget the woman who was arrested by New York City police for daring to close her Citibank account, as seen on video tape. The NYPD is not being sued by the AG (although they should). She did not receive a year to negotiate with the plain-clothed cops who physically picked her up and dragged her back into the Citibank branch just moments after she had the temerity to close her own personal account at the bank. Rather, it’s been left to the woman herself to file a lawsuit against the cops and NYC that were both doing the bidding of Citibank on the tax-payers’ dime, as Ernest Canning detailed yesterday.
I can’t imagine what those Occupy Wall Street folks are calling for. Gosh and golly, just what are their demands?! It’s all so confusing.
Yeah! The nation is saved! …
but what about the new law that anyone withing in the United States suspected of being a “terrorist” (example of a terrorist) can now be grabbed and sent to GITMO (no Obama did not close it) indefinitely and held without trial.
Hey … what’s on Thursday nite football?
U.S. Citizens can be merely accused then taken away forever without notice, charges, or trial.
Unless Obama vetoes the bill.
There appear to be four major categories of deceptive business practices that Coakly leveled against these five miscreant banks in the complaint.
1. “Use of false documents to expedite foreclosures ‘Robo-Signing’.”
2. “Foreclosure without Legal Authority ‘Ibanez Violations'”
3. “Undermining Public Records ‘MERS'”
4. “Misrepresenting Loan Modification Programs.”
This last allegation is troubling because it reveals that some of the fraudulent practices actually began after the 2008 financial meltdown.
The National Homeownership Retention Program commenced on 11/6/08. The complaint alleges that since that time, the “banks misled borrowers about their eligibility for this program and the amount of relief available, failed to achieve a significant level of modifications, and often strung along borrowers for months in trial modifications that were ultimately rejected.”
“Unless Obama vetoes the bill.”
His lawyers have said it’s legal. Kinda’ like bush and his lawyers that said it was ok to torture.
Must be expecting some riots from OWS. The only other regular progressive and I just got banned from our local online newspaper Bangor Daily News in ME.
Mostly trolls from our tea party gov. now. One of them wrote that a pro OWS writer could be expecting a visit from the FBI.
They are desperate .
Occupy Wall Street
Regarding the loan modification program (HAMP), the banks also scammed their clients in two way:
Scam #1: many people who succeeded in obtaining approval ended up with higher payments than what they had with the original loan.
Scam #2: banks told people who applied for HAMP that they had to show “hardship” in order to be approved, and that they had to skip mortgage payments. And after applicants stopped paying, they foreclosed on them. Many people who not not have faced foreclosure otherwise ended up losing their homes, even after they offered to pay back the skipped payments.
Edit:
“…who would not…”
43 year old women who blew the whistle on massive foreclosure fraud found dead. They don’t know why she died, but they’re sure it was “suicide or natural causes” (and not murder???):
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9099162-foreclosure-fraud-whistleblower-found-dead
Did banks illegally foreclose on active-duty troops?
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/11/30/131780/did-banks-illegally-foreclose.html
This can be traced to the explosion of veture capitalism in the 80’s.This was a tool for the bankers to strip jobs from the American people.The banks used these entities to buy companies and then shut them down after they sell off the plant machinery.
This was prevelent in the midwest and Pensylvania.The banks are still selling derivatives disquized as performance bonds
Where’s the Attorny General of the Us?