The reckless and predatory Wall Street practices collapsed our economy in 2008, causing trillions of dollars in lost savings, jobs and home ownership. Today, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley filed suit against five national banks in connection with their roles in pursuing illegal foreclosures on properties in Massachusetts.
We should all be grateful for the Attorney General’s initiative because it will go a long way towards providing critical relief for Massachusetts homeowners.
The lawsuit was filed against Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citi and Ally Financial, along with Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc (MERS) and its parent, MERSCORP Inc. It seeks accountability for unlawful and deceptive practices in the foreclosure process, false documentation, and deceptive loan servicing and modifications.
The lawsuit is yet another example of why we need swift confirmation of Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The Bureau was created in response to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. It reins in Wall Street and protects consumers, investors and taxpayers from further financial meltdown. While the Bureau has been up and running since July, it does not gain its full authority to protect the public, particularly from unfair practices by non-bank actors, until it has a director in place. Both Massachusetts Senators, John Kerry and Scott Brown, have indicated their support for Cordray, and a vote on his nomination is expected sometime next week.
I campaigned for Martha Coakley.
Isn’t it fraud to forge a signature? Aren’t the jails full of people who have eg. written bad checks? Why is a fraudulent foreclosure different from a bad check?
I wonder if the standards of proof are lower in a civil suit. I agree, I want jail time for people too… but more importantly, I want foreclosures to freeze on properties which had improper loans created by badly behaving banks.
Full disclosure I work at a bankruptcy law firm in Chicago and I have to deal with the pricks at Chase, Citigroup, and BoA every single day. Our firm has consistently caught Chase openly lying to clients and telling them their attorneys generate loan modifications and reaffirmations instead of manning up and telling clients that only they do and they were too cruel to give them a break on loans that these people should never have been allowed to sign in the first place. They created this bubble knowing it would burst, knowing their lobbying would ensure their losses would be covered, and knowing the press and society would blame the victims instead of the predators who loaned them their cheap credit. Seeing this headline on the elevator, and seeing that MA started the trend, brought a smile to my face.
In so doing, disrupts the negotiations between these lenders and the other state AGs on this, delaying resolution of the problem and thus increasing the likelihood of further instability in the housing market, which is the single largest factor in the protracted nature of this economic downturn.
But, Martha got some headlines.
And big business sucks, so, hooray.
Typical grandstanding BS from Coakley. I predict that this lawsuit will, after much delay and expense, be quietly resolved, and thus prove useless for anything other than making headlines for Martha.
it provides more leverage for the other state AGs, thereby encouraging a more favorable resolution for those who were screwed by the banks.
Hard to say.
After all, it’s pretty clear that they committed perjury, a felony. This could be over now if they just pleaded guilty to their crimes and made full restitution.