In another setback for troubled bank, Attorneys look into possibly false claims
by Brian Leubitz
It’s not easy being Bank of America these days. Oh sure, you get to have the pride of advertising on Hulu and well, everywhere, but are there people out there that don’t hate you? You have those Occupy Wall Street folks, the people who hate you over the ridiculously greedy $5 debit card charge, and, oh right, their sketchy dealings in the foreclosure crisis.
Add a different (but related) worry onto the pile:
Investigators with the state attorney general’s office have subpoenaed Bank of America Corp. in connection with the sale and marketing of troubled mortgage-backed securities to California investors, according to a person familiar with the probe.
The state is trying to determine whether the bank and its Countrywide Financial subsidiary sold investments backed by risky mortgages to institutional and private investors in California under false pretenses…
Harris has created a mortgage fraud strike force with a mandate of looking into all aspects of mortgage fraud, including securitization. Many of these investments plunged in value as the housing market collapsed. Under California’s False Claims Act, which makes it a crime to defraud the state, damages of up to three times the amount of the claim can be awarded if the victim was an institutional investor, such as one of the state’s pension funds.(LA Times)
It is possible this is part of the 3-dimensional chess being played with the foreclosure mess, but if the AG’s office can prove that BofA made the false claims, we are talking about a lot of money for a bank that already has capitilization issues.
But don’t worry Brian Moynihan is still doing a-ok!
I have a long and unpleasant relationship with BofA. Through it, I’ve never been able to really decide if they were actually trying to cheat me. Or if they were just that unbelievably incompetent.
For almost a year, they couldn’t seem to get statements to me. But they were perfectly able to collect the overdraft charges I racked up as a result. This issue magically went away when I moved to Oregon. Same U.S. Postal service delivered my mail. But customer service had no explanation.
When they moved to Atlanta, my credit card statements started showing up weeks after they were supposedly issued. Again, they could charge me the late fees this incurred, but not explain why it took them so long to put a statement in an envelope. They’d show up the day they were due sometimes. I finally had to cancel the card to protect my credit rating.
When they bought out Countrywide, I wound up doing business with them again. But just recently, they decided to cancel the home equity loan on my house. I still get to make the payments–which I’ve always done without fail. I just can’t use it ever again. So I’m in the process of refinancing my house to get rid of them one more time.
Clearly the first two were before the advent of Internet banking. But it appears that, absent the ability to cheat customers by not sending them things, they’ve decided to make the charges more direct.
I’d love to see AG Harris put these scumbags in jail. But I’ll settle for having her put them out of business.
I’m all for anti-trust – too big too fail is TOO big.
Why don’t they have capitalism like the rest of us?
The other thing that gets me is that banker and wall street investors some how think they are the producers addressed in the fountainhead. Look guys you arent producing, you are making money off the buying and selling of others.
On that note, (and libs feel free to push this) – if lowering capital gains tax will boost the economy and investment then why don’t we just reduce commissions earned by buying/selling stocks and like. The % that investment houses slap on trading is more of a disincentive than the capital gains because you pay it up front. So cut there bonuses, commissions, and godlike salaries so it will be cheaper to invest!
There you go liberals feel free to use it 🙂