U.S. Sues Bank of America for $1B for Mortgage Fraud!!

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The Washington Post ‏@washingtonpost

U.S. sues Bank of America for $1B for mortgage fraud against against Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac: http://wapo.st/StuyEU

[cilla4progress]

1. I'm a paralegal in a law firm

where we do foreclosure mediations, bankruptcies (representing borrowers / debtors).

This issue is dear to my heart.

So glad to see this!!

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3. woot!

[PatSeg]

2. This IS good news

Your post jumped out at me.

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4. ... overall

[fleur-de-lisa]

5. Wonderful!

Now let's go after the rest of them!

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9. ha!

[bluedigger]

6. Looks like you broke the story here.

The timeline on your link is 10:25 for the AP. Sorry, but it's short notice to throw a parade. I'm looking forward to more in depth analysis.

[OneGrassRoot]

7. Thanks for posting! K&R n/t

[Octafish]

8. A billion dollars is a lot of money to most people.

Not to the Bank of America. To wit:

Bank of America’s latest bailout bigger than ever

Loren Steffy
Houston Chronicle Blog Tuesday, October 18, 2011

What, you thought the big banks were done leaning on taxpayers? Sure, Bank of America may have repaid the $45 billion it borrowed under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, but it’s a long way from standing on its own.

Last month, the bank’s Merrill Lynch unit was hit by a credit downgrade. Moody’s Investors Service cut its rating to Baa1, three notches above junk status. Apparently, this concerned the counterparties for Merrill’s derivatives, who worried their collateral could be compromised if Merrill’s credit rating fell more. So, Bank of America shifted a portion — or perhaps all — of its $53 trillion in derivatives holdings to its retail bank.

That way, the derivatives can be backstopped by the bank’s $1 trillion in deposits — deposits that are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The FDIC, of course, has objected to the move because it would be on the hook if something went wrong. The Federal Reserve, which is concerned with bank soundness rather than depositor exposure, supports the move.

CONTINUED...

http://blog.chron.com/lorensteffy/2011/10/bank-of-americas-latest-bailout-bigger-than-ever/

So, yeah. A billion dollar fine makes a great headline. It certainly sounds enormous. However, when compared to a trillion dollar taxpayer-funded insurance scam, not so much.

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10. and the prosecutions?

no big deal?

[Octafish]

12. Of course they're a big deal. Let's see some BoA executives do time with Don Siegelman.

As for this particular civil case, though, they and their underlings at Countrywide in all probability won't.

Something else to consider: It's more than likely this case will head down the course to a nice settlement before there's any need to publicly name names, like what the DoJ did with the robo-signings they forgave the banks and the American billionaires over their secret Swiss bank account tax dodges.

Money, like the DoJ, is forgiving like that.

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13. that kind of settlement action often leads to cooperation in other cases

. . .that's what I expect this case was built on -- previous prosecutions.

I still don't agree with your level of cynicism on this. The case you cited has been debated here. It's never enough for some folks. This administration can never do enough for some. Perhaps, that's all well and good and how it should be.

[Octafish]

14. My Friend, I have done all I could to shed light on these traitors and gangsters.

As a newspaper reporter during the early 90s, I helped document how one Michigan Savings & Loan was hijacked by crooks connected to the GOP, the DEMs, and the Mafia. People would show up for a "commercial" loan and all they'd have to do for collateral was show a deed to a high-rise as theirs. The fact that the actual owner's name was hidden by White-Out still visible on the photocopy really was no problem. In this example, a guy got $6.5 million to start a business he had no intention of starting. After cashing the check, he distributed the cash to his hidden partners who disappeared the dough to the Caymans and beyond. When the original guy couldn't pay the loan back, he declared bankruptcy. No problem for the S&L, though, as the money would be put back into the S&L's accounts, thanks to the U.S. taxpayer backing the FSLIC. It was legalized bank robbery and it went on across the country, costing taxpayers about a trillion bucks. At the time, it was the biggest bank heist in history.

Background:

Know your BFEE: They Looted Your Nation s S&Ls for Power and Profit

Here's a good summary of why I write what I do:

Know your BFEE: Spawn of Wall Street and the Third Reich

They have gotten away with lying America into war; made fortunes unimagined in scale and scope from laws they helped write and enact; created an economic system based on finance rather than production of material wealth in which those of us still able and qualified for indentured servitude will march into their new world as submissive serfs.

Sorry to sound cynical.

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11. kick

[lindysalsagal]

15. It's about effing time.

Hello?!?!?