New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a major lawsuit today against three major too-big-to-fail banks, charging them with rampant foreclosure fraud in the wake of the housing crisis. Its a crucially important lawsuit in its own right, but also raises major questions about the nature of the supposedly looming federal and state settlement with these same banks.
Schneiderman is acting here as New York attorney generalnot as co-chair of the new federal task force on the financial crisis. That effort aims to uncover wrongdoing before the crashor, the stuff that blew up the economy, as he put it last week.
This is different. Schneiderman, on behalf of New York State, is accusing Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo of serious and wide-ranging abuses with foreclosuresof improperly foreclosing on homes they didnt have the correct ownership of or paperwork for.
Specifically, Schneiderman is targeting the Mortgage Electronic Registry System (MERS), which he also names in the lawsuit. MERS is a private, national database of foreclosures created by the banks and used widely for taking peoples homesbut since it wasnt public and run by the financial institutions that stood to gain from rapid foreclosures, there were (shockingly!) a lot of errors and improper filings.
Schneiderman Goes After Banks for Foreclosure Fraud | The Nation
Schneiderman is acting here as New York attorney generalnot as co-chair of the new federal task force on the financial crisis. That effort aims to uncover wrongdoing before the crashor, the stuff that blew up the economy, as he put it last week.
This is different. Schneiderman, on behalf of New York State, is accusing Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo of serious and wide-ranging abuses with foreclosuresof improperly foreclosing on homes they didnt have the correct ownership of or paperwork for.
Specifically, Schneiderman is targeting the Mortgage Electronic Registry System (MERS), which he also names in the lawsuit. MERS is a private, national database of foreclosures created by the banks and used widely for taking peoples homesbut since it wasnt public and run by the financial institutions that stood to gain from rapid foreclosures, there were (shockingly!) a lot of errors and improper filings.
Schneiderman Goes After Banks for Foreclosure Fraud | The Nation