All 50 state attorneys general launch foreclosure probe

[lame54]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/12/AR2010101205604.html

50 state attorneys general announce foreclosure probe

By Ariana Eunjung Cha and Dina Elboghdady
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 13, 2010; 12:50 PM
The attorneys general of all 50 U.S. states announced Wednesday that they are joining to probe mortgage loan servicers who are accused of submitting false affidavits, but they stopped short of calling for a national moratorium.


The multistate investigation will initially focus on whether Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase, Ally Financial and other large mortgage companies made misleading or fraudulent statements to evict struggling borrowers from their homes.

Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoellersaid investigators initially will focus on whether industry employees - so-called "robo-signers" - signed off on thousands of foreclosures every month without reviewing the files as legally required. Homeowner attorneys also allege that lenders forged signatures and improperly notarized documents.

Such actions might have violated laws against unfair and deceptive trade practices, which could result in civil penalties. Typically the laws have been used to protect consumers from false advertising, but state officials say they could also be applied to foreclosure.

[CoffeeCat]

1. Who's up for another bailout?

The only way that the banks would allow these investigations, is if they
were behind it all and standing to gain quite a bit.

My bet is that they're slowly building a case for another bailout.

"We can't possibly eat it on all of those mortgages! We'll collapse!
Save us America! Save us!"

In Stone's latest Wall Street feature film, the Ponzi scheme that is
Wall Street was explained. The 2008 collapse was described, but what
struck me was how Gordon Gecko described how the next bubble would be
the one that would take it all down.

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