Tag Archives: Attorney General

Following an expiration of federal funding for foreclosure prevention in New York, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman allotted $1 million to provide assistance to homeowners facing foreclosure. Schneiderman's office will distribute the funding to nonprofit and legal aid services aimed at helping distressed homeowners. Schneiderman released a request for applications for the state funding last week. Currently, about one in 10 mortgages is at risk of foreclosure in the state of New York.

IndiSoft, a technology development firm that focuses on systems for the default services industry, recently announced that Earl Devaney has joined its advisory board. Devaney recently retired from the federal government after 41 years, most recently as President Obama's choice to oversee the distribution of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 stimulus plan.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris is asking the court to force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to turn over information about their servicing, foreclosure, property leasing, and mortgage securitization activities in the state. Harris issued subpoenas to each of the GSEs last month, outlining 51 questions the attorney general wanted answered. Fannie and Freddie's regulator, however, has reportedly instructed the companies not to respond to the state's request.

Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto has filed a lawsuit against Lender Processing Services (LPS), alleging the company executed fraudulent documents to support foreclosure proceedings. Masto's announcement came as a surprise, considering just last month LPS disclosed publicly that the attorney general's office assured the company it was not a target of the state's investigation, which has already resulted in the indictment of six former LPS employees for alleged robo-signing abuses.

After filing criminal charges about a month ago against two title officers employed by Lender Processing Services, Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto has filed complaints against three additional notaries. The new defendants allegedly filed fraudulent notices of default with the Clark County Recorder's office after notarizing the signature of persons not in their presence. A fourth notary reportedly struck a plea deal with the attorney general after admitting to notarizing about 25,000 fraudulent foreclosure documents.

State attorneys general and the nation's five largest mortgage servicers have been supposedly close to a settlement for quite some time. The latest estimate is that they are likely to reach an agreement before Christmas. A local Iowa media outlet attributes this information to Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, head of the states' negotiating committee. Miller says the settlement would release the banks from legal claims on past servicing and foreclosure practices but would not provide any release on securitizations.

Attorneys General Kamala Harris of California and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada have entered into a joint investigation alliance targeting mortgage servicers and perpetrators of mortgage fraud. The alliance will link their offices' civil and criminal enforcement teams in order to speed up investigations and prosecutions. The partnership forged between Harris and Masto illustrates the deep rifts that have developed within the attorney general camp over robo-signing settlement negotiations.

Ally Financial's GMAC Mortgage says it will stop doing business with third-party lenders in Massachusetts. The announcement was made just one day after the state's attorney general said she is suing GMAC and four other mortgage servicers over documentation and recording errors related to foreclosures. Effective Monday, December 5, GMAC will cease purchasing new mortgage loans in the state that are originated by correspondent lenders and wholesale brokers.

Disenchanted with the lack of progress made after a year of negotiations between state attorneys general and the nation's five largest mortgage servicers, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has split from the pack and filed her own individual lawsuit. Coakley is suing Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citi, and GMAC for what she says were ""illegal foreclosures."" The suit also names Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc. (MERS) and its parent company as defendants.

Two California divisions of the Occupy Wall Street movement -- Occupy LA and Occupy Santa Cruz -- are beginning to focus their efforts on halting foreclosures. Mario Brito, leader of Occupy LA, announced a plan this week to pressure both banks and government officials to impose a foreclosure moratorium. Also this week, Occupy Santa Cruz sent a letter to its County Board of Supervisors calling on board members to invoke a foreclosure moratorium and set up a task force to study foreclosure practices.