Bank of America, JPMorgan Get Texas Subpoenas on Foreclosures

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase and Co. and seven other banks or loan servicers were subpoenaed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for information about their foreclosure practices, a spokesman said.

“The state is subpoenaing information and documents,” Jerry Strickland, the spokesman, said yesterday in an interview. He didn’t elaborate. The state also subpoenaed Ally Financial Inc., CitiMortgage Inc. and Wells Fargo and Co.

Abbott began investigating foreclosure practices in Texas following the disclosure of a December deposition in which an employee of Ally’s GMAC Mortgage unit testified that his team signed about 10,000 documents a month without verifying their accuracy. On Oct. 13, all 50 state attorneys general announced a joint investigation of foreclosures.

Read more here and follow us on Twitter!

MBS Investors Get Themselves Organized for Repurchase Lawsuits

GMAC Mortgage is following the lead of Bank of America, assuring the public about independent reviews and returning to the foreclosure process in the 23 judicial states when those reviews are completed. They continue the party line of all servicers that they have “found no evidence to date of any inappropriate foreclosures.”

This flies in the face of the standard practice to reward fraud at the foreclosure mill law firms.

"Some employees of Florida’s largest “foreclosure mill” were given jewelry, cars and houses from the firm, in exchange for altering and forging key documents used to obtain foreclosures, according to a statement released today by the Florida Attorney General’s Office.

The office released transcripts of two interviews it conducted for its investigation into the law offices of David J. Stern. The sworn statements were from Kelly Scott, a former employee of Stern’s and Mary R. Cordova, a former employee of G&Z, a process server used by Stern’s office. The women’s testimonies appear to back up that of former Stern’s employee Tammie Lou Kapusta, whose statement was released last week. The three statements paint a picture of a secret system designed to speed up the foreclosure process. Attorneys and staff members forged signatures, changed dates, passed around notary stamps, the women say in interviews with attorney general’s staff.

Read more here and follow us on Twitter!