California Investigating Whether Bank of America & Countrywide Financial Used False Pretenses to Sell Mortgage-Backed Securities to Investors

不久之后，州和联邦官员和该国最大的银行之间的250亿美元和解协议不久（包括美国银行Corp,Citigroup， 和JP Morgan Chase & Co.) over alleged foreclosure abuses, California’s Attorney General’s office has subpoenaed BofA as part of its investigation into whether it and subsidiary Countrywide Financial employed false pretenses to get private and institutional investors to purchase risky mortgage-backed securities. By walking out of the negotiations on the grounds that the banks weren’t offering a big enough settlement, the state of California has given itself the option of arriving at a larger settlement.

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has called the proposed settlement “inadequate” for the homeowners in her state. She has also has set up a mortgage fraud strike force tasked with investigating all areas of mortgage fraud.

Countrywide is credited with playing a role in the housing boom and its later collapse because of subprime loans it gave clients with poor/no credit histories, mortgages that let borrowers pay such a small amount that their loan balances went up instead of down, and “liar” loans that were issued without assets and income being confirmed. Also, a lot of the most high-risk loans were bundled up to support private-label securities that became highly toxic for investors and banks.

同时，联邦和州官员正试图让加利福尼亚重新加入更大的会谈。就在本周，他们提出了帮助陷入信誉的所有者为贷款再融资的可能性。加利福尼亚的参与对于任何交易都是关键，因为许多借款人欠房屋价值，丧失抵押品赎回权或抵押贷款的借款人。

New York, too, has backed out of the group—a move that proved to be another blow for negotiations, as well as for the Obama Administration. Officials from other states, such as Nevada, Delaware, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Kentucky, have also expressed worry about the breadth of the settlement and whether all potential misconduct has been investigated.

With its acquisition of Countrywide in 2008, BofA has sustained high losses over settlements as a result of its subsidiary’s loans. According to the Los Angeles Times, these settlements include:

•向马萨诸塞州全国借款人宽恕多达30亿美元的本金
•向前全国股东的6亿美元
•弗雷迪·麦克（Freddie Mac）和房利美（Fannie Mae）的数十亿美元
• $8.5 billion to institutional investors over the repurchase of Countrywide mortgage-backed bonds
• $5.5 billion reserved for mortgage bond investors with similar claims

California reportedly subpoenas BofA over toxic securities，洛杉矶时报，2011年10月20日

California Pulls Out of Foreclosure Talks, Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2011

更多的博客文章:
6,300万美元的抵押支持美国银行的抵押证券诉讼是西方和bob200体育南部人寿保险公司对金融公司，机构投资者证券博客提交的第二项，2011年8月29日

Federal Home Loan Banks Say Countrywide Financial Corp Mortgage Bond Investors May Be Owed Way More than What $8.5B Securities Settlement with Bank of America Corp. is Offering, Institutional Investor Securities Blog, July 22, 2011

美国银行和Countrywide Financial Sued by Allstate over $700M in Bad Mortgaged-Backed Securities，股票经纪人欺诈博客，2010年12月29日

Contact ourinstitutional investment fraud law firmtoday. Oursecurities fraud attorneys代表整个美国的客户。