Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard has announced that he has filed a lawsuit against The Guardian Group LLC for engaging in allegedly deceptive mortgage loan reduction services that have cost more than 2,500 consumers millions of dollars. Goddard also called attention to a new state law taking effect that prohibits foreclosure consultants and mortgage “rescue” companies from charging upfront fees. The Attorney General supported passage of the law.Read more

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has announced that his office has filed a lawsuit against a Denver man, Sherron L. Lewis Jr., suspected of defrauding homeowners in foreclosure, including the elderly and disabled, by collecting upfront fees in exchange for fraudulent legal services. According to the complaint, Lewis Jr. attracted homeowners facing foreclosure through his Web site, www.illegalforeclosures.com, and mail advertising and informed consumers that they could defeat the foreclosure process and eliminate their mortgages.Read more

On behalf of a group of unrelated investors, a lawsuit has been filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court against Fortuno Inc., a prominent Lodi, Calif.-based real estate investment company, which describes itself as a large nationwide buyer of foreclosed homes.Read more

Attorney General Lisa Madigan has announced that she has filed a lawsuit against Countrywide, a subsidiary of Bank of America, for unlawfully discriminating against African-American and Latino borrowers in home mortgage sales, in violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act and the Illinois Fairness in Lending Act. The Attorney General filed her complaint in Cook County Circuit Court against Countrywide Financial Corporation; Countrywide Home Loans Inc.; and Full Spectrum Lending Inc., an arm of Countrywide that mostly sold sub-prime loans.Read more

American Residential Equities LLC (ARE), a Miami-based real estate company that buys and liquidates pools of non-performing residential mortgages, has announced that it has filed a lawsuit against GMAC Mortgage Corporation. The suit, filed in the Southern District of Florida, alleges that GMAC failed to properly service mortgages and real estate-owned (REO) properties owned by ARE. In addition, ARE says in the suit that it was pressured by GMAC into offering preferential treatment and a loan modification to Georgia State Rep. Joe Heckstall’s brother, Cornelius Heckstall.Read more

The NAACP has announced that it is ending its lawsuit against Wells Fargo Bank NA. Since 2007, the NAACP has filed lawsuits against more than a dozen of the largest financial institutions alleging violations of the Fair Housing and Equal Credit Opportunity Acts and racial discrimination. Unlike other pending lawsuits that seek monetary damages on behalf of individual borrowers, the NAACP lawsuits seek to change mortgage lending industry behaviors.Read more

United Law Group has filed a complaint in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Santa Clara, against Bank of America and its subsidiary, Countrywide Home Loans, for breaches of contractual obligations, violation of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts Section 205, emotional distress, and violation of California Business and Professions Code Section 17200. This case states that though John Wright qualified for a mortgage modification under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), he was denied access to the government-sponsored plan.Read more

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard has filed a lawsuit against a Phoenix-based mortgage loan modification company, Asset Creation LLC, and its owner, Marvin Williamson, for engaging in allegedly deceptive practices. This lawsuit is the latest action in the Attorney General’s crackdown on mortgage loan modification businesses that use misleading advertising or engage in other fraudulent practices. More than 2,500 consumers have contracted with Asset Creation for loan modification services in the past two years.Read more

Amidst all of the discussion of the mortgage crisis and the implementation of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), there has been lots of finger pointing, concerning who was at fault for the meltdown and what should and should not be done to fix the problem(s). Unless you have been in seclusion for the past year, you have heard of the attempts of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to keep appraisers separated from loan originators.Read more

Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray has filed a lawsuit against Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch, three national agencies that are responsible for providing accurate credit ratings of investments. The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio on behalf of five Ohio public employee retirement and pension funds, charges the rating agencies with wreaking havoc on U.S. financial markets by providing unjustified and inflated ratings of mortgage-backed securities in exchange for lucrative fees from securities issuers.Read more