warning Hi, we've moved to USCANNENBERGMEDIA.COM. Visit us there!

Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

Bank Of America Sued For Mortgage Fraud

Catherine Green |
October 24, 2012 | 10:08 a.m. PDT

Executive Producer

 

Bank of America is in hot water with the U.S. Justice Department.
Bank of America is in hot water with the U.S. Justice Department.
Bank of America has been sued on allegations of mortgage fraud, CNN reported Wednesday.

According to CNN, the U.S. Justice Department is demanding BOA cough up $1 billion, accusing the banking giant of selling defective mortgages in what it calls "the Hustle."

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the lawsuit, saying the fraudulent mortgages purchased by firms Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shorted taxpayers roughly $1 billion and resulted in "countless foreclosures."

In its suit, the Justice Department said "the Hustle" is short for "High-Speed Swim Lane," or HSSL — get it? — which was started by mortgage lender Countrywide Financial and continued after BOA purchased it in 2008. 

The program was supposed to streamline the origination process, but Justice Department officials said it was "intentionally designed to process loans at high speed and without quality checkpoints, and which generated thousands of fraudulent and otherwise defective residential mortgage loans."

Read the full story here, and more of Neon Tommy's BOA coverage here.

 

Reach Executive Producer Catherine Green here. Follow her here.

 



 

Buzz

Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Watch USC Annenberg Media's live State of the Union recap and analysis here.

 
ntrandomness