Quotation for Today: Banking On Fraud

With today's quotation, we are introduced to a lawsuit against three too-big-to-fail banks.

“The banks created the MERS system as an end-run around the property recording system, to facilitate the rapid securitization and sale of mortgages. Once the mortgages went sour, these same banks brought foreclosure proceedings en masse based on deceptive and fraudulent court submissions, seeking to take homes away from people with little regard for basic legal requirements or the rule of law.”

Eric Schneiderman,  Attorney General of New York State

Attorney General Schneiderman has brought a lawsuit against Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JP Morgan.  According to the web site for New York's Office of the Attorney General, the banks are charged with using the Mortgage Electronic Registry System (MERS) to commit 'fraudulent foreclosing filings' by submitting 'false and misleading' court documents.


The 'false and misleading' court documents gave the appearance 'that the foreclosing party had the authority to bring a case when in fact it may not have.'


To read the complete article, click on the link included in the citation. For additional details on this lawsuit, please follow the links in the related information section of this post.


Lazo, Alejandro. "New York sues three big banks over foreclosures." Los Angeles Times 3 February, 2012: online edition.


Related information:


Media Center, Office the Attorney General of New York State.


Puzzanghera, Jim. "Eric Schneiderman promises aggressive financial fraud probe." Los Angeles Times 25 January, 2012: online edition.