Countrywide Home Loans Scam
I found it very interesting today to see a headline in the Stateman, “Help on the way for some homeowners”. The story talks about how Countrywide Home Loans is doing all sorts of things to help out borrowers. The fact of the matter Countrywide has been taking advantage of homebuyers for a long time and were sued by several states in the US. They are not the heroes here helping the struggling homeowner they are simply doing the least they can to keep from getting a bigger slap on the wrist for scamming people. In my opinion the Statesman does a poor job of telling the story the way it is instead sugar coating a deed where a company purposely mislead for financial gain.
According to the AP:
Facing a lawsuit over deceptive mortgage practices, a Bank of America Corp. subsidiary has agreed to modify tens of thousands of loans to keep people in 11 states from losing their homes, the Illinois attorney general’s office said Sunday. …
“Countrywide’s lending practices turned the American dream into a nightmare for tens of thousands of families by putting them into loans they couldn’t understand and ultimately couldn’t afford,” California Attorney General Jerry Brown Jr. said in a statement Sunday.
The New York Times has this to say about the Countrywide scam:
Countrywide, the nation’s largest lender and loan servicer, recently acquired by Bank of America, had been sued by the states over what they said were predatory lending practices. To settle the suits, it will provide $8.4 billion in direct loan relief, affecting an estimated 400,000 borrowers nationwide, while waiving certain fees and setting aside additional funds to help people in foreclosure and relocating.
“Countrywide’s greed turned the American dream into a nightmare for thousands of Californians who now face foreclosure,” said Jerry Brown, the attorney general of California. He led the negotiations for the states with Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general. “Our goal here is to help as many people stay in their homes as possible and get some compensation for those who have already been pushed out of their homes,” he said.
Countrywide settled with the states without admitting any wrongdoing. Who would agree to pay 8.4 billion if they weren’t doing anything wrong.
Why couldn’t the Statesman started the story like this… Countrywide, after ripping people off and taking advantage of homebuyers have been brought to justice and will pay 8.4 billion in damages.
Wow not bad!
