Net
- Economy's Biggest Drag Right Now Is Government
- What’s This ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Anyway? Do I Need to Worry?
- What Falling Milk Prices Say About an Economic Slowdown
- Bad Day for BATS—and for High-Frequency Trading
- Obamacare, the Individual Mandate and MMT
- A Defense of Crony Capitalism
- The Buckaroo and the Demand for Money
- New York Housing Market Could Still Collapse: Analyst
- Why the Social Security Tax Fight Is Stupid
- Bringing the Poppy Back to Wall Street
- Carl Icahn Increases Stake in Chesapeake, Demands Board Seats
- Kansas City Fed President Steps Into Jamie Dimon Debate
- Where Large Banks Fail, Regionals are Succeeding: Bove
- Facebook IPO Fiasco: 10 Things Underwriters Got Wrong
- Bank of Greece Poised to Reveal Crucial Data
- Rumors of Bank Intervention Stir Euro Markets
- Last Call: Facebook Fiasco Is Heading Toward Farce
- How to Get Fired From Goldman Sachs
- Why Facebook Stock May Have Hit a Bottom
- Facebook Forecast Scandal's Big Question: Insider Trading?
- Last Call: Facebook IPO Forensic Examination Begins
- Case Against JPM Is 'Straightforward': Attorney
- JPMorgan Facing 2007 'Kitchen Sink' Times Again?
- Bill Ackman's J.C. Penney Presentation from Ira Sohn Conference
- Last Call: Facebook Finger Pointing in Full Bloom
Call: 201-735-4638
Text Message: 917-740-8477
- Consumer Confidence Has Biggest Drop in Eight Months
- Homes Prices Drop 2% to Post-Crisis Lows: Case-Shiller
- Spain to Go to Market to Fund Banks, Regions
- JPMorgan Sells Good Assets to Offset 'London Whale'
- Euro Zone Bank Safety Net Leaves Holes Unplugged
- State Fund Rejects ‘Unaccountable’ Chesapeake Board
- Madoff Case Is Paying Off for Trustee ($850 an Hour)
- Cool Jobs: From Gold Stacker to Bed Tester
- Roubini’s Das: Spain Needs a Bailout ‘Sooner or Later’
- Trump Presses Obama to Release College Transcripts
Bank of America Accused of Obstructing Foreclosure Probe
Text Size 
Senior Editor, CNBC.com
 |
Getty Images |
Back in December, Bank of America was sued by Arizona over mortgage modification programs intended to keep Countrywide borrowers out of foreclosure. Arizona accused the bank of pursuing foreclosures even while requests for modifications were pending.
Now a damning accusation by a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general has been filed as an exhibit in that lawsuit. The report says that Bank of America "significantly hindered" a federal review of its foreclosure practices.
“Our review was significantly hindered by Bank of America’s [BAC
Loading...
()
] reluctance to allow us to interview employees or provide data and information in a timely manner,” said William Nixon, an assistant regional inspector general for HUD.
The declaration was dated June 1 and reportedly filed on June 8. (Read the filings here.)
The inspector general for HUD has been investigating Bank of America’s foreclosure practices on what may be billions of dollars worth of taxpayer-backed loans. From October 2008 to September 2010, Bank of America submitted 40,219 claims on loans backed by Federal Housing Authority. The bank said it was owed $5.7 billion in taxpayer cash.
Nixon’s team was assigned to investigate the bank’s claims.
News of the confidential investigation into FHA claims was first broken by Shahein Nasiripour of the Huffington Post way back in May.
JPMorgan Chase [JPM
Loading...
()
], Wells Fargo [WFC
Loading...
()
], Citigroup [C
Loading...
()
] and Ally Financial were also investigated, according to the Huffington Post.
It’s not clear why the results of these investigations remain confidential. If HUD’s inspectors are finding fraud on taxpayers by the banks, the public needs to know.
_____________________________________________
Questions? Comments? Email us at
Follow John on Twitter @ twitter.com/Carney
Follow NetNet on Twitter @ twitter.com/CNBCnetnet
Facebook us @ www.facebook.com/NetNetCNBC
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes
