Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said
today that she has filed suit against five major US banks for
allegations related to mortgage fraud and unlawful property seizures.
Coakley said she will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. today to detail
the suit against Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan
Chase & Co, Citi, and Ally Financial.
The suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, also names the private
company Mortgage Electronic Registration System Inc. and its parent,
MERSCORP Inc., as defendants, according to the attorney general’s
office.
“The AG’s lawsuit seeks accountability for the banks’ unlawful and
deceptive conduct in the foreclosure process, including unlawful
foreclosures, false documentation and robo-signing, MERS, and deceptive
practices related to loan modifications,’’ the news release from
Coakley’s office said.
The suit comes a month after Coakley’s announcement that she was no
longer confident that settlement negotiations between a group of US
lenders and a multistate alliance of attorneys general would be
successful. The negotiations began last year following concerns about
fraud and sloppy paperwork in lenders’ foreclosure efforts.
Lew Finfer, executive director of the nonprofit Massachusetts
Communities Action Network that works with troubled homeowners, praised
Coakley’s action, saying it will help tens of thousands of homeowners
struggling to save their properties.
“We commend Attorney General Coakley for stepping up and leading as the
first AG in the country to move so strongly on this,’’ Finfer said. He
said the suit “gives her a hammer to either compel more serious
negotiations toward a good settlement or she can proceed with the
lawsuit and hopefully win a strong decision anyway.”
Jenifer McKim can be reached at jmckim@globe.com.
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