Media Pounding Continues For California-Based Forensic Loan Audit Peddler; Federal Judge Calls Outfit's Practices "The Blue Ribbon Of Shams!"
ABC World News with Diane Sawyer reports:
- U.S. Loan Auditors and similar outfits are promising to conduct "forensic audits" of mortgage transactions to find evidence of "predatory lending" and fraud, and use that evidence to haul lenders into court and obtain new mortgages at far more favorable interest rates, officials say.
- The companies make "very bold claims" but "in most cases forensic loan audits cannot help homeowners to cancel their mortgages," said James Reilly Dolan, assistant director for financial practices at the Federal Trade Commission.
- In October, California Attorney General Jerry Brown sued U.S. Loan Auditors, its legal arm My U.S. Legal Services and the companies' owners for $60 million, accusing them of scamming hundreds of homeowners out of anywhere from several thousand dollars to, in one case,
$55,000.(1)
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- Sacramento U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez spoke harshly of the company's practices in a separate case brought by Bank of America against U.S. Loan Auditors. "This has sham written all over it. This is the blue ribbon of shams," Mendez said during a hearing in August. Consumers "are spending a whole lot of money for services that aren't delivering anything," he said.
For more, see Officials: New Foreclosure Scam Preys on Desperate Homeowners (Victims Lose Thousands of Dollars -- and Their Homes).
(1) See:
- California AG's press release: Brown Files $60 Million Lawsuit Against Fraudulent Forensic Audit Loan Modification Scam,
- California AG's lawsuit: People v. US Loan Auditors, Inc., et al.
U.S Loan Auditors has also been hit with a separate lawsuit seking class action status. See:
- Call Kurtis: U.S. Loan Auditors Sued (Former Customers File Class Action Lawsuit, And Claim False Advertising),
- For the class action complaint, see Ma, et al. v. U.S. Loan Auditors, LLC, et al.
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