California, Nevada AGs To Combine Efforts Into Foreclosure Document Robosigning Scandal

The Las Vegas Review Journal reports:

• Nevada and California, states with the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, will team up to investigate allegations of foreclosure fraud and other misconduct in the mortgage industry.



• At a joint news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto and California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said their offices would share litigation strategies and would link their teams in the handling of both criminal and civil investigations.



• The two states will combine evidence and information gathered during ongoing investigations but will do separate prosecutions. Both states have created special task forces to investigate robo-signing of fraudulent loan documents before the housing market crashed and predatory practices on loan modifications in recent years.

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• When asked about states taking the lead while the U.S. Department of Justice has been criticized for not taking action, Masto promised to hold bank and mortgage company executives responsible for wrongdoing, regardless of their stature. "We use the tools and resources available to us … that's state law,'' Masto said. "It would be wonderful to have the federal government beside us, but that's not the case."



• Harris said she was "looking forward to forging similar collaborations with other states."

For more, see Nevada, California plan joint inquiries into mortgage fraud.