Bankster Attaches 'Liability Release' As Condition To Homeowner Mortgage Resolution Refund Checks

Blogger David Dayen writes in Firedoglake:

• The failings of the 49-state foreclosure fraud settlement have by now become so obvious that even traditional media cannot ignore it. When half of the $2.5 billion earmarked as a hard-dollar penalty to states for aid and relief for struggling homeowners just gets sucked up into filling state budget holes, you can hardly make any excuses.
  
  And the other 90% of the settlement isn’t exactly destined to flow into the hands of homeowners, either; as we know, banks will probably honor up to 1/4 of their “penalty” by doing things they already do as a routine part of their business.
  
  There’s another potential element to this that we’re already starting to see. In relation to a resolution outside the settlement, Wells Fargo has been sending along refund checks to homeowners who overpaid for loans that the bank steered them into. Just one thing, though: the refund checks, if cashed, serve as a legal claim of liability release.

For more, see The Banks Devise a New Deal for Homeowners: Token Relief for Liability Waivers.