'Independent' Foreclosure Review Not So Independent

Investigative reporter Paul Kiel writes in ProPubica:

• The Independent Foreclosure Review is the government's main effort to compensate homeowners for harm they suffered at the hands of banks — and, as its name indicates, it's supposed to be independent.
  
  But until recently, that was hardly the case with Bank of America. Supposedly independent, third-party reviewers would sit at a computer, analyzing each homeowner's case by going through hundreds of questions, such as whether the bank had properly reviewed a homeowner for a modification or had charged bogus fees.
  
  But the reviewers weren't starting from a blank slate. Bank of America employees had already supplied the answers, which the reviewers would have to override if they did not agree.

For more, see Cheat Sheet: BofA Supplied Default Answers for ‘Independent’ Foreclosure Claims Reviewers.