Attorney General to sue Countrywide
Attorney General Bill McCollum announced July 1st that his office has filed a lawsuit against Countrywide Financial, one of the nation's largest mortgage companies, for allegedly engaging in deceptive and unfair trade practices. The lawsuit claims Countrywide put borrowers into mortgages they couldn't afford or loans with rates and penalties that were misleading. Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo was also named in the lawsuit.
It appears to us Countrywide did no due diligence and accepted applications which were patently fraudulent and reflected no ability on the part of the borrowers to make the required payments, said Marc Taps with Legal Services of North Florida.
The company's deceptive marketing practices were supposedly designed to sell costly loans while hiding or misrepresenting the terms and dangers. Countrywide's deceptive sales practices resulted in a large number of loans ending in default and foreclosure, with the company reporting earlier this year that more than 25 percent of its subprime loans were delinquent.
Posted on 4 July 2008
