Nevada AG questions national foreclosure deal
States have until Friday to decide whether to accept a proposed nationwide settlement of a foreclosure investigation involving Bank of America Corp. and JP Morgan Chase & Co, among others, that may be worth as much as $25 billion.
It's unclear what Nevada will do.
State and federal officials have been negotiating a settlement with the nation's five largest mortgage servicers that would set standards for how banks would foreclose on homes and provide mortgage relief to homeowners.
Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto on
Jan. 27 wrote to the U.S. Justice Department, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller asking for more details on the deal.
Masto said she needed fast answers to 38 questions so that she could evaluate the agreement before the Friday sign-on deadline.
"I need this information as soon as possible to allow my office to continue to evaluate the proposal on behalf of the state of Nevada," Masto wrote.
Jennifer Lopez, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of letter, which was obtained by HuffingtonPost.com, but declined further comment.
Attorneys general from all 50 states in 2010 said they would investigate bank foreclosure practices after reports that faulty documents drove banks to seize homes.
Since then, Miller has led an executive committee of 13 state attorneys general in negotiations with the nation's five largest mortgages servicers: Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Ally Financial Inc.
Masto, along with Delaware's Beau Biden, New York's Eric Schneiderman and others, has refused to sign any settlement that would grant banks broad relief from continuing investigations, especially if it could affect Nevada's own civil and criminal investigations.
"We need to act here," Biden said during a Thursday appearance on MSNBC. "Words are nice but they're getting kind of old here. We need to act and investigate, file cases, file complaints, seek indictments if the facts take us there."
Biden said people "are sick and tired of us talking" about a solution to the foreclosure problem. He said his department is still investigating.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris pulled out of the negotiations in September, citing a surge in foreclosures in her state. She called the proposed settlement "inadequate."
Harris and Masto last month announced an investigative alliance between California and Nevada designed to assist homeowners who have been harmed by mortgage industry fraud.
In December 2010, Masto sued Bank of America, accusing it of violating a 3-year-old loan modification agreement with the state over predatory lending policies by its Countywide Financial unit.
Contact reporter Chris Sieroty at
csieroty@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893.
