Bank of America whistleblowers say they were told to lie about mortgages

(NaturalNews) Americans still reeling from the collapse of the U.S. housing market and who lost homes or tens of thousands of dollars in equity are going to be especially upset by news that one of the lenders at the heart of the collapse, Bank of America, is guilty of fleecing borrowers and rewarding foreclosures.

According to BoA employees-turned-whistleblowers who have signed sworn statements attesting to the validity of their accusations, "Bank of America employees regularly lied to homeowners seeking loan modifications, denied their applications for made-up reasons, and were rewarded for sending homeowners to foreclosure," investigative journal ProPublica is reporting.

The statements were filed in mid-June in a Boston federal court as part of a multi-state class-action lawsuit brought by homeowners who attempted to avoid foreclosure via the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), a government program, but say their cases were botched by BoA.


Homeowners denied en masseAs expected, BoA is officially denying any wrongdoing, with a spokesman telling ProPublica that to a person, the former employees' claims are "rife with factual inaccuracies," adding that the bank planned to address the accusations more fully in July.

The spokesman, who was not identified by name, went on to say that BoA was responsible for modifying more loans than any other U.S. bank, and that the financial institution is continuing to "demonstrate our commitment to assisting customers who are at risk of foreclosure."

A half dozen former employees actually worked for BoA, while one worked for a contractor. "They range from former managers to front-line employees, and all dealt with homeowners seeking to avoid foreclosure through the government's program," ProPublica reported.

When HAMP was launched by the Obama Administration in 2009, the housing collapse was still ravaging the U.S. economy and homeowners. At the time, BoA was, by far, the largest mortgage servicing institution in the program, with twice as many loans eligible as the next largest institution.

According to the former employees, BoA - besieged with a rush of panicked homeowners - the bank would often either mislead them or deny their applications for bogus reasons.

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