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America’s Predatory Bank
Join the National Protest in Lansing
at
BANK OF AMERICA
Wednesday, May 9
- 11:30 a.m. Reutter Park, downtown Lansing
- 12:00 noon Bank of America downtown branch
201 Townsend Street
Sponsors:
99% Spring
Lansing MoveOn.Org
Bank of America
Ugly Facts
- The BA's reckless speculation and shady business practices fuelled the 2008 economic meltdown.
- Before the 2008 crash, low interest rates and lax lending standards allowed almost anyone to buy a house. The BA’s subsidiaries made billions worth of bad mortgages at inflated prices to borrowers who lacked the capacity to repay the loans. Committing apparent fraud, the BA hid the borrowers’ financial weakness in order to purchase taxpayer backed FHA insurance on the bad mortgages. When the borrowers defaulted and lost their homes, the BA collected the
insurance making a huge dishonest profit courtesy of you the taxpayer.
- With the 2008 market crash, the BA was effectively insolvent because of its reckless speculation. It received $44 billion in taxpayer TARP bailout funds to avoid going bankrupt.
- In the bailout agreement the BA promised to reduce the principal on mortgages to borrowers who were underwater. However, after the bailout the BA broke the agreement and avoided reducing the principal of most homeowners who qualified for assistance. Not receiving the promised reduction of principal, many of the borrowers were forced into default and foreclosure.
- The BA illegally and systematically falsified large numbers of mortgage documents in order to foreclose and evict homeowners. It illegally evicted them and sold their homes to avoid or minimize its losses from the market crash.
- In the March 2012 mortgage settlement with the 49 state Attorneys General, BA agreed to pay a total of $8.88 billion in partial compensation for these and other predatory and dishonest mortgage practices. In another legal settlement, the BA paid $410 million for its practice of deliberately delaying late payments notices to credit card holders who were in arrears in order to maximize its fee income. Many large, serious lawsuits are pending against this bank.
Move Your Money to a
Credit Union or Local Bank
Your tax dollars kept the BA afloat, but after the bailout it continued its predatory banking practices at the public expense. To add insult to injury, despite huge profits, it regularly pays no tax. From 2001-10 it made $11 million in campaign contributions to influence congress. It will do whatever it can get away with to make money, no matter what the effects on the public treasury, its customers, or homeowners.
Some Sources on Bank of America
“ Four Whistleblowers Who Sounded the Alarm on Banks' Mortgage Shenanigans” by Cora Currier
ProPublica, March 15, 2012
Kyle Lagow Complaint Case 1:09-cv-02040-RJD-JMA Document 1 filed 5/13/2009, U.S. District Court
for Eastern New York
Greg Mackler Complaint: Complaint for Violation of False Claims Act Case 1:11-cv-03270-SLT-RLM Document 1 Filed 07/07/11, U.S. District Court for Eastern New York
Rampant Robosigning at Bank of America, 60 Minutes, April 1, 2011
The Lawsuits Plaguing Bank Of America, Forbes 9/13/2011
BofA Wins Approval for $410 Million Overdraft Fee Settlement November 09, 2011, Bloomberg BusinessWeek
Press Release, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York. $1 Billion to be Paid by the Bank of America to the United States: Largest False Claims Act Settlement Relating to Mortgage Fraud
Five Biggest Recipients Of Corporate Tax Breaks Spent $8 Million In 2010 Elections, Amanda Terkel, Huffington Post. First Posted: 05/03/11 Updated: 07/03/11
BofA to pay $335 million to settle Countrywide mortgage bias probe, LA Times, December 21, 2011
National Mortgage Settlement. Federal Government and Attorneys General reach landmark settlement with major banks.
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