'We Were Told To Lie,' Say Bank Of America Employees

'We Were Told To Lie,' Say Bank Of America Employees

Recently, former employees of Bank of America admitted in sworn statements filed in a civil lawsuit pending in federal district court in Massachusetts that they were "told to lie" to homeowners, fraudulently denied loan modifications and were given bonuses, gift cards, and other incentives to intentionally push into foreclosurepeople who would have otherwise qualified for a HAMP or other loan modification. According to former B of A employee Erika Brown, the standard practice was to "string homeowners along with no apparent intention of providing the permanent loan modifications [promised]."  Utilizing practices well-known to attorneys attempting to assist distressed borrowers, B of A mortgage workers falsified records and were told to delay U.S. loan-assistance applications by requesting paperwork that the bank had already received, according to statements from ex-employees filed recently in federal court in Boston. The lender improperly disqualified applicants to the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), according to a May 23 statement from Simone Gordon, a loss-mitigation specialist who left the company in 2012, and other employees. "We were regularly drilled that it was our job to maximize fees for the Bank by fostering and extending delay of the HAMP modification process by any means we could -- this included lying to customers", she stated (see Gordon Declaration, at p.4). For more on this topic, see the Comment at the end of the Real Estate Law Practice Area description.