More On Alleged Fraudulent Claims By Countrywide In Consumer Bankruptcy Cases

In South Florida, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports:

• In December, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul Hyman in West Palm Beach told Countrywide to turn over internal documents relating to how the company calculates its claims to the U.S. trustee, a Justice Department official who monitors bankruptcies. Countrywide is appealing Hyman's order. It's the second such case in Florida and part of a national investigation by bankruptcy trustees of lenders, including Countrywide, in at least three other states, Pennsylvania, Texas and Arizona. The trustees want to know if the lenders are making false claims against bankrupt homeowners or using questionable proof to make them pay. U.S. personal bankruptcies rose 40 percent last year, according to the National Bankruptcy Research Center.

• "As a general principle, if it is judicially determined that lenders are intentionally attempting to rip off their customers with false or fraudulent proofs of claim, that would have serious consequences for lenders," U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A Jay Cristol, who's presiding over a similar case in Miami, said Tuesday in an interview.

For more, see Countrywide accused of false claims (Bankruptcy rumors sink stock) (When link expires, try here for the same story).

Go here, Go here and Go here for more on recent Countrywide problems with consumers.

Go here , go here , and go here for posts on questionable mortgage servicing practices.

For more on the alleged misconduct and sloppiness by lenders and servicers against homeowners in the context of consumer bankruptcy cases, go here to download Misbehavior and Mistake in Bankruptcy Mortgage Claims, by Katherine M. Porter - University of Iowa - College of Law. questionable mortgage servicing practices tactics yak