Monday, April 30, 2012

'Good Morning, Vietnam' DJ Targeted By Consumer Group With Administrative Complaints Alleging Illegal Upfront Fees For Loan Mods, F'closure Prevention

The Consumerist reports:

  • Though he bears little resemblance to the record-slinging, Nixon-impersonating prankster played by Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam, former Air Force radio DJ Adrian Cronauer is still closely associated with the 1987 comedy. Now, Cronauer is making a different sort of headline after the National Community Reinvestment Coalition has filed a pair of complaints against the law firm that bears his name.

  • According to the NCRC complaints, filed last week with both the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Washington, D.C., based Cronauer Law Center have allegedly been misleading troubled mortgage-borrowers into paying costly — and possibly illegal — upfront fees to modify loans and prevent foreclosures.

  • In the dual complaints, the NCRC alleges that Cronauer Center mailings intended to attract new clients bear a "striking resemblance to the legitimate 'Independent Foreclosure Review' letter that is routinely sent to consumers as part of enforcement actions taken by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency," and that the average consumer could mistakenly believe "that he or she is receiving an actual bargained for service or benefit."
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Go here for the NCRC's: