Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Bankster Handiwork Underlying Foreclosure Fraud Disaster Emerges Again In Connection With Consumer Debt Collection Practices

The New York Times reports:
  • The same problems that plagued the mortgage-foreclosure process -- and prompted a multibillion-dollar settlement with big banks -- are emerging in the debt-collection practices of credit card companies.

    As they work through a glut of bad loans, companies such as American Express, Citigroup and Discover Financial are going to court to recoup their money. But many of the lawsuits rely on erroneous documents, incomplete records and generic testimony from witnesses, according to judges who oversee the cases.

    Lenders, the judges said, are churning out lawsuits without regard for accuracy and improperly collecting debts from consumers. The concerns echo a recent abuse in the foreclosure system, a practice known as robo-signing in which banks produced similar documents for different homeowners and did not review them.