Who says our leaders aren't capable of forging them?
Banking regulators are close to a $10 billion settlement with 14 banks that would end the government's efforts to hold lenders responsible for foreclosure abuses like faulty paperwork and excessive fees that may have led to evictions, according to people with knowledge of the discussions [...]The proposed settlement would also halt a separate sweeping review of more than four million loan files that the comptroller's office and the Federal Reserve required the banks undertake as part of a consent order in April 2011.
Under the terms of the order, the 14 banks had to hire independent consultants to pore through the loan records to determine whether the banks illegally charged fees, forced homeowners to take out costly insurance or miscalculated loan payment amounts. Consultants initially estimated that each loan would take about eight hours, at a cost of up to $250 an hour, to go through.
Of course they didn't hire any consultants that were genuinely independent because that would have run the risk of exposing serial criminality, hence prosecution, hence prison. So they offered up a settlement before the government wised up and started threatening to invoke federal RICO statutes.
Meanwhile, no grand bargains.
---Baron V
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