Report: Illinois to sue Countrywide

News item from the New York Times tonight: "The Illinois attorney general is suing Countrywide Financial, the troubled mortgage lender, and Angelo R. Mozilo, its chief executive, contending that the company and its executives defrauded borrowers in the state by selling them costly and defective loans that quickly went into foreclosure."

More: "The lawsuit, which is expected to be filed on Wednesday in Illinois state court, accused Countrywide and Mr. Mozilo of relaxing underwriting standards, structuring loans with risky features, and misleading consumers with hidden fees and fake marketing claims, like its heavily advertised 'no closing costs loan.' Countrywide also created incentives for its employees and brokers to sell questionable loans by paying them more on such sales, the complaint said."

The report says Countrywide did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.

Comments

[Tax Liens]

Great information you provided...Blogs are becoming the main source of knowing about things certainty, its importance, idolizing, either in a marketing way that one can differentiate

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

Would someone please remind our AG to get off the zazen mat and stop his navel-scratching and moonbeam gazing (not to be confused with moonbeam catchig, my cat's favorite activity)?

[Gene J]

Countrywide is a criminal organization. We refinanced my dad's house a few years ago but it took two weeks to get the proceeds. Everyday they had an excuse. There was no one to sign the checks, they were out of check stock, there is a extra waiting period for refis etc.

4 weeks later they called and said there was a mistake at the closing and they needed 800 dollars more in closing fees. It wasn't on the RESPA statement and we refused.

Later when we changed insurance companies they forced placed a fire insurance policy for 1400 dollars. No amount of writing, faxes from our insurance company or phone calls would get it removed and refunded. Since we refused to add the extra amount for the bogus insurance our payments went into unapplied/suspense and were marked late.

A friend who worked at CW intervened for us.

I would never recommend doing business with them.

[William E. Jones]

Tax Liens-

Could you rewrite your post in English? I think some people may want to know what you mean.