The Strom Law Firm, LLC is actively investigating allegations that 14 major banks may have wrongfully foreclosed upon active duty military while the members of the military were deployed and fighting on behalf of our Country.
The State Newspaper is reporting that the U.S. Treasury Department is investigating whether Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and eight other major banks may have unlawfully foreclosed on about 4,500 active-duty military servicemen and women.
Charlotte-based Bank of America, who denies the report, has agreed to work with an independent contractor to examine more than 2,400 foreclosures on homeowners who may have been were eligible for relief under the Service Members Civil Relief Act.
According to the Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Wells Fargo has also agreed to look over foreclosures. Officials say they will review 871 foreclosures of homeowners who say they were eligible under the act, which postpones or suspends certain civil obligations to allow active-duty service members to concentrate on their military duty.
Raleigh Rep Brad Miller, D-N.C., who opposed the foreclosures, stated that the foreclosures evidence a “flagrant disregard for a law that has been on the books continuously since the First World War.”
“If you’re wearing the nation’s uniform, if you’re deployed in harm’s way in service of your country, you should be able to focus your entire energy to our nation’s service without worrying what’s happening in a courthouse back home,” Miller said.
According to some estimates, as many as 4 million borrowers may have been unlawfully foreclosed upon in 2009 and 2010.
14 of the largest mortgage companies including: Citibank, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, are involved in the review seeking to determine whether they rushed the foreclosure process without reviewing the documents properly.
As part of a settlement with the Department of Justice earlier this year, Bank of America agreed to pay $20 million to approximately 160 service members who were illegally foreclosed on between 2006 and the middle of 2009. According to the DOI, Each service member received at least $116,785 plus compensation for any lost equity.
By: Pete Strom, South Carolina Consumer Protection Attorney
