Justice Department and SEC: BofA Fraud in Mortgage-Backed Securities

Banking, finance, and taxes

Published: August 6, 2013 5:00 pm

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) has yet another new lawsuit based upon the housing implosion and mortgage fraud. The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission filed parallel lawsuits in a US District Court in Charlotte on Tuesday. The accusation is fraud involving $850 million in residential mortgage-backed securities going back to 2008.

Bank of America’s response to the suits indicated that these were actually prime mortgages sold to sophisticated investors who had access to data to analyze what they were buying. BofA Also said that the loans in this portfolio performed better then many securities with the same timing and characteristics of packages put together by its competitors.

The SEC charge said,

The SEC alleges that Bank of America failed to tell investors that more than 70 percent of the mortgages backing the offering – called BOAMS 2008-A – originated through the bank’s “wholesale” channel of mortgage brokers unaffiliated with Bank of America entities. Bank of America knew that such wholesale channel loans – described by Bank of America’s then-CEO as “toxic waste” – presented vastly greater risks of severe delinquencies, early defaults, underwriting defects, and prepayment… Bank of America never disclosed this material information to all investors and never filed it publicly as required under the federal securities laws.

Today’s lawsuit is a civil action, and not criminal. It is one of many suits against the bank, and by now we have known over and over only to assume that more suits by one or more of the agencies is likely headed its way. This action involves the $855 million residential mortgage-backed securities in 2008 called “BOAMS 2008-A.” The SEC’s charge says that this pool was offered and sold as a prime securitization appropriate for the most conservative RMBS investors.

Bank of America shares closed down 1.1% at $14.65 on Tuesday against a 52-week range of $7.57 to $15.03,

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