The US Department of Justice has sued Bank of America for more than $1bn in the first fraud suit over defective home loans sold to government-backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The legal action, alleging that the bank committed civil fraud, opens a new front in the protracted reckoning for the US mortgage crisis. It could spell more trouble for BofA’s rivals, many of which are already mired in mortgage litigation.
The lawsuit said that Countrywide, the California-based mortgage lender that BofA bought in 2008, implemented a process called the “hustle” and “high speed swim lane” to deal with loans rapidly without checking their quality.