Another day, another headline

by Jerome a Paris Thu Oct 25th, 2012 at 03:31:18 AM EST

US sues BofA for $1bn over home loans
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 the bank committed civil fraud, opens up 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.

Justice department recruits unpaid prosecutors
The US Department of Justice has hired 117 prosecutors over the past year and a half to root out wrongdoing but there is one unusual hitch: they are not being paid.
US attorney offices from California to Connecticut have hired “uncompensated special assistant US attorneys” since a department-wide hiring freeze was announced in January 2011.

Any bets on the outcome of the BoA vs DoJ battle?

Another day, another headline | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Another day, another headline (none / 1)

Both articles made it to the front page of the FT...

Wind power

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Oct 25th, 2012 at 03:31:47 AM EST

Re: Another day, another headline (none / 0)

Just to be clear: I highly doubt any serious work on a billion-dollar case against BoA is going to be done by the unpaid lawyers.

The point still stands. DoJ doesn't have the cash to staff up and hold onto great lawyers. Most people aren't going to stick around for $100k/year (at best in most cases) in DC when they could go to NYC/CHI/ATL/SF and make many multiples of that in private practice (doing the same thing on the plaintiff side -- you don't even need to go over to the dark side).

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Thu Oct 25th, 2012 at 12:07:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Another day, another headline (none / 0)

Here's a link to the Bank of America story, for those who don't have an FT subscription:

U.S. sues Bank of America over Hustle mortgage fraud | Reuters

(Reuters) - The United States filed a fraud lawsuit against Bank of America Corp, accusing it of causing taxpayers more than $1 billion of losses by selling thousands of toxic mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Oct 25th, 2012 at 03:47:27 AM EST

Re: Another day, another headline (none / 0)

Rajat Gupta gets two-year prison term - MarketWatch

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Rajat Gupta, the former Goldman Sachs (US:GS) director and head of consulting firm McKinsey & Co., was sentenced to two years in prison Wednesday following his spring conviction on insider trading charges. Prosecutors had wanted an eight- to 10-year sentence for the 63-year-old Gupta, who fed insider information to a hedge fund. He was also fined $5 million.

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Oct 25th, 2012 at 03:54:58 AM EST

Re: Another day, another headline (none / 0)

Bet? I would bet that BofA settles for around $200 million.

The DoJ won't have the energy to pursue it further.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Thu Oct 25th, 2012 at 05:50:33 AM EST

Re: Another day, another headline (none / 0)

This would be my bet too.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Thu Oct 25th, 2012 at 11:50:26 AM EST
[ Parent ]

They could propose pro bono payments (none / 1)

to those unpaid prosecutors : a percentage of what they claw back from Wall Street crooks...

Is that what you had in mind Jérôme?

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue
- Queen Elizabeth II}

by eurogreen on Thu Oct 25th, 2012 at 05:52:48 AM EST

Re: Another day, another headline (4.00 / 4)

I'm willing to bet the DoJ had no trouble at all finding those volunteers. I was looking into law school last year, and read all kinds of fun articles about the massive unemployment situation among new law grads, particularly those who studied public interest law. There are likely thousands of unemployed lawyers itching for any experience to put on their resume.

by Zwackus on Thu Oct 25th, 2012 at 05:59:44 AM EST

Re: Another day, another headline (4.00 / 3)

My colleague graduated law school a couple years ago, and was hired around the same time as me. There were 400 other applicants for her position, and it certainly wasn't because of the pay.

Everybody thought law school was a ticket to the upper-middle class. Not so much anymore. If you're not coming out of a top-tier law school these days, you're screwed.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Thu Oct 25th, 2012 at 11:58:47 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Another day, another headline

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