Bank of America FAIL Part Deux

Fail Kitty doesn’t usually stalk the same prey two times in a row, but when the prey is Bank of America and the level of fail is so incredibly massive, she can’t help but come out with both paws slashing. The most recent fail BoA has been trying to deal with is the fact that it became public they have a number of employees that were signing foreclosure documents on people’s homes – and never taking even the first second to see if the information was up to date or even accurate to begin with.

Of course BoA did what they always do when news like this starts making it’s way around the Internet, which is their best “What you talking ‘bout Willis?” Gary Coleman impression before saying in soothing tones – move along…. Nothing to see here….

Maybe BoA didn’t do the Gary Coleman thing on their social networks, but they sure as heck tried to move people along. They tried diverting attention to what is about to become a third fail – their new account fees to penetrate account holders with instead of debit card fees. Wait and watch – the fail is imminent. At any rate – BoA tried to sweep this under the carpet – who wants to admit they are screwing up mortgage foreclosures by the thousands? They followed the classic BoA pattern for damage control:

1.  Ignore (we can’t hear you! Na na na na !)
2.  Get indignant  – Proof? Show us your proof if you have any!
3.  Okay, you have proof – but you’re totally not understanding it. This complex stuff!
4.  Small admission – Okay, you do understand it – but let’s just forget about this. *waves hand*  This is not the story you’re looking for. Write something about Peyton Manning instead…
5.  You’re still here? Crap… okay.. Mistakes were made, but they weren’t that bad and it was very isolated.
6.  Full admission – Double damn! Okay .. We’re totally incompetent. We screwed thousands of people out of millions of dollars and wrongfully evicted and seized property. (Good thing those people are too broke and homeless now to take us to court!)
7.  The back step – Wait a second .. We didn’t really say that. What we said is mistakes were made and our very top people will be looking into it so that everyone gets an amicable resolution. Except maybe for the people we wrongfully foreclosed on and sold their house already… Oops!

Here’s the real scoop. BoA gave titles to employees who were untrained in dealing with mortgages or mortgage law so that they could then authorize them to handle mortgages. Why? It was cheaper than paying for qualified individuals. It sped up the process of getting foreclosure proceedings rolling and resolved since they thought the proper way of handling it took too long and was losing them money. BoA is just one of the 5 major lenders nailed doing this – Wells Fargo and JP Morgan were running the same game and will pay a portion of the $25 billion settlement being worked out too.

The thing is – BoA was the absolute WORST offender. They were the only one that even tried to play the innocent card. When all of your conspirators admit guilt and say “let’s fix this and make it as right as we can” (mostly for PR reasons) it is a good indicator you should follow suit 0 especially if you are the most prolific offender. It was BoA that had one employee who was signing an unbelievable 20,000 mortgage documents per day – maybe not on her own – but her name was appearing at that rate consistently. How could she review 100,000 case each week?

For real? Yes, for real. Here is BoA fail part 2!

This Fail is so Bad I had to Medicate Myself!!! Ahhhhh, the Smell of Catnip in the Morning!!!

BoA, after admitting mistakes and finally saying “Okay, let’s fix this!” then started wave two of the denials. “We made mistakes – but not the mistakes you are making public!” Why would they do that? Well, if you knew what employees were admitting to doing under oath, you’d never put a dollar in their bank or even use one of their ATMs in an emergency. Here is what BoA denied happened – and then later admitted to but claimed was greatly exaggerated.

BoA suspended foreclosures about 2-3 weeks to investigate claims of willful neglect. They concluded they had no problems, but would resubmit 100,000 affidavits related to incomplete foreclosures. That is when HUD stepped in and said bull*hit. Not out loud, but you know they had to be saying it under their breath if nothing else.

HUD didn’t give away all their findings, but we do have some tasty morsels.

• BoA – as expected, was charged with hindering the investigation.
• BoA was hit with a failure to comply with subpoenas
• BoA failed to make current employees available for questioning and, allegedly, claimed no knowledge as to the whereabouts of past employees needed for questioning.
• When employees were available, BoA demanded their attorneys be present, and then slapped gag orders on employees not allowing them to answer any questions about the bank.
• BoA foreclosed on homes that were not in arrears on payments.
• BoA evicted people from homes they were current on.
• In a few isolated cases, BoA foreclosed on homes they didn’t even hold a mortgage on anymore!
• BoA also foreclosed on the wrong homes at times because no one verified the address on the documents for accuracy.

For negligent practices that placed in the neighborhood (low estimate) of $25 billion of homes wrongfully  in foreclosure proceedings because they hired unqualified, untrained individuals (might as well have been monkeys trained to hold a pen and scrawl a ’signature’) as mortgage department VP’s to sign thousands upon thousands of documents they didn’t understand without reviewing them, BoA gets a major league FAIL. For denying it publicly, then admitting to it, and then denying it one more time before being fully exposed and admitting to just parts of the scam – DOUBLE FAIL!

BoA, for shame, for shame…. Fail Kitty does not approve!