The national law firm of Baron & Budd announced that it has secured a certified plaintiff class action federal lawsuit against Countrywide Financial Corp. and its successor, Bank of America. The plaintiffs accuse the bank and appraisal firm, LandSafe Inc., of conducting “sham” appraisals to boost the number of loans originated by Countrywide.
The cases are: Waldrup v. Countrywide Financial Corp. et al. and Williams et al. v. Countrywide Financial Corp. et al. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, according to the release.
According to the suits, Countrywide required borrowers to receive their appraisals through LandSafe as a condition of their loan. The cases allege that in the mid-2000s, Countrywide and LandSafe, which at the time was owned by Countrywide, schemed to prepare fraudulent property appraisals in an effort to help Countrywide quickly close loans.
The suits go on to allege that, as part of the scheme, LandSafe cherry-picked appraisers, withheld information and took other steps to side-step the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) to create appraisal reports that benefited the lender. Plaintiffs were charged between $300 to $600 for each of the allegedly fraudulent appraisals, the release said.
“It has been a long, hard fight to reach this milestone, and I’m extremely pleased with Judge Snyder’s decision to certify this class,” Baron & Budd Shareholder’s Roland Tellis said. “Through this case, we intend to prove that Countrywide charged borrowers hundreds of millions of dollars for legally-mandated, yet fraudulent appraisals. Manipulating borrowers and coercing them into paying for phony appraisals is simply wrong. We intend to continue our fight to ensure each and every borrower who was affected by this scheme receives justice.”
The suits allege violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. RICO is a federal law originally designed to combat organized crime. It has since been expanded to cover corporate misconduct.
U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder certified the nationwide class, noting that the plaintiffs provided “substantial evidence that could be used to prove an alleged RICO scheme on a class-wide basis.” In addition to the ruling that certifies the class, Judge Snyder also certified a subclass of borrowers in Texas who have filed an unjust enrichment claim under Texas state law.