Justice Department, SEC accuse Bank of America of $850M in mortgage fraud

[thelakelander]

The U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission are both charging Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC) with fraud in connection to $850 million in residential mortgage backed securities.
The charges, announced Tuesday afternoon, allege Charlotte-based BofA and its subsidiaries lied to investors about the riskiness of $850 million in RMBS. The complaints allege BofA also made false statements after intentionally not performing due diligence and created the "prime" securities using too many risky mortgages.
Bank of America spokesman Lawrence Grayson issued the following statement in response to the charges:

"These were prime mortgages sold to sophisticated investors who had ample access to the underlying data and we will demonstrate that. The loans in this pool performed better than loans with similar characteristics originated and securitized at the same time by other financial institutions. We are not responsible for the housing market collapse that caused mortgage loans to default at unprecedented rates and these securities to lose value as a result."

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/blog/bank_notes/2013/08/us-attorney-sec-accuse-bank-of.html