Florida Attorney General Bill McCullum filed suit against Countrywide Financial Corp. on Monday for misleading and unfair trade practices.  Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozila  was also named a defendant. The complaint, filed in Broward County, claims that Countrywide hid the potential negative effects of these so called "teaser loans", including increased interest rates and prepayment penalties. Essentially Countrywide is accused of giving mortgage loans to people that couldn't repay them, charged subprime interest rates to borrowers that qualified for prime rate loans.  The complaint said that Countrywide's own underwriters were threatened with termination for attempting to verify a borrower's ability to pay or otherwise impeding loan approval. The complaint also stated that managers were encouraged to approve subprime loan applications initially denied by their underwriters that suspected loan fraud.

Florida joins the states of California and Illinois which also filed suit against Countrywide Financial Corp last week.  I'm sure that Florida is not going to be the last state that files suit against Countrywide. Will Nevada be the next to file a suit? I'm glad that Angelo Mozila is a defendant. He should be held accountable if all of this was going on under his reign.

I know someone that works in Countrywides sales call center and things are very slow over there right now. They are so happy that Bank of America bought Countrywide because they hope that it will bring some stability and much needed cash.

Have a Great Day,

Sandra Sheely