Bank of America has asked a judge to order Cook County to pick up the bank's tab for fighting the county's "far-fetched" discrimination lawsuit, which alleged the lender made discriminatory loans to minorities.
Cook County says it lost potential tax money during the foreclosure crisis, so it doesn't matter if its actual tax collections didn't drop. It wants Bank of America to pay, because it blames some of the foreclosures on alleged discriminatory lending practices.
A federal judge says Cook County will need to show why Bank of America should be made to pay the county for lost tax revenue amid the foreclosure crisis, when the county didn't actually lose any tax money.
A recent settlement involving the Federal Trade Commission and the Illinois Attorney General's Office against Chicago-based "phantom" debt collectors could bring in several million dollars.
A Chicago federal judge has dismissed racketeering charges against a handful of defendants accused in a wide-ranging $25-million lawsuit of swindling commercial real estate investors by inflating the appraisals of hotel and motel properties, offering loans to investors based on the exaggerated appraisal, and, when the hotel or motel failed, seizing the property to sell at “extortionate prices.”
Calling the allegations “totally implausible,” a Chicago federal judge has tossed a lawsuit brought by the state of Illinois against Bank of America and a mortgage insurance company, which had accused the lender and insurer of working in a scheme to maximize their own profits by dumping high default risk onto another mortgage insurer, leaving borrowers unaware their mortgage insurance premiums were higher than they should be.
A class action lawsuit has been cleared to move forward against Bumble Bee Foods, claiming the food packager improperly labeled its canned tuna to promote health benefits it may not have been legally entitled to advertise, after a federal judge threw back the food company’s motions to dismiss. Plaintiff Joseph McMahon, filing as an individual and class representative, has claimed Bumble Bee had no legal right to label its canned tuna and other seafood as an “excellent source of Omega-3s.”
