Bank of America: Claims by workers ‘impossible’

7 say company rewarded foreclosures

7/13/2013
BLOOMBERG NEWS

Bank of America Corp. said former workers who alleged the firm awarded bonuses for sending homeowners into foreclosure misrepresented their roles and made “impossible” claims about the lender’s program.

The ex-employees, whose sworn statements were filed last month in a lawsuit against the bank, had limited roles that didn’t allow them to understand the full scope of assistance efforts, the Charlotte-based company said Friday in documents in federal court in Boston.

“The declarants’ wild misrepresentations about their roles lead to impossible claims about what they did and saw,” Bank of America said.

They “could not have witnessed what they claim to have witnessed because they were not in a position to do so and would not have witnessed such things in any event because Bank of America’s actual practices were diametrically opposite.”

The bank, seeking to block plaintiffs’ efforts to attain class-action status, also said six of the seven former workers were fired for inappropriate behavior.

Bank of America, the second-biggest U.S. lender by assets, is being sued by homeowners. The borrowers said in court filings that the bank told employees to stall mortgage-modification applications, lie to customers, and falsify documents.