http://finance.yahoo.com/news/AP-IMPACT-Bypassing-county-apf-2154143184.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=
Ah, a new chapter in the never ending saga of the Mortgage Investment Banking Industry.
As if it wasn't enough for the Investment Banks to have to deal with regarding fraudulent foreclosures as well as Mortgage Securities fraud, they are now being sued in 17 States for MERS failure to pay County Recording Fees.
Counties complained about the lost revenue after MERS was implemented, but they rarely tried to challenge the new way of doing business. Now, three years after the housing crash and two months after allegations that some banks submitted fraudulent documents to foreclosure courts, every aspect of the nation's mortgage machine is under scrutiny.
Two lawyers in Reno, Nev., have filed suit in 17 states alleging that banks cheated counties out of billions of dollars. In Virginia, a lawmaker has asked the state's attorney general to investigate MERS over its failure to pay recording fees. And everywhere elected officials and class-action lawyers turn, the back-office procedures of MERS are being called into question.
The suits were filed in California, Nevada and Tennessee and 14 undisclosed states where the cases are still under court seal. Hager and Hearne chose the states because their laws allow what are called false claims suits, in which citizens can take legal action against companies that may have cheated the government.
The suits allege that by privatizing public records, MERS enabled banks to circumvent American property law and bypass the counties' fee and paperwork requirements, costing billions of dollars in lost revenue over more than a decade. MERS says its process is legal, and that the fees are not required under its system.
