Ohio: No foreclosure 'do-over' for banks

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray said resubmitting affidavits on foreclosures would not help banks dodge responsibility on fraudulent paperwork.

In two letters, one sent to large U.S. lenders and one sent to judges in Ohio, Cordray warned, "It is not acceptable for a party who believes they submitted false court documents to merely replace those documents," The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

In a letter to Wells Fargo & Co., Cordray wrote, "Wells Fargo and any other banks are not simply allowed a 'do-over.'"

In the past two months, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, GMAC Mortgage, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other large mortgage lenders have announced efforts to review paperwork and resubmit cases to courts as a reaction to court challenges over "robo-signing" documents and other paperwork flaws.

"Robo-signing" refers to automatically signing documents without taking the time to review them.

In a sworn deposition, Wells Fargo employee Xee Moua said verifying data on up to 500 documents that she signed each day at work was "not part of my job description," the Journal said.

Cordray's letters indicate the approach that might be taken by 50 state attorneys general who are investigating the paperwork debacle that has stalled the foreclosure process in critical housing markets. In an interview Friday, Cordray said, "The banks are committing fraud on the court, essentially perjury, and then saying 'Whoops! You caught me! Here's some different evidence and use that instead. I know a lot of judges are not going to take kindly to that."