Illinois attorney general Lisa Madigan has filed a lawsuit against Countrywide, alleging it steered African-American and Latino borrowers into subprime mortgages and charged them more for them. Madigan’s office conducted a two-year investigation into Countrywide’s lending policies, and the resulting suit, as reported in HousingWire, alleges that in 2006, Countrywide sold higher-cost loans to 50.9 percent of its African-American borrowers and 33.8 percent of its Latino borrowers, compared to 19.5 percent of white borrowers. Bank of America, which completed its takeover of Countrywide in July 2008, has said that Countrywide’s practices took place before the bank giant assumed control, but Madigan’s office isn’t having it, according to the HW report, saying “Bank of America needs to be held accountable by taking financial responsibility for cleaning up the devastation of the predatory company that it chose to take over.”
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