In Proposed Mortgage Fraud Settlement, a Gift to Big Banks

by Jesse Eisinger
ProPublica, March 16, 2011, 3:13 p.m.

Lurking in a proposed mortgage fraud settlement with the state attorneys general is a clause that could be worth billions for the big banks.

Yes, I mean the settlement that might extract the supposedly large sum of $20 billion [1] from the banks to settle foreclosure fraud. The one denounced as a "shakedown" [2] by Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama.