CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois Attorney General Lisa
Madigan is suing four Chicago-area companies and attorneys for operating
fraudulent mortgage and loan modification schemes.
Madigan's office said she filed the lawsuits
Tuesday as part of a multi-agency crackdown. The companies and attorneys are
accused of illegally charging customers up to hundreds of thousands of dollars
and then not doing any work for the homeowners. The homeowners were seeking to
keep their properties and avoid foreclosures.
Madigan says consumers should know similar
companies "are run by con artists who have started to use attorneys as
sham fronts." She said they are "scamming families out of thousands
of dollars and actually making foreclosure more likely."
The attorney general says the companies are
illegally using a provision in the 2006 Mortgage Rescue Fraud Act to scam
homeowners.
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
