New York Attorney General v. eAppraiseIT: Settlement
The New York Attorney General’s Office announced yesterday that it has reached a settlement with CoreLogic, as successor to eAppraiseIT, over the 2007 lawsuit filed against eAppraiseIT by then-Attorney General Cuomo. This was the case, of course, that led to the HVCC with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It also put the AMC liability train in motion, which has kept rolling since — resulting in significant lawsuits filed by both government agencies and private parties against a majority of the 10 largest AMCs.
The NY AG noted that the lawsuit concerned approximately 10,000 appraisals in New York for WaMu in 2006-2007 and described the following terms of the settlement:
The settlement provides that the defendants will pay $4 million in civil penalties and $3.8 million in costs, fees and disbursements incurred during this protracted litigation. In addition, the defendants, who are no longer in the appraisal business, agreed to comply with applicable federal and state appraisal standards if they reenter the appraisal business in the future.
The full announcement is here.
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That’s it? 7.8 million? A $780 fee per fraudulent appraisal? When was the last time a fraudulent real estate deal only netted criminals less than a thousand bucks? Fines based on income or fines based on net gain from the crimes, would have added a few more zeros to this settlement. More Chilling Effects.