by Brian Mahany
The title of this post comes from a quote by New York Governor Mario Cuomo. He was describing Con Ed, the utility in New York City that has left hundreds of thousands of folks without power. His full quote, “It is nameless, faceless bureaucracy that is a monopoly that operates with very little incentive or sanction. … They have failed the consumers,” could just as easily been used to describe the nations largest lenders.
Although we are a very pro-business, pro-economy firm (many of our customers are corporations), the “too-big-to-fail” mortgage lenders and banking giants have hurt everyone in the economy from consumers to businesses.
Our firm began with a simple premise, to be the best fraud and tax firm. Period. In the last several years we have added offices and great lawyers. What has fueled our growth and success? Unfortunately our success is often directly tied to the greed found in so many board rooms of big banks.
Our case that we began in April of 2011 against Allied Home Mortgage is now the largest federal false claims act case in the nation. As of November last year when HUD intervened and began actively prosecuting Allied, the damage claim to taxpayers stands at $2.4 billion.
From the largest of cases to those of individual homeowners – we represent a wheelchair bound homeowner in Florida who was the victim of a wrongful foreclosure because of forced place insurance by Bank of America – we take a stand against large businesses.
Many of our cases come to us because other lawyers won’t or can’t take on the banking giants. Allied. Bank of America. JPMorgan Chase and Citi. We will.
Does that make us anti-business? Absolutely not. Some of our largest cases were brought on behalf of business clients. When corruption and fraud seep into the banking world, everyone suffers. Homeowners, the business community and honest bankers.
It’s not the easiest job in the legal profession but it’s one of the most rewarding.
If you are the victim of fraud, give us a call. In many cases, legal fees can be handled on a contingent fee or hybrid basis.
For more information, contact attorney Brian Mahany at or by telephone at (direct). All inquiries are protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Mahany & Ertl – America’s Tax & Fraud Lawyers. Offices in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; Portland, Maine and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Services available in many jurisdictions.
[Ed. Note: Ordinarily we use this blog to pass along helpful advice and share stories of important news in the fraud and tax world. This post is a bit different. Last night I was asked by a reader whether we were a “plaintiff’s” or “defense” firm in our lender liability practice. I could tell from the question, however, that “defense” meant we represent corporations whereas “plaintiff’s” meant we represent corporations. The analogy is completely incorrect. We are a plaintiff’s firm that represents people and business who lose money due to fraud. Fraudsters don’t discriminate between the two. Although we represent many businesses, we don’t represent big banks.]