Claiming they committed fraud, Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway has filed a suit against a mortgage company. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, or MERS, provides a marketplace for banks to trade mortgages and mortgage-backed securities.
Conway says it was set up by banks to avoid the fees that must be paid when mortgages are sold and to hide the true owners of those mortgages.
Conway's suit alleges MERS did not pay the proper fees in Kentucky. He's also suing under the Consumer Protection Act, because MERS foreclosed on many homes.
“About 300,000 mortgages in Kentucky are MERS mortgages right now," Conway said. "We are able to fine up to $2,000 per violation of the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act. We have that avenue of damages. And we also have the avenue to go after the recording fees that have been dodged as a result of this mortgage transfer scheme.”
New York, Delaware and Massachusetts have also filed suit against MERS.
