Wells Fargo and city exchange barbs
The city's suit against Wells Fargo for allegedly bad lending practices is well into the pointed-words and finger-pointing stage. As Lynn Anderson reports today, the two are going back and forth about who's the bigger baddie.
Wells Fargo says the city's tax lien program is responsible for many more "foreclosure actions" in Baltimore than the company is:
A spokesman for the bank said the city is trying to make it a "scapegoat for broad social problems that have plagued Baltimore for decades."
The city responded this week in a court filing that "the bank's conclusion that City Hall is responsible for Baltimore's urban ills is 'palpably false,'" Anderson wrote.
"Defendants would have the court believe that Baltimore has intentionally 'unleashed' on its residents a program of tax lien sales that causes thousands of foreclosures for nothing more than a small unpaid water bill and the like," city attorneys said in opposing the bank's request. "Maryland law mandates that Baltimore conduct these sales."
