ABA Journal - Law News Now

Bankruptcy Law

Countrywide Agrees to Pay $325K to Settle Trustee’s Late Fee Accusations

Posted Jul 16, 2008, 07:09 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Countrywide Home Loans has agreed to pay $325,000 and investigate its records of payments from about 300 borrowers to settle a dispute with a bankruptcy trustee in Pittsburgh.

The Chapter 13 trustee, Ronda Winnecour, had asserted in filings last October that Countrywide lost or destroyed more than $500,000 in checks from homeowners over a year-and-a-half period, the New York Times reports. Winnecour said she feared the mortgage company was charging late fees and assessing legal costs even though it was responsible for losing the mortgage payments.

The $325,000 covers the costs of the trustee’s prosecution of the borrowers’ cases. It also requires Countrywide to reconcile its records in the cases with those of the trustee.

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