California says breaks up national mortgage fraud (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) &ndash; California has broken up what it called a ring of law firms that preyed on struggling homeowners nationwide to pay thousands of dollars each to file lawsuits against their mortgage lenders and servicers. Kamala <a href="http://afashionbuy.com/"><strong>Wholesale Replica Gucci Sunglass Online</strong></a> Harris, the state's attorney general, filed lawsuits against three law firms, four lawyers and 14 others she said engineered &quot;mass joinder&quot; lawsuits. She said Thursday that the defendants solicited homeowners in at least 17 states, with at least 2 million pieces of mail, charging them as much as $10,000 each in retainer fees to join <a href="http://www.afashionbuy.com/Handbags-LV-Handbag-f2-39-c3-15.html"><strong>cheap lv handbags online shop</strong></a> lawsuits. The firms contended that this participation would help homeowners stop pending foreclosures, reduce their loan balances or interest rates, or even receive clear title to their homes, she said. Homeowners were led to believe that these lawsuits &quot;would be the way that they could receive justice,&quot; Harris said at a press conference monitored <a href="http://www.afashionbuy.com/Handbags-Prada-Handbag-f2-39-c3-16.html"><strong>discount prada handbags for sale</strong></a> via webcast. &quot;The only people who paid were those homeowners.&quot; Harris said the law firms' and their attorneys' accounts have been seized. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)