NEWARK, NJ—Most of the claims leveled by locally-based Prudential Financial against Bank of America in a federal lawsuit were dismissed by a US District Court Judge.
US District Court Judge Stanley Chesler ruled that Prudential Financial did not prove Bank of America and its Merrill Lynch unit lied to rating agencies in connection with the quality of its $1.9-bilion of loans backed by mortgaged-back securities acquired by Prudential, according to a Reuters report.
The judge also ruled on Thursday that Prudential could not use "after-the-fact" computer analysis to show that Bank of America knew that property appraisals were inflated when arranging the 54 securitizations from 2004 to 2007.
Judge Chesler, who had previously dismissed Prudential's racketeering claim, threw out most of Prudential Financial's remaining claims with prejudice.
Bank of America, based in Charlotte, NC reportedly plans to appeal a $1.27-billion civil penalty imposed in a U.S. government lawsuit accusing its Countrywide unit of defrauding government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into acquiring questionable home loans. See story at Reuters.com.
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