Compliancex

It pays to complain. Huffington Post reports that Bank of America gave mortgage help to struggling Arizona customers who had filed complaints about the bank.

Here’s the scoop. Thomas Horne, Arizona’s attorney general, led an investigation into BofA’s mortgage-modification procedures, specifically the mortgages Bank of America took on when they acquired the troubled Countrywide Financial. The probe discovered that the bank had modified mortgages, cut or waived debts that the homeowner may have had, and/.or paid the legal fees of a dozen or so borrowers. The catch was that the borrowers had to agree not to say or write items “that defame, disparage or in any way criticize” the bank, and that they would “remove and delete any online statements” about BofA, such as “postings on Facebook, Twitter and similar websites.” These quotes were taken from court documents on the issue.

But Arizona is peeved because they feel that BofA is interfering with its fraud probe over mortgage shenanigans. BusinessWeek reports that the attorney general is asking the court to block those other settlements with homeowners.

The publication says that “One 2011 accord involving a borrower facing foreclosure who defaulted on a $253,142 mortgage included a $5,000 payment, plus $7,500 for legal fees, and the defaulted payments were waived and the loan was modified to a 40-year term with a 2 percent interest rate, court documents show.” Sweet!

The state discovered these secret agreements when they looked into the roughly 1,900 complaints filed against the bank in the state, and learned of them.

“These agreements have completely silenced even the most communicative consumers,” Carolyn Matthews, Arizona Assistant Attorney General, wrote in the court case. “The settlement agreement purposefully makes it impossible, legally and practically, for a consumer signing it to come forward, voluntarily and promptly, to provide evidence in this case.” Matthews is asking that a state judge tell BofA to inform the 12 borrowers that the can talk about the settlements.

Of course, this is hardly the first time BofA has been criticized for the way it handles mortgage modifications. Last summer, the state of Nevada was also sued them on the issue, and there have also been individual lawsuits.

In 2011, Bank of America spent an astonishing $14 billion regarding legal settlements related to mortgages, most with Countrywide.

The Arizona hearing is scheduled for February 1.

Lisa Swan is a Feature Writer for the Compliance Exchange. She is also a columnist for The Faster Times and a blogger for Subway Squawkers. Her work has also appeared in the New York Daily News, Yahoo Sports, Huffington Post and the books Graphical Player 2011 and Graphical Player 2010.