By Marshall Griffin, St. Louis Public Radio
Jefferson City, Mo. – Attorneys general in all 50 states are jointly investigating whether mortgage companies mishandled documents that resulted in hundreds of thousands of home foreclosures across the country.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster says it appears that some foreclosure affidavits were signed without confirming whether the information contained in them was accurate, a process known as robo-signing. Koster admits, though, that there have been very few complaints in Missouri.
"Probably no more than about two dozen...but the sloppiness in the documentation has been a suspicion of many for almost two years now," Koster said. "It started out in northern California, there was another judge in Ohio who started to pinpoint this as a problem, and now all of a sudden the issue has just exploded across the country."
Koster, meanwhile, has no plans to call for a statewide moratorium on foreclosures while the investigation takes place.
Bank of America, Ally and J.P. Morgan Chase are among the major lenders that have halted all foreclosures while allegations of robo-signing are investigated.
"If people have been taken advantage of in the past, then there needs to be some remedy for that, and by all means we want to make sure that proper documentation is in order before any further foreclosures take place," Koster said.