COSTA MESA, Calif. — California prosecutors have filed a major lawsuit against several lawyers and call center operators for allegedly running a nationwide scam to dupe desperate homeowners into paying thousands of dollars to join dubious lawsuits against the country's largest banks.
The complaint to be unsealed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court accuses prominent foreclosure attorneys Philip Kramer and Mitchell Stein and at least 17 other individuals and businesses of luring borrowers into a scheme that falsely promised a cut of future settlements.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris was set to announce the case Thursday, a day after state bar investigators and state Department of Justice agents served defendants with copies of the complaint at nine locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Calls to Kramer's office were forwarded to a state bar phone number early Thursday. Calls to Stein went straight to a busy signal.
© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.