SALT LAKE CITY -- A Salt Lake City man is suing former Attorney’s General Mark Shurtleff and John Swallow as well as Bank of America.
“The combination of activity that has gone on here between, Bank of America, Shurtleff and Swallow against my family and thousands of other families here in the state is not something we can stand by and take,” said Darl McBride.
McBride’s family has been facing foreclosure for the past four years. He was optimistic that a lawsuit against the bank, by another foreclosure stricken family, named the Bells, would be the precedent setting case thousands of families needed. The Bells were suing Bank of America over fraudulent foreclosure practices.
However, McBride claims Mark Shurtleff took a bribe from Bank of America back in 2012, which lead to the dismissal of the lawsuit.
“Shurtleff literally did a 180 and came back and dismissed the case and essentially gave Bank of America his blessing to resume in what he had already called up to that point illegal foreclosure practice,” said McBride.
The Bell family ended up settling out of court, accepting more than a one million dollar loan modification. It was around that same time that Shurtleff ended up getting hired by Troutman Sanders, the law firm that represents Bank of America.
“It was against the wishes for the people who work for him, it was against the wishes of the people of Utah, but it was not against his own personal gain,” said McBride.
The lawsuit also alleges that the Bell family threw John Swallow a $28,000 campaign fund raiser, but was directed to only report it as a $1,000 donation.
“The fact that the bell case didn’t go to full conclusion in the court room had a very negative affect on home owners here,” said McBride.
McBride said up to that point all signs pointed to this being the precedent setting case Utah homeowners were in need of, but instead it was the opposite.
“The attorney general by intervening actually made it ten times worse than if he hadn’t intervened at all because he came in and said I’m the top cop here in the state I looked at this and now I dismissed it so that became a negative precedent,” said McBride.
Bank of America did not have a comment regarding the case. Neither attorney for Shurtleff or Swallow returned Fox 13s calls.
McBride is hoping more families follow his lead and come forward so it can become a class action law suit.
