Bank Of America Leak: Anonymous, WikiLeaks Sympathizer, Plans Monday Release

UPDATE: The emails appear to have been released on this website, though the site has been extremely unstable and the information does not appear to have been independently verified or reviewed by anybody outside of the blog's anonymous author. More information will be posted on HuffPost Business as it becomes available.

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(Reuters) - Anonymous, a hacker group sympathetic to WikiLeaks, plans to release e-mails obtained from Bank of America Corp early Monday morning, according to posts on the group's Twitter feed.

The group, unrelated to the document leak website founded by Julian Assange, said it plans to release documents exposing "corruption and fraud" at the largest U.S. bank by assets.

A representative of Anonymous said the documents relate to the issue of whether Bank of America has improperly foreclosed on homes. The representative added that he had not seen the documents, but he has been briefed on their contents.

A Bank of America Corp spokesman said the documents were non-foreclosure related clerical and administrative documents stolen by a former Balboa Insurance employee.

The division -- which BofA has since agreed to sell to Australian insurer QBE Insurance Group -- provides mortgage and auto insurance for banks, and provides home insurance for consumers.

"We are confident that his extravagant assertions are untrue," the spokesman said.

(Reporting by Joe Rauch; Editing by Gunna Dickson and Dhara Ranasinghe)

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for Restrictions.

Comments

[iflew]

05:36 PM on 04/12/2011

I am a real estate appraiser and sometimes do expert witness research, prep younger appraisers, and advise attorneys on questions.

Findings: A number of loan officers and lenders only hire appraisers who "facilitate" their loans. Appraisals sometimes go missing out of lender files, being replaced by higher "estimates" done by bank employees, and in my state foreclosure doesn't require 90 days. Foreclosure can start when the lender wants, the home can sell for $1, and the owner has to pay a deficiency judgement. The whole process is streamlined for the lender. The home buyer has an expensive uphill fight to reclaim his home, and might be homeless while fighting. The lenders have foreclosed on homes for which no one had a mortgage. Appraisers are asked to do drive-by appraisals, so owners aren't aware an appraisal is being done. (I refuse that type of order)

The idea is revolting. I hope it doesn't lead to that activity.
The whole process is a typical third world power struggle. The lenders pay the loan officer on commission, make risky loans, and someone else takes the risk while they take the profits.

[KHALKI1]

12:45 PM on 04/02/2011

I have all my clients film any email or photograph any correspondence with Bank of America because they are now experts at being non responsive and one is not able to get to any live voice that isn't a recent trainee.
It all has to be done by accessing direct contact with the brass which most people do not have access. I believe that BofA is headed for trouble beyond the Wikileaks.
People with minor accounts are switiching from BofA rapidly. I am shorting them ever since I did the calculations and spoke to Wall St. victims in the East and to a former CEO who grins at the mention of their operation.

[Mr Hankey]

12:09 AM on 04/02/2011

Anonymous and Wikileaks, please put your differences aside - you'll all be stronger working together. Then all help Julian get the dirt out in the open.

I can't imagine how horribly Julian must have been threatened for him to go so silent. D@mn the banks.

[ccillinois2000]

01:24 PM on 04/01/2011

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of bankers. You reap what you sow. Keep up the good work, Wikileaks! Without you, it would be business as usual and no one reporting it...

[wrabbitt]

10:27 PM on 03/14/2011

Just one of the lobbyists our elected officials are paid to protect.

[George Saufley]

10:10 PM on 03/14/2011

I put thousands into a "trust fund called "male class complaint" I got very little support when I needed them but I was surprised that the bank officers in the bank deliberately sexually harassed and discriminated against women in their corporate headquarters. I thought the moneys would be available for subordinate men that were "falsely accused" or "manipulated" by women that were openly discriminated against. Instead they may have used the funds to represent their "CEO's. while thumbing their nose at men (who would not intentionally sexually harass ) that invested in the "Trust Fund" who had limited resources. The CEO's took deliberately took the trust funds for their own sexual harassment representation. If a Lawyer did this they would be subject to criminal prosecution

[Annie100]

10:00 PM on 03/14/2011

Yea Wikileaks, Yea Anonymous,
I am on your side.
I am writing notes on your behalf and signing petitions.
Keep up the good work. You are fighting a terrible injustice.
Whistleblowers are heros. Corporations suck pond skum.

[johngary66]

07:34 PM on 03/14/2011

Question, since the Supreme Court in all their great wisdom, decide that Corporations should have the same rights as real live people, can we put Bank of America in prison if they have committed crimes?

[logicdog]

10:30 PM on 03/14/2011

Even better -- I brought a rope. I guess we'll need a pretty big tree. . .

[johngary66]

11:30 PM on 03/14/2011

Come on logicdog, if were going for the guilty I would say that's anyone who makes more than $200,000 a year. We would need a National Forest just for the top five banks.Fanned for a good idea though.

[ChronicAnhedoniac]

06:56 PM on 03/14/2011

Yeah, well, the "votes" are highly stacked in favor of the rich. All of this stuff -- the financial corruption (for which no one on Wall St has been punished), the attack on teacher's unions while the rich get a tax break -- is related to the distribution of wealth problem, which is at the heart of so much of what is going on today. Through their money, the richest few percent hold (and control the means of keeping) a highly disproportionate amount of power. The richest 1% of people in the U.S. own nearly 40% of its assets. The richest 10% own 70% of the assets. (Yes, that's own, not just control.)

We should all be sounding like broken records on this issue, yet it is so rarely brought up.

The popular notion that "greed is good" needs to be re-examined. What is good is ambition, but... if ambition is driven solely by a desire for material wealth, then that is not at all good. That is pathological.

[rybalaw]

06:10 PM on 03/14/2011

Until the Finger family and their allies get control of B of A more crap like this is going to happen

[Edward Norton]

05:15 PM on 03/14/2011

Hey, all you need to know is B of A pays ZERO taxes. Look it up. ZERO. No, not "essentially zero", but ACTUALLY ZERO! What's your tax rate?

[HCBurlingame]

04:41 PM on 03/14/2011

PS Download it in it's entirety preferably from a new IP. File/ save as/ entire web page. It's pretty basic stuff I'm sure mostly true. The point is: How did we come to a place where this was OK?

[nuclearmonkeys]

04:52 PM on 03/14/2011

Because our government is an owned subsidiary of our beloved corporate overlords.

I may not agree with our tea party compatriots but I (a flaming liberal) would be willing to fight a battle against the corporations alongside and conservatives who also see the danger they pose to this nation.

[Wendy Payne]

04:20 PM on 03/14/2011

We all "vote" with our money. Pull out your money from BofA, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo and start doing business with credit unions!

[4 EYES]

04:42 PM on 03/14/2011

Credit Unions are member-owned!!...Fanned!....8-)

[Scent]

03:47 PM on 03/14/2011

And what does our government do?

They hunt the hackers who report a crime and give a few hundred billion of our tax dollars to the criminals.

And they call this a democracy.

[nuclearmonkeys]

04:54 PM on 03/14/2011

The beauty of anonymous is that you cannot kill it. It's members exist in nations across the globe and there is no real leadership structure. A few of the less skilled amongst them may be caught but they will never catch the rest and more rise to take their places.

[Scent]

05:13 PM on 03/14/2011

True. but I think it is not enough. The people need to take sides and realize that the traitors are not hackers that present truth but the ones who seek to hide it.

[flossophy]

03:41 PM on 03/14/2011

Do you guys think Anon will ever gain some legitimacy by going after the big problems in the world... like Iran, Libya, Saud! Arab!a, Russia or China? 

Or will they stay in their mommy's basement and just go after the eviI sin!ster boogiemen bankers with their ascot ties and cigars?

[hacksaw]

03:43 PM on 03/14/2011

Deutschland, Deutschland über alles

[flossophy]

03:50 PM on 03/14/2011

Yes, the little Anonbots are taking a page out of the Weimar über handbook... and are blaming the eviI bankers for the financial crisis. 

[Scent]

03:53 PM on 03/14/2011

So the bankers funding the wars and ruining nation after nation all over the planet are no real problem. But the phantom terrorists are. And Libya - because they have oil the bankers want. And China - because they do what we do but do not follow our orders - damn communists!

Sorry hun. But the biggest problem and cause for wars and millions of deaths every year all over the planet is the bankers You so offhandedly ignore. They are the ones profitting from the wars, the destruction, the deaths, the massrapes, the dictators, ... - and of course the ruin of economies. Because to make profit they have to take the money others have. And that and nothing else is the sole most important reason for every single one of the problems You said was far more important than bankers.

You should not rant about Anonymous going after the biggest criminals on the planet.

You should rant about the governments NOT going after them.

Because - in case You forgot - they swore an oath to protect and serve the people. - Not the RICH people but the ones they represent. - US.

[flossophy]

04:01 PM on 03/14/2011

Dude, you're stuck in the early 20th century... It's probably time to grow up and learn about the real world. These mythical deIusions are unhealthy. 

oh, btw... who do you vote for? Which party?