Seattle Police Officer Reassigned After Review Finds He Wrote 80% Of City’s Marijuana Tickets

(БРАТСТВО)

While marijuana has been legal in Washington state since the beginning of this year, it’s not like the streets are filled with people lighting up bongs and toking on pipes. Because if you do, you’re going to get a ticket for public marijuana use. That being said, the Seattle Police Department says one officer has been reassigned after apparently going a bit ticket-happy and issuing about 80% of the city’s pot citations so far this year.

Chief Kathleen O’Toole of the Seattle PD writes on the department’s web site that the first biannual report on marijuana enforcement shows that 66 of 83 marijuana tickets were issued by just one officer.

He added notes to the tickets requesting the attention of City Attorney Peter Holmes in some cases, addressed to “Petey Holmes,” writes O’Toole.

In other cases, the officer added notes that he flipped a coin to decide which smoking citizen to cite, or referenced the changes to marijuana laws as “silly.”

Because of the above incidents, O’Toole says he’s been reported to the Office of Professional Oversight and has been reassigned — meaning he won’t be on patrol duties while the matter is under investigation.

“Please know that officers who perform professional and constitutional police service and enforcement will always have my full support,” she writes, in a bit of a “HINT HINT don’t do this, got it?”

Officer Reassigned Following Investigation Into Marijuana Citations [Seattle Police Department]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

5 Things We Learned From The GAO Report On Broadband Caps

(Pam)

Broadband data caps might not be affecting everyone just yet, but that could easily change as the current wave of ISP merger mania continues. A preliminary government report taking a look at data caps, both wired and wireless, was released this week. It finds that ISPs and subscribers are far from being on the same page when it comes to how much data consumers move.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), at the behest of Rep. Anna Eshoo of California, looked at broadband data caps by examining ISPs policies, conducting focus groups with the public, and interviewing tech experts and public interest advocacy groups.

The report (PDF) is still preliminary; the final version won’t be released until November. Even so, though, the report is a good gauge of the pitfalls and potential benefits of usage-based pricing plans. The short version? Consumers don’t feel they’re getting all of the info they need, and are worried about their home and mobile broadband providers soaking them for extra cash.

1.) Everyone expects limited data on their phone; nobody wants it on their home network.

The GAO looked at four mobile carriers and 13 wireline ISPs. All of the wireless companies employed metered data usage, but only seven of the 13 traditional broadband companies did.

In all eight focus groups the GAO conducted, participants “expressed strong negative reactions” to the idea of metered or capped broadband at home. Consumers observed that the internet is increasingly important to all aspects of their lives and that having reduced access could be harmful, particularly to students, telecommuters, and lower-income households.

They also did not want to have to worry about data usage at home, after years or even decades of being used to unlimited access. And participants also worried that ISPs would use broadband caps as a way of jacking up prices for internet service.

2.) Consumers are confused about how much data they use, and the tools ISPs provide aren’t helping.

The focus group participants expressed confusion about how much data usage different sites and applications actually require. For example, the report says that consumers were afraid that leaving social media sites like Facebook or Twitter open all day, or doing a heavy amount of online shopping, would run them into trouble with potential data caps. (Both are actually comparatively low-data activities.) Some participants also said that having many users in their households, with multiple devices each, posed additional challenges in correctly tracking data use.

Although the ISPs customer service representatives and websites provided data-usage estimates, the GAO found that those estimates weren’t consistent. They also found that “hidden” data usage, like system and software updates, accounts for up to 30% of home data use and is trending upward. As a result, consumers don’t necessarily have the information they need to subscribe to the right plan, and may pay for data they don’t need or face surprise overage charges.

3.) Consumers aren’t sure how their carriers handle excessive data usage.

The report finds that focus group participants with wireless data plans often expressed uncertainty about plan details such as their data allowance, and about whether their plans were subject to throttling. However, when it came to mobile data most participants were not concerned that their plans had data caps; instead, they were mainly focused on avoiding extra charges.

The GAO also found that among seven the wireline broadband ISPs with caps, every company handled theirs a little differently. Some imposed overage charges for extra chunks of data, some granted discounts for low usage, and some claimed to have caps but didn’t actually do anything about it at all when customers went over.

4.) Neither wired nor wireless carriers have yet found the sweet spot to meet their customers’ needs with lower-cost options.

When it comes to mobile broadband, the GAO reports that the median wireless customer uses about 102 Mb per month of data on their plan — and yet only a small fraction of subscribers to one of the wireless carriers use a 500 Mb plan. That suggests that a not-insubstantial number of consumers, afraid of ever meeting an overage charge or cut-off, are paying for more data than they need.

As for wired broadband, the GAO report mentions one anonymous company that offers a discount for accepting a low data cap — a threshold 20% of their customers fall below, they told the GAO. Of course, as we learned earlier this year, that’s Time Warner Cable… and their very own CEO admitted that nobody wanted to limit themselves to that data cap for such a puny discount.

5.) Lack of competition means consumers can’t vote with their wallets.

The report did note several potential benefits of broadband caps to businesses and even some consumers. But it also noted that for many consumers, opting into a usage-based plan, should their ISP jump to one, won’t be a choice. Broadband competition is notoriously minimal in most areas; the GAO report cites an FCC statistic that “54% of households are in census tracts” that have more than two wireline ISP options (usually one DSL, one cable). Even if every residences in every one of those census tracts had a choice (and they don’t), that’s still barely half the country with options.

The focus group participants said they would switch away from an ISP that implemented metered broadband if they could, but probably wouldn’t have a choice. Some of the experts the GAO interviewed also pointed out that in a marketplace without competition, ISPs have no incentive to provide a good variety of data plans to subscribers.

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Why Do Criminals Love This Walmart So Much?

(Martin Buitron)

The Walmart on State Route 436 in Casselberry, Florida is very popular. Unfortunately, it’s popular with a demographic that retailers shouldn’t want to attract: criminals. Specifically, shoplifters. Some very talented shoplifters, like the man who allegedly removed 18 televisions from the store while dressed as a woman.

When contacted by a reporter from local station WFTV, a Walmart spokesperson countered that the huge number of arrests reflects well on the store, not poorly. Why is that? It means that the store’s efforts to “thwart crime” are effective.

Still, the brazen criminals of Casselberry have created some dangerous situations for local cops. Last week, two officers tried to stop an alleged shoplifter who was trying to leave in his truck. The suspect refused to stop, even when one of the cops was hanging on to the truck’s window.

The mega-retailer is doing some things differently: anyone caught shoplifting gets a trip to jail instead of a court date. There are probably other measures that the store has taken that they don’t want members of the public to know about.

In the last month, local police have made 37 arrests at the store in question in Casselberry. Police say that they’ve made 202 arrests so far in 2014. Since they’re averaging more than one arrest per day and the article we got those statistics from was published yesterday, those stats must be up to at least 38 and 203 by now.

Police: Casselberry Walmart a target for criminals [WFTV]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Rental Car Companies Asked GM To Look Into Ignition-Related Crashes Years Before Recall

(So Cal Metro)

It’s becoming harder and harder for GM execs to claim that the company was largely unaware of the problems with the Chevy Cobalt and other vehicles with an ignition problem that has resulted in at least 13 deaths, dozens of accidents and the long-delayed recall of millions of cars. A new report shows that car rental companies have been telling GM to look into the issue since at least 2005.

Bloomberg News reports that, following a fatal Sept. 2006 crash involving a Cobalt, an investigator for Vanguard Car Rental — then the parent company of rental biggies Alamo and National — wrote to GM urging it to look into the incident.

“[D]ue to the serious nature of this accident we feel that it is imperative that you open a claim and inspect this vehicle for possible defects,” reads the message, uncovered thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Additional documents turned up by Bloomberg show that Enterprise — which purchased Alamo and National from Vanguard in 2007 — pushed GM to investigate a potential Cobalt defect after routine crashes in which the airbags failed to inflate, going back to 2005.

The failure of an airbag to deploy is not definitive evidence that a car’s ignition switch was inadvertently turned to the “off” position, but if the switch is turned off, the airbag will not work as intended in a crash.

According to Bloomberg, Enterprise first pressed GM to investigate following a March 2005 crash in a Saturn Ion — another vehicle involved in the mass ignition recall — that killed the driver and her husband, and resulted in serious injuries to their teen daughter in the back seat.

In July 2005, GM replied to Enterprise that it had inspected the vehicle but didn’t find a defect or malfunction.

Enterprise then asked GM to investigate a fatal Jan. 2006 crash involving a rented Cobalt. The car veered off the road and hit a tree, killing the driver. The car’s airbags did not deploy.

Bloomberg reporters found that GM referred the case to an investigations unit, but could not turn up any documentation showing what occurred after that referral.

An auto industry consultant and former board member at Dollar Thrifty Automotive group likens car rental drivers to canaries in the coal mine for the automotive industry; they’re the first to get their hands on these new cars and, with so many drivers putting so many miles on these cars so quickly, rental cars are usually the first to highlight defects.

“It’s really like a test fleet,” she explains to Bloomberg. “You put a lot of miles on very quick, and any initial defects on the car rise to the surface, and, in fact, that’s the way auto companies were supposed to use this. They were supposed to be able to detect defects very early.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Wireless Carriers Are Victims Of Phone Cramming Too, They Just Make Billions Of Dollars Instead Of Losing It

(Kevin Loh)

Opening your monthly mobile phone bill to find it significantly more expensive than it’s suppose to be can be infuriating. Finding out that it’s more expensive because you were charged for products you never requested is even worse. But wireless cramming is a practice that more and more consumers – and wireless providers (huh?) – are finding themselves victims of.

A new report [PDF], and subsequent hearing, on the subject by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on Wednesday revealed that the practice of placing charges for third-party goods and services – think Hollywood gossip or daily horoscope texts – on consumers’ phone bills is growing more prevalent by wireless carriers, despite their so-called self-regulation practices.

“I don’t think the telephone companies were happy or content that the crammers were defrauding their customers,” Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal said, “but they almost certainly welcomed the revenue.”

And that revenue translated into billions of dollars for wireless providers and the third-party companies who produced the products.

Still, those working in the wireless industry contend that carriers are doing their best to stop the hurtful practice.

Michael Altschul, an official with wireless trade group Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association, said during the hearing that wireless carriers agreed that “placing an unauthorized, misleading or deceptive third-party charge on a consumer’s wireless bill is wrong and simply not acceptable.”

But don’t go blaming the carriers for all that cramming, because they, too, are apparently victims. Or at least that’s what Altschul implies.

“Carriers have been victimized by fraudsters who crafted elaborate schemes to defeat the industry’s self-regulation and third-party monitoring,” he told the committee.

It’s incredibly difficult to see carriers as victims when they’ve benefited greatly from cramming practices and continued to allow consumer protection gaps to exist in their safequards.

The committee report found that third-party billing on wireless phone bills has evolved into a billion dollar industry for carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile, each of which generally retain 30% to 40% of each vendor charge.

And those self-regulation and third-party monitoring policies being purported by the industry? They don’t appear to hold up well when it comes to actually protecting consumers.

The report revealed most wireless carriers were aware of the growing cramming problem at least six years ago, but continued to retain lax oversight and self-regulation policies leaving ample opportunity for scammers to strike.

Those casual policies included touted safeguards such as “double opt-in” requirements which were often skirted by scammers. Additionally, some policies allowed vendors to continue billing consumers even when the vendors had several months of consistently high consumer refund rates – at times those rates topped 50% of monthly revenues.

However, major U.S. carriers Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile each agreed in November 2013 that they would stop billing for a certain type of charge – premium SMS messages.

Since the carriers may have largely stopped charging for PSMS, officials with the FTC told the Senate Committee that “complaints have fallen off a cliff.”

But there is a new source of cramming: direct carrier billing.

According to the report, the practice of cramming through digital content – apps, videos and songs – downloaded through app stores has increased nearly 30% from 2009 to 2012.

And even if carriers do discontinue cramming and direct carrier billing, they are still open to action by federal regulators.

Such action happened earlier this month when T-Mobile became the first major carrier to be charged by the Federal Trade Commission for allegedly making hundreds of millions of dollars off those premium text-messaging subscriptions that were never requested by subscribers.

For its part, T-Mobile officials say the FTC complaint was unfounded and without merit because of the company stopped charging consumers after their 2013 promise.

Just this week, the FTC announced a series of recommendations that could slow, or even cease, the practices of cramming and direct carrier billing.

The commission also had a hand this week in shutting down a mobile cramming operation that allegedly stuck consumers with more than $100 million in unauthorized charges.

In all, that action included charges against six companies and six individuals that used deceptive practices, including fake websites with bogus offers of “freebies” or gift cards, to trick consumers into providing their mobile phone numbers. The defendants then placed monthly subscription fees for a variety of “services” on consumers’ mobile phone bills without their authorization.

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Lands’ End Announces Science-Themed Shirts For Girls Because Boys Aren’t The Only Ones Who Like Science

Girls can now choose from decorative stars or a more realistic solar system, just like the boys.

Somehow there are still retailers out there who are late to get the message: Yes, some boys like science. But so do some little girls, and the fact that Lands’ End had science-themed shirts featuring “realistic images of planets and our solar system,” while its T-shirts for girls only had unrealistic stars and dogs in tutus was very disappointing to the mother of one girl who happens to be bonkers about all things space. She wrote a letter telling Land’s End so, prompting the retailer to announce that it’s adding new sciencey shirts for girls as well.

A few weeks ago, the mom posted an open letter to Lands’ End on Facebook (via HuffPo), writing that her nine-year-old daughter loves science and wants to be an astronaut someday. So she was excited when she saw the Lands’ End catalog with science-themed tees for boys, including “a ‘NASA Crew’ tee design that she immediately declared to be ‘the coolest shirt ever.’ “

But then when they flipped to the girls’ section to find her size, “instead of science-themed art, we were treated to sparkly tees with rhinestones, non-realistic looking stars, and a design featuring a dog dressed like a princess and wearing a tutu.”

She says her daughter was very confused, because she and many of her friends love science.

“In 2014, why are you selling ‘mighty’ tees for boys and ‘adorable’ tees for girls?” the mom asked, citing Lands’ End’s descriptions.

The retailer has now responded with a line of shirts pretty close to the science-themed boys’ shirts (though it still has dogs in tutus because of course there are plenty of girls who love a good dog/tutu combo).

“You asked, we listened — take a look at our brand-new girls’ science tees,” Lands’ End announced Wednesday on its Facebook page. “Our first two tees are live on the site — pre-order now to reserve her size (due to the quick turnaround, the shirts will ship in August). Based on your response to the tees, we will continue to add new styles moving forward.”

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Snack Foods Transformed Into Art At “Cheese Curls Of Instagram”

Can a picture of two cheese curls be pornographic? It sounds impossible, but the site Cheese Curls of Instagram has elevated what should be random, orange-coated lumps of snack food to fascinating sculptures just by propping them up in front of a blank background and giving us needlessly detailed captions.

After all, a former Consumerist staffer found four pieces of religious iconography in a single bag of Cheetos. By that standard, people worldwide must be mindlessly gobbling what could be millions of beautiful sculptures every year. Don’t believe us? Just peruse the Cheese Curls of Instagram gallery.

See it? If not, read the title and look again. “After Urinating on their Subordinates to Assert Dominance, these Two Monkeys Give Each Other a High Five.”

Some of the sculptures are suitable for a science museum, like this one:

Look like nonsense? No, read the title:

By Means of Natural Selection, Life has Flourished in the Evolutionary History of Primates and the Emergence of Homo Sapiens as a Distinct Species of Hominids

We won’t even embed this next photo, since it will become Not Safe For Work as soon as you read the caption:

In an Adult Film, Peter North Takes his Role as a French Professor Seriously by Wearing a Beret While Performing in a Scene with a “Failing Female Student Earning Extra Credit”, and after he Finishes, he Points to the Director Because he Knows he Nailed it

You’ll just have to click through and enjoy the filth over on Instagram.

Unfortunately, you’ll have to find a market for these sculptures yourself, or start your own Instagram account. Frito-Lay doesn’t have a buyback program. They probably don’t even have a Cheeto art museum.

cheesecurlsofinstagram [Instagram, where else?] (via Foodbeast)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Only 1 Out 12 Small Cars Gets “Good” Rating In New Crash Test Results

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (the place that crashes cars into walls for science) recently ran a dozen popular small cars, including the Chevy Volt, Ford C-Max Hybrid, Mini Cooper Countryman, and the Mazda 5, through its “small overlap” front crash test, where only the front corner of the vehicle is involved in a collision. While several of the tiny cars had okay results, only one earned an overall “good” rating from the IIHS.

The Mini Cooper Countryman was the only small car among the dozen tested to earn that overall “good” rating in the overlap test, which was introduced in 2012 to simulate collisions where a car strays across the median and hits an oncoming vehicle, or where cars smash into objects like trees or poles.

For years, car makers were building vehicles to pass the IIHS head-on frontal crash tests, in which the full front end of a vehicle collides with a solid object, but the small overlap test shows that not all car makers have been thinking about what happens when it’s just the corner of the vehicle.

“In the small overlap test, the main structures of the vehicle’s front-end crush zone are bypassed, making it hard for the vehicle to manage crash energy,” explains the IIHS. “The occupant compartment can collapse as a result.”

To earn a “good” rating in the overlap test, the car’s occupant compartment must resist intrusion, its safety belts must prevent the driver from pitching too far forward, and its side curtain airbags must provide enough forward coverage to cushion a head at risk of hitting the dashboard or window frame or things outside the vehicle.

“The Mini Cooper Countryman gave a solid performance,” says Joe Nolan, the Institute’s senior vice president for vehicle research. “The Countryman’s safety cage held up reasonably well. The safety belts and airbags worked together to control the test dummy’s movement, and injury measures indicate a low risk of any significant injuries in a real-world crash this severe.”

The IIHS points out that the small overlap rating for the Countryman — the 4-door version of the Mini Cooper — doesn’t apply to the two-door model, which hasn’t been tested.

Four other small cars — the Volt, the C-Max Hybrid, Mitsubishi Lancer, and the Scion xB — showed minimal damage to their respective crash test dummies, but fell short of an overall good rating for concerns about their structures or restraint systems. However, all but the Scion xB are still considered “Top Safety Picks” by the IIHS.

Of greater concern are the four cars earning “poor” overall ratings in the overlap test — the Fiat 500L, Mazda 5, Nissan Juke and Nissan Leaf.

IIHS’s Nolan says that “Collapse of the occupant compartment is the downfall” for these four vehicles. “A sturdy occupant compartment allows the restraint systems to do their job, absorbing energy and controlling occupant motion.”

Test showed that the structure of the Fiat 500L was being pushed into the driver’s survival space, “knocking the steering wheel back and to the right of the driver,” which puts the airbag out of position, meaning the dummy’s head slid off to the left side.

According to the IIHS, the Mazda 5 is among the worst-performing cars in the small overlap test, along the 2014 Kia Forte, and the 2012 Prius v.

“When we tested the Mazda 5 we saw a host of structural and restraint system problems. Parts of the occupant compartment essentially buckled, allowing way too much intrusion,” Nolan says.

The test dummy in the Mazda 5 showed high risk of injuries to the left thigh and left lower leg. The steering wheel moved to the right, meaning the dummy’s head barely contacted the front airbag before sliding off the left side.

Additionally, the safety belt failed to keep the dummy’s head and torso from moving too far forward. The dummy’s head made contact with the left side of the dashboard.

Even worse, the side curtain airbag didn’t deploy at all, says the IIHS and the driver door unlatched during the test, putting the driver at risk of being ejected.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

If You’re Unhappy About Comcast Charge, Don’t Pull Gun On Service Tech

(mytoenailcameoff)

While we disagree with some who think that Comcast is an admirable company, we certainly don’t advocate using a gun to resolve your disputes with the cable company. Apparently our talk-it-out ways are not shared by a New Mexico woman who is accused of pulling a gun on a Comcast tech following a dispute over unexpected charges for a service call.

According to the criminal complaint [PDF], police in Albuquerque were dispatched on July 28 to a private home to check on a possible aggravated assault incident.

The homeowner told the officer that she’d had a Comcast tech out to do some requested work on her home and that she’d been led to believe that the work would be free of charge.

But when the tech arrived and she found out otherwise, the customer was not happy. She called Comcast customer service, where a rep confirmed there was a fee for the call. Then the tech told the homeowner that if she didn’t sign the document agreeing to the charges, he’d have to leave.

She refused and the tech began to leave.

This is where their stories differ…

Her Side of the Story

The homeowner says the tech left but then returned, claiming he’d left behind a tool bag on the outside of her home, but which she’d brought inside after he left.

The woman refused to let the tech come on her property and told him to leave. He said his supervisor would still need to come back and get the tools.

The homeowner told police that the man was standing in her driveway and refused to leave, so she went inside to get her handgun.

Pointing the gun in the air, she says she asked the tech, “Are you going to leave now?”

He responded by driving away without his tools.

The homeowner then called the police to complain about the Comcast tech. She admitted to officers that the tech was not attempting to enter the home; that he was only standing in the driveway and refusing to leave.

His Side

The tech claims that while he was packing his tools back into his truck, someone at the home grabbed a bag of tools — worth an estimated $400 — and took them inside the home.

He then knocked on the door and asked for his tools back, but a woman — not the homeowner — who answered the door allegedly refused to give them back.

While he was walking away from the front porch, he alleges that the homeowner exited the house and pointed the handgun at his torso, telling him “You need to get off my property now.”

The tech says he agreed to leave and then called 9-1-1.

…..

Police searched the home and turned up a handgun and the tech’s tools. The homeowner was arrested and booked on charges of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. She was released after a few hours behind bars.

Comcast customer pulled gun on technician after objecting to bill, police say [Ars Technica]

Comcast customer jailed in gun case [ABQjournal.com]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Bank Of America Finally Ordered To Pay $1.27B For Countrywide’s “Hustle”

(frankieleon)

It’s been about nine months since a federal jury found Bank of America liable for the “Hustle,” a pre-bubble Countrywide Financial program that removed safeguards to the mortgage underwriting process, resulting in a mountain of toxic, worthless loans. Yesterday, the judge in the case finally decided how much BofA — and the former Countrywide exec in charge of the program — should pay.

For those coming late to this story, in the years leading up to the crash-slam-splat of the housing market, Countrywide realized there was quick cash to be made in approving as many mortgages as possible and reselling them to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac before anyone realized the loans weren’t worth the sandwich bags on which they’d been written.

In order to increase the number of loans it could resell, Countrywide started the High Speed Swim Lane (aka HSSL, and most popularly the Hustle), which expedited the mortgage underwriting process by effectively doing away with it. A number of loans were approved with minimal review. In the end, about 43% of the Hustle loans resold to Fannie or Freddie were toxic.

BofA and former Countrywide Exec Rebecca Mairone were found liable of civil fraud in Oct. 2013, and federal prosecutors were originally asking the court to penalize the bank to the tune of around $868 million, based on the actual losses experienced by the bailed-out mortgage-backers at Fannie and Freddie.

But the judge suggested to prosecutors that they rethink their penalty not in terms of how much Fannie and Freddie lost, but in terms of the ill-gotten gains seen by Countrywide. So in Jan. 2014, the feds revised that request to more than $2 billion and also suggested a $1.1 million personal penalty against Mairone, who astoundingly found a job that didn’t involve digging ditches under the hot sun. No, she somehow managed to convince JPMorgan Chase to put her in charge of its foreclosure review team. She has since left that position.

The prosecutors later suggested upping Mairone’s penalty even further upon learning how well compensated she was, but yesterday the judge opted to go for a mere $1 million slap on the wrist against the former Countrywide exec.

The judge says Mairone may pay her penalty in quarterly installments equaling 20% of her gross income.

And yet her attorney says his client will appeal.

“We continue to maintain that Rebecca never intended to defraud anyone and never did defraud anyone,” Mairone’s legal eagle tells the Wall Street Journal. “Unfortunately, more powerful people chose her as a scapegoat because they thought she was an easy target.”

Bank of America got off with a penalty of $1.27 billion, higher than the original request but significantly lower than the revised amount.

The bank had tried to argue that it ultimately lost money on those toxic mortgages so it shouldn’t have to pay such a high penalty, if anything at all.

But that’s a ridiculous argument, as Countrywide’s longterm failure to profit off toxic mortgages doesn’t negate the fact that it committed fraud by selling those worthless loans to Fannie and Freddie.

Of course, BofA is looking to appeal the case.

“We believe that this figure simply bears no relation to a limited Countrywide program that lasted several months and ended before Bank of America’s acquisition of the company,” a rep for the bank said, presumably while simultaneously e-mailing colleagues at other banks looking for a new job.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist