A whistleblower for Wells Fargo Banks admitted that she and her fellow loan officers purposely singled out Blacks in Baltimore and Maryland and gave them high-interest subprime loans, which resulted in hundreds of African-Americans ending up in foreclosure. Now, a federal lawsuit as well as a class-action lawsuit by the NAACP have been brought against Wells Fargo for its racially bias banking, according to the NewYorkTimes.com. African-American homeowners, who could have qualified for a prime home loan, were forced into taking subprime loans, and worse yet, used Black churches to find their victims.
In a recent survey, the New York Times found that Black households making $68,000 a year were five times more likely to have acquired their home with a high-interest rate subprime mortgage. Both sides expect to appear in court at a hearing in the case in late June.–WLW