In a follow-up to our previous post, Maryland, through Attorney General Douglas Gansler, officially agreed to the robo-signing foreclosure fraud settlement today with Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Ally Financial/GMAC, and Wells Fargo.

The settlement secures an estimated $959,114,825.45 for Marylanders who were victims of the robo-signing, according to Mr. Gansler.  As explained by the Maryland judiciary at http://www.courts.state.md.us/rules/docs/166threport.pdf, robo-signing is where a bank or its lawyer files fraudulent documents in a foreclosure to take away a person’s home.

Fortunately, the settlement does not prevent individual claims.  This means that Marylanders, even if they receive money from the settlement, may still sue the banks for the damages they caused from their robo-signing.  This is fortunate, given that people who had their homes fraudulently taken away will only receive about $2,000 from the settlement, as reported by The Washington Post.