Dear President Obama and Attorney General Holder,
I'm calling on you to hold Wall Street banks accountable for their role in creating and profiting from the brutal housing crisis that has displaced an estimated 7 million American families from their homes. I ask that you reject a settlement deal that lets Wall Street banks off the hook, protecting them from legal prosecution, and instead, push for a full investigation, compensation to homeowners, and real accountability for those responsible.
As you know, taxpayers bailed out the big banks that created the crisis. These same banks then proceeded to foreclose on millions of American families, while continuing to hand out astronomically-high bonuses and lobby against essential reform of the financial sector. Unfortunately, business as usual for Wall St. banks means predatory practices, fraud, and deception.
This housing crisis and subsequent economic downturn has affected everyone and it has hit Black people and Latinos particularly hard. The mortgage industry targeted prospective home buyers with toxic loans and ballooning interest rates and engaged in systemic predatory lending and mortgage fraud — including unlawful foreclosures, false documentation, and "robo-signing" of foreclosure documents. Subprime and predatory lending, foreclosures, and plummeting home values have devastated Black wealth, which has fallen to its lowest level in 25 years.
A full investigation is our best hope to get to the bottom of this mess, hold banks accountable, and force them to change their practices. I'm calling on you not to settle on a bad deal for America's financial future. If you do, you'll reward bank fraud and deception while limiting our chances for true economic recovery. I ask you to show leadership and commit to a full investigation of the banking and mortgage industry.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]