Global Finance: Citigroup Faces Lawsuit On Military Foreclosure
A sergeant in Texas's National Guard has sued Citigroup Inc., alleging the bank foreclosed on and auctioned his home while he was in training to deploy to Iraq, a possible violation of a law meant to protect military borrowers.</br></br>The New York bank previously hadn't been implicated, as some of its peers had been, in possibly violating the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, a law that forbids foreclosing on active-duty military members and caps interest rates on their loans.</br></br>The suit seeks class-action status, alleging the bank failed regularly to check on the active-duty status of borrowers when it foreclosed on thousands of homes during the financial crisis.</br></br>A Citi spokesman said he is looking into the matter but didn't have immediate comment.</br></br>Sgt. Jorge Rodriguez alleges in the suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, that Citi told a judge while filing to foreclose on his home in Del Valle, Texas, that Sgt. Rodriguez wasn't on active duty.