So we sit here day in, day out, wondering why the law isn’t being followed–why the foreclosure machine continues to steamroll over the populace.  We wonder why homeowners aren’t winning their cases against the big banks, despite clear and compelling evidence of fraud and malfeasance.

Well, wonder no more, as two successive attorneys general in Utah (“Shurtleff” was the AG from ’01-’13, “Swallow” was campaigning in ’12 and was “elected” in ’13) were arrested yesterday on charges of bribery, among other things.  How does that play into homeowner issues?  Check this out:

“In 2012, the attorney general’s office intervened in a lawsuit against a Bank of America subsidiary on behalf of thousands of Utah residents facing foreclosure. The Salt Lake City-area couple that brought the suit then spent $28,000 holding a campaign fundraising party for Swallow. The couple’s individual case was settled favorably, but Shurtleff in December directed the attorney general’s office drop the state case, despite objections from staff attorneys.”

That’s pretty foul, right?  Of course it is.  And the “Bank of America subsidiary” referred to above is Recontrust.  Check out that story here.

But wait–it gets worse:

“Prosecutors said a division chief in the Utah attorney general’s office reported Swallow indicated to Bank of America that Utah would drop the case if the couple’s case was settled favorably.“

Unbelievable.  Yet totally believable.

So if you spend $28,000 to help the attorney general get elected, he will intervene on your behalf but everyone else who didn’t spend $28,000 on his campaign?  Thrown to the wolves.  And by wolves, I mean Bank of America.

And if all that weren’t bad enough, here’s the final insult:

“Shurtleff later accepted a position with a Washington, D.C., law firm that represented Bank of America.“

How do you like them rotten apples?  It is precisely this sort of corruption that people are talking about when they say that the U.S. is now a banana republic.  And from the most unlikely of places, in my view–Utah, the world headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

To be clear, the behavior of Shurtleff and Swallow does nothing to besmirch the LDS faith.  It’s just that, in my experience, no LDS person would even consider engaging in the same behavior as Shurtleff and Swallow.  The Mormons I know personally are beyond reproach.  That’s why I personally find it so shocking that everything is rigged, even in Utah.

P.S. Certainly makes one want to revisit the question of “Judges: Dupes or In on It?”

h/t: Karen Rozier