We picked up the trail on this one back in October of ’07 – predicting a steady stream of activity from he state AGs.  In addition to Cali and Illinois, Maine, Iowa, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas – to name just a few more.  Add Florida to the list of California, Illinois, and Washington…

From the Orlando Sentinel:

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is going after maligned mortgage-lender Countrywide Financial Corp. for what he called a pattern of deceptive sales pitches to homeowners.

McCollum said Tuesday his office is following California, Illinois and Washington in suing the subprime lender for enticing homebuyers with larger mortgages than they could afford to boost the number of loans it could resell on the secondary mortgage market.

“We believe they have done harm to citizens of Florida by the way they have done business in our state,” McCollum told reporters in Tallahassee.

His office filed the suit late Monday in Broward County Circuit Court to beat Tuesday’s closing on the sale of Countrywide to Bank of America. McCollum said he wanted to be sure that Countrywide was the named plaintiff.

The suit alleges the company engaged in “unfair or deceptive marketing” by misrepresenting how long interest rates for subprime loans would remain fixed, incorrectly telling applicants they were receiving fixed-rate mortgages, and advertising low “teaser” rates without disclosing how much the rates would go up.

The suit also argues Countrywide broke its underwriting standards by not requiring applicants to prove their income and assets, and offering bonuses to “foster a culture of loan approvals.”

Read the Rest…