Lately, many organizations have been looking into the actions of several banks and brokerage firms to see whether or not they took advantage of investors, etc right before problems with mortgage payments, etc which caused said investors to lose a lot of money.

Right on track with this investigation is news that the mayor of Cleveland is suing over 21 banks (some of which include HSBC Holdings and Citi Group), and mortgage companies for their actions in the sub-prime mortgage disaster that befell the city, as well as the country in whole. In the suit, filed in Common Pleas Court, is a declaration that above said companies/organizations acted against the state law by creating public nuisance. The suit alleges that the pushing of sub prime mortgages, forced many to foreclose after loan defaults; over 7,000 were foreclosed in Cleveland in the year 2007 alone. This caused the city to lose money with property taxes, and to spend yet even more money by demolishing all the abandoned homes due to loan default.

Mayor Frank Jackson, likens the above actions of the banks and brokerage firms to that of organized crime saying, "If you look at the end result of organized crime activity on neighborhoods, cities and individual lives, sucking equity out, you see the same thing here."