In his latest broadside against the banking industry, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is alleging that the nation’s largest banks use the Mortgage Electronic Registration System to evade public filings, shortchange localities of $2 billion in fees and compromise homeowners’ interests. A complaint filed on Friday describes MERS, a Virginia-based digital mortgage tracking service, as “a shell company” established as a stealth mortgagee for banks, particularly JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

David Tamman, a former Nixon Peabody securities partner who was fired while under investigation for allegedly falsifying documents as part of a Ponzi scheme, will have to go to trial in October, despite his attorney’s pleas to expedite the proceedings so that Tamman, now a solo in L.A., can get back to work.

A group of confidential witnesses cited in a securities class action complaint against Bear Stearns isn’t going to be confidential for much longer.

The financial fraud group that is investigating the market for residential mortgage-backed securities has already issued civil subpoenas to 11 financial institutions, Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. said today in formally announcing the team of lawyers and federal agents.

For all the controversy that has plagued the U.S. Department of Justice under Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. — from terror-trial venues to voting and immigrant rights issues — nothing has had more sticking power than the botched gun-trafficking probe known as Operation Fast and Furious.