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Bank of America Corp. has agreed to pay more than $6 million to a California couple whom a federal judge said had been harassed and illegally foreclosed upon by the bank's mortgage unit, ending an eight-year-long dispute, Dow Jones Newswires reported yesterday. The proposed settlement between the bank and Erik and Renee Sundquist would enable them "to end a long personal and legal nightmare that has impacted every facet of their and their sons' lives," according to court papers the couple filed to request that their 2014 lawsuit against the bank be dropped. The deal calls for Bank of America to pay a fraction of the fine of more than $46 million ordered by Judge Christopher Klein in March. In his ruling, the judge said the bank's mortgage modification process and mistaken foreclosure on the Sundquists' home in Lincoln, Calif., left them in "a state of battle-fatigued demoralization." The exact amount that the bank will pay the Sundquists is confidential, according to documents filed on Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Sacramento. The earlier order called for the bank to pay the couple nearly $6.1 million in damages.

A federal grand jury on Monday indicted a Casper, Wyo., couple on charges of bankruptcy fraud, the Casper Star Tribune reported today. The IRS alleged James Edward Knight II and Ashley Elizabeth Knight lied on an application for chapter 7 bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid paying back taxes, at least some of which were related to the couple’s failed business, Ikon Welding. The IRS said that although the two claimed in bankruptcy court in September 2015 that they owned no businesses and had no bank accounts, Ashley Knight had used a bank account for a company called Superior Fabrication in late 2014. James Knight claimed ownership of Superior Fabrication on a job application in March 2015, IRS investigators said.