American banking giant, Bank of America has been found liable for selling faulty through its Countrywide mortgage unit.

The US government is perusing cases from the financial crisis in order to get financial giants in the country to admit wrongdoing leading up to the collapse in 2008. A federal jury in New york agreed with the government prosecutors who alleged Countrywide Financial sold faulty home loans and transferred them to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The decision is the first civil fraud verdict against Countrywide and the investors have said that more investors might now look file cases against the mortgage lending firm. It is a major victory for the federal investigators looking book firms who are blamed of irresponsible and fraudulent behavior ahead of the financial crisis.

US government officials have said that the Countrywide unit of Bank of America Corp has sold thousands of bad loans to the US customers leading to a default of more than $1 billion in mortgages for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. At the beginning of the federal trial, the US authorities accused the institution of selling bad loans leading up to the financial crisis. The US authorities filed a lawsuit against Bank of America in October along with a whistle-blower action filed by a former Countrywide executive, Edward O'Donnell.

The latest lawsuit is another financial burden for the bank, which has been facing several mortgage-related losses and litigation since the collapse of the housing market in the US.