JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America were hit with new lawsuits by investors claiming losses on $4.5 billion of soured mortgage debt, adding to litigation targeting the 2 largest U.S. banks. The plaintiff Sealink Funding Ltd said it lost money after buying nearly $2.4 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities  from JPMorgan and $1.6 billion from BofA from 2005 to 2007, relying on offering materials that were misleading about the quality of the underlying loans. According to court papers, Sealink is an Irish entity that oversees risky RMBS that contributed to the near collapse of Germany's Landesbank Sachsen AG. Another plaintiff, Germany's Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg, raised similar claims in a separate lawsuit against JPMorgan over $500 million of RMBS that it said it bought. The lawsuits accuse the banks of packaging large amounts of high-risk mortgages by such issuers as Countrywide Financial, Bear Stearns, and Washington Mutual in pursuit of higher profit. The investors are seeking compensatory and punitive damages in the lawsuits, all filed Thursday in the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Bank of America spokesman Lawrence Grayson said the bank will defend against its lawsuit by Sealink, which "appears to be another sophisticated investor looking for someone to blame" for losses caused by a downturn in the economy.  [Reuters, 9/30/11]