Ohio has filed suit accusing the lender Ally Financial and its GMAC Mortgage division of fraud in approving scores of foreclosures. It’s the first suit of its kind in the widening scandal over the improper approval of thousands of foreclosures by some of the nation’s largest banks. Ally as well as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase have suspended foreclosures in twenty-three states after admitting to authorizing foreclosure affidavits and other documents without proper vetting. Speaking to Bloomberg News, Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray said Ally’s alleged fraud was widespread.

Richard Cordray: “Everything that we have seen indicates that there may have been thousands of cases where they systematically defrauded the court by filing affidavits under oath that claimed personal knowledge where the signer did not have that knowledge. In an individual case, if an attorney filed a false affidavit, that would be — result in swift and severe sanctions, disciplinary misconduct and so forth. The fact that this may have done on a mass scale is pretty breathtaking to us.”

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper also announced Wednesday he’s begun investigating fifteen lenders, including Ally, and has asked them all to freeze foreclosures during the probe. Attorney General Eric Holder meanwhile said the Justice Department is looking into the improper foreclosures.