PHOENIX — Arizona’s new Republican attorney general won’t give Bank of America Corp. any relief from a mortgage fraud lawsuit filed in the final days of his Democratic predecessor’s tenure.

Attorney General Tom Horne told The Associated Press on Monday that he intends to pursue the lawsuit filed Dec. 17, which alleges the lender is misleading and deceiving homeowners who have tried to modify mortgages. The lawsuit accuses the bank of foreclosing on homes after repeatedly assuring owners that their loans were being modified so they would continue to make payments.

Bank of America had criticized former Attorney General Terry Goddard for filing the suit in his last days in office.

Horne said he is willing to settle with the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank under the same terms Goddard proposed, but he’ll pursue the lawsuit if a settlement is not put in writing.

“There’s some basic requirements that Terry had that I don’t disagree with,” Horne said, including “that the bank assign one person (to each homeowner’s case) so you don’t have one person egging them on to make payments on the grounds that they’ll get a modification, then somebody else comes in and forecloses.”

Other settlement provisions include deadlines for completing loan modification applications and a second deadline for a decision by the bank.

A message seeking comment from Bank of America on Monday wasn’t immediately returned.

Goddard was in settlement talks with the bank up until the day the lawsuit was filed, but they eventually failed. Nevada’s Democratic attorney general filed a similar lawsuit on the same day. She remains in office.

Bank of America criticized the two Democratic attorneys general for filing ‘go-it-alone’ litigation while multi-state, multi-bank settlement talks were ongoing.