On December 8, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had settled allegations that a Louisiana-based mortgage lender violated the False Claims Act (FCA) through its underwriting of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgage loans. In the lawsuit, which is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, the…
On September 28, 2017, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO), along with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and HUD’s Office of the Inspector General (HUD-OIG), announced that they had reached a settlement with a national mortgage lender over alleged…
On September 14, 2017, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued an opinion and order against two former mortgage companies and their former president and CEO. The order, which followed a previous jury verdict against the company, awarded the Government nearly $280 million in treble damages under the False Claims Act (FCA), approximately $13 million…
On July 20, 2017, acting United States Attorney Stephen Muldrow announced a civil settlement with the owner of a Florida condominium complex over fraudulent reverse mortgage transactions. Defendant had been accused of violating the False Claims Act (“FCA”) and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (“FIRREA”). The Federal…
On July 11, 2017, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that its Mortgagee Review Board had suspended a national mortgage lender from originating and underwriting new mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). HUD’s Departmental Enforcement Center also banned the lender’s owner from doing business with the federal…
On July 3, 2017, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the HUD Office of Inspector General (HUD-OIG), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California announced that they had reached a settlement with a national mortgage lender, resolving…
On April 19, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it had entered an agreement with a group of California mortgage lenders to resolve allegations that they discriminated against a mortgage applicant. That consumer had filed a complaint with HUD in October 2016, alleging that the lenders failed to prequalify…
On March 10, 2017, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) announced that it reached a settlement with an Illinois bank resolving allegations that the bank engaged in illegal “redlining” of minority neighborhoods in the Rockford, Illinois metropolitan area. HUD initiated its investigation after the Hope Fair Housing Alliance (“Hope”)…
On January 20, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO) announced that it had settled a recently-filed lawsuit against a national bank, resolving allegations of mortgage discrimination. As previously covered by Enforcement Watch, the government alleged that from 2006 to 2009, the bank charged minority borrowers higher rates…
On January 18, 2017, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (USAO) filed a lawsuit against a national bank, alleging that the bank had engaged in a years-long practice of racial discrimination in providing mortgage services. The parties reportedly have agreed to terms of a settlement to resolve the action. The…
On January 13, 2017, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced that it had filed a lawsuit against a Minnesota bank, stemming from allegations that the bank engaged in illegal “redlining” of minority neighborhoods in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The DOJ alleged in its complaint that the bank violated the Fair…
On November 30, 2016, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas announced that a federal jury in the Southern District of Texas issued a verdict finding several related mortgage companies and their CEO liable in connection with their participation in the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance program. The verdicts were the result of…
On October 19, 2016 the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) announced that it had settled with a Massachusetts-based mortgage lender and its CEO for $1,025,000 to resolve allegations that the mortgage lender submitted false insurance claims on mortgages insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The USAO…
On October 3, 2016, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that two Utah-based Direct Endorsement (DE) lenders agreed to pay $5 million and $4.25 million dollars to settle separate cases relating to their origination and underwriting of mortgage loans insured by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development’s…
On September 29, the Office of Inspector General for the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD OIG) announced the termination of an investigation of a national mortgage lender relating to a purported mortgage fraud scheme. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey assisted in…
On September 29, 2016, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and its Office of Inspector General (HUD OIG) announced a settlement with a mortgage lender relating to two audits of the lender’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insured loans. The audits allegedly determined that the lender underwrote FHA-insured loans with…
On September 29, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had secured a settlement from a national lender, resolving allegations that the lender violated the False Claims Act, Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act, and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 in its underwriting of Federal…
On September 13, 2016, the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced a settlement agreement with a bank for allegedly violating the False Claims Act by improperly underwriting and originating of FHA-insured mortgage loans. According to the DOJ, from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2011, the lender was improperly underwriting and certifying that mortgage loans…
On August 23, 2016, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the filing of a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against several California-based mortgage loan modification service providers. The complaint alleges that defendants violated the Fair Housing Act (FHA) and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)…
On August 5, an Alabama bank announced in its quarterly report that it reached an agreement in principal on a settlement amount with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The settlement will resolve an investigation into the bank’s residential mortgage…