U.S. INVESTIGATED MORTGAGE LENDERS FOR FED GUARANTEES

The U.S. Department of Justice is aggressively investigating whether mortgage lenders defrauded the government by improperly obtaining federal guarantees on mortgage debt. Some claims are being filed by individual whistleblowers under the False Claims Act which allows for whistleblower recovery of a percentage of what the government recovers. Mentions of government subpoenas have been included in regulatory filings of publicaly traded companies recently. For example, Bank of America said in its recent 10-k filing that its Countrywide division received a subpoena from the DOJ and Citigroup said the government has issued subpoenas relating to its subprime mortgage related conduct and business activities. In 2009, the government announced a settlement with Beazer Homes for violations of the False Claims Act by taking upfront payments to reduce interest rates without providing discounts and trying to hide increased default rates to qualify for federal programs.