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Housing and Mortgage Fraud

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Top Ten Non-Healthcare False Claims Act Recoveries for 2023

Posted  01/30/24
People Pointing to Contracts Making Decision
It was another big year for DOJ enforcement under the False Claims Act, the government's primary fraud-fighting tool.  As usual, most of the recoveries were in the healthcare space with seven of the Top Ten recoveries involving various schemes to defraud Medicare and Medicaid.  See our Top Ten FCA and Top Ten Healthcare FCA listings. While healthcare recoveries dominated the Top Ten, two of the top five...

January 8, 2024

Invitation Homes, which owns and manages about 12,000 rental homes across California, has agreed to pay $2.04 million in civil penalties to resolve allegations of violating the state’s price gouging law and Tenant Protection Act (TPA).  California’s price gouging law prohibits landlords from increasing rent by more than 10% in the aftermath of a state of emergency, while the TPA prohibits increasing rent by more than 5% plus the percentage change in the annual cost of living.  Yet between 2019 and 2022, that is exactly what the company did.  In addition to paying civil penalties, Invitation Homes is required to restore lawful rental rates to California tenants and ensure compliance with all state and local laws.  CA AG

November 17, 2023

A man who was convicted of carrying out a $7 million mortgage fraud scheme has been sentenced to 25 years.  Through his company, purported mortgage investment company Grand View Financial LLC, Robert Sedlar promised consumers that he could clear the liens on their houses and retain the deeds if they transferred the titles to his company and made certain payments.  Instead, the company filed false documents with the courts and county recorders officers that stalled foreclosures but failed to eliminate liens.  CA AG

Expanded Connecticut State False Claims Act is Win for Whistleblowers

Posted  07/7/23
Front View of Hartford Connecticut Capitol Building
Whistleblowers take note: the Connecticut State False Claims Act (CT FCA) has been significantly expanded beyond healthcare fraud claims. Historically, the CT FCA was limited to fraud on Medicaid and other programs within health and human services. The amended statute now reaches fraud across a variety of sectors, such as government contracting, education, employment, immigration, housing, mortgage and insurance...

Top Ten State Fraud Recoveries of 2022

Posted  01/19/23
State and local governments play a critical role in ensuring that businesses and individuals are held accountable if they commit healthcare fraud, financial fraud, government contract fraud, and more. For whistleblowers, state governments can offer additional opportunities to report wrongdoing. Where government funds are at stake – and state and local government spending reaching $3 trillion annually – more...

December 14, 2022

In a False Claims Act case pursued on a non-intervened basis, Academy Mortgage Corporation agreed to pay $38.5 million to resolve allegations that it improperly originated and underwrote mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration.  The whistleblower, Gwen Thrower, who was an underwriter at Academy, alleged that the Academy had an inadequate underwriting process that led to false certifications of compliance with underwriting requirements and, ultimately, to the government having to pay insurance claims on loans improperly underwritten by Academy.  Thrower will receive a whistleblower award of $11.5 millionDOJ

October 17, 2022

In one of New Jersey’s largest civil monetary recoveries ever, Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC, Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Securities Corp., and DLJ Mortgage Capital, Inc. (collectively, “Credit Suisse”) has agreed to pay $495 million to settle a lawsuit involving misrepresentations it made to investors on the risks of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis.  Approximately $100 million will resolve a civil monetary penalty, while another $300 million will be allocated toward restitution for victims nationwide.  Although Credit Suisse previously settled with DOJ for $5.28 billion and with New York for $10 million, the New Jersey settlement is the first to provide restitution.  NJ AG

July 27, 2022

Trident Mortgage Company entered into a settlement agreement with federal and state agencies to resolve allegations that the non-bank lender intentionally discriminated against minority loan applicants by engaging in a pattern or practice of lending discrimination through “redlining.”  Trident agreed to invest over $20 million to increase credit opportunities in neighborhoods of color in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, and pay a $4 million penalty to the CFPB. DOJ; CFPB; PA; NJ; DE

July 22, 2022

Vanderpoel family members Neal J. II, Eileen, Ryan, and Neal J. IV will pay $1.88 million in penalties, disgorge their ill-gotten gains, and are barred from performing any loan modification, debt adjustment, or mortgage compliance in New Jersey because of their predatory mortgage adjustment services targeting distressed homeowners. The family violated New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act and the Debt Adjustment Act, selling worthless loan modification and other adjustment services to borrowers, and charged excessive upfront fees. The entities used in furtherance of the fraud—Financial Services of America, Financial Processing Services, LLC, Tri-State Financial Relief, LLC, and Mortgage Help and Loan Audits of America, LLC—were also shut down. NJ OAG

March 31, 2022

Seth Levine, Norse Holdings’ founder, received a 97-month sentence for his decade-long, $60 million refinancing- and securities-related real estate fraud. Levine, through his 70-plus companies, directed the scheme, submitting falsified documents which inflated the value of the subject properties. The overvaluation of properties led to shortfalls, which Levine covered with cash-out refinances, leaving victim lenders with at least $47 million in losses. Levine defrauded securities investors of at least $13 million by inducing them to invest in multifamily properties. Levine overstated his personal investment in the properties via forged documents provided to investors, sold portions of his properties without investor consent, and brought on additional investors without investor consent—all contrary to representations made during the solicitation. USAO NJ
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