FHFA Sues 17 Firms to Recover Losses to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

From the FHFA website:

Washington, DC — The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), as conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises), today filed lawsuits against 17 financial institutions, certain of their officers and various unaffiliated lead underwriters. The suits allege violations of federal securities laws and common law in the sale of residential private-label mortgage-backed securities (PLS) to the Enterprises.

Complaints have been filed against the following lead defendants, in alphabetical order:

1. Ally Financial Inc. f/k/a GMAC, LLC

2. Bank of America Corporation

3. Barclays Bank PLC

4. Citigroup, Inc.

5. Countrywide Financial Corporation

6. Credit Suisse Holdings (USA), Inc.

7. Deutsche Bank AG

8. First Horizon National Corporation

9. General Electric Company

10. Goldman Sachs & Co.

11. HSBC North America Holdings, Inc.
12. JPMorgan Chase & Co.

13. Merrill Lynch & Co. / First Franklin Financial Corp.
14. Morgan Stanley

15. Nomura Holding America Inc.

16. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC

17. Société Générale

These complaints were filed in federal or state court in New York or the federal court in Connecticut. The complaints seek damages and civil penalties under the Securities Act of 1933, similar in content to the complaint FHFA filed against UBS Americas, Inc. on July 27, 2011. In addition, each complaint seeks compensatory damages for negligent misrepresentation. Certain complaints also allege state securities law violations or common law fraud

The full pres release is embedded below and the individual company-specific lawsuits which include individual executive defendants are at the link below. Maybe I spoke too soon about dumb things bloggers say. We’ll see.

Source: FHFA Filings in PLS Cases, September 2, 2011

4 Comments
  1. The Peak Oil Poet says

    the Bible tells us not to steal
    it’s there in black and white
    our laws are based upon it too
    do not do wrong – do right

    but somehow since these laws were writ
    we’ve seen the system fail
    but things will change for all the best
    when the bankers go to jail

    when the bankers go to jail my friends
    when the bankers go to jail
    we’ll finally see justice done
    when the bankers go to jail

    https://thepeakoilpoet.blogspot.com/2011/07/when-bankers-go-to-jail.html

  2. Bernard Timberlake II says

    No one (but low-level) scapegoats is going to jail. All suits will be settled for pennies on the dollar.
    Now! On to the war with Iran. The batteries in my crystal ball are running low.

    1. David Lazarus says

      I hate to say that I agree. Only low level loan officers will go to jail. The fines will be pitiful and will not include an admission of guilt. The fines should be double the losses as this was a systemic fraud by the banks.

  3. Anjon says

    Wow! Any idea how big of a sum they are suing for?
    Also, does this cover pre-2007 only, or does it also cover the large amount of mortgages that they brought on to their balance sheets after they were nationalized?

Comments are closed.

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