Investigators in the ethics and investigations group within Fannie Mae (OTCQB: FNMA) were reportedly fired after probing whether Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and the self-appointed chairman of Fannie Mae, overstepped his authority by improperly obtaining mortgage records that led to criminal referrals of alleged mortgage fraud by several political enemies of President Trump.
The offices of FHFA director and Fannie Mae chairman have no precedent in spearheading mortgage fraud investigations. The Wall Street Journal, citing input from unnamed “people familiar with the matter,” said the fired Fannie Mae staff members were trying to determine who gave the orders to plumb the mortgage records of New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook. The investigators were also trying to confirm if Pulte had the authority to demand the documents and whether proper Fannie Mae procedures were followed.
The investigators elevated the probe regarding James’ documents to the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General, where Acting Inspector Joe Allen passed on the findings to the US Attorney’s office in eastern Virginia, which brought a criminal case against James.
Following the investigations, about one dozen members of the ethics and internal investigations unit at Fannie Mae were fired, including Chief Ethics Officer Suzanne Libby. Allen was also removed from his position. Pulte, who has repeatedly refused to provide details on how James, Schiff, and Cook came to be targeted for mortgage fraud investigations, recently used his personal X account to claim the layoffs were the result of the enterprise’s erasure of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
Pulte did not immediately comment on the Journal’s coverage, although a spokesperson for the FHFA issued a statement that said, “The anonymous sources in this story are attempting to obstruct the criminal justice system by completely fabricating false and defamatory claims.”
The most corrupt and vindictive administration in history… unfortunately they’re taking the housing market down with them. Instead of affordability, we 50 year mortgages!
Agreed on the 50 year mortgages, but the most “vindictive administration in history?” I thought Biden and Kamala lost. (Scratching my head). No one was more manipulative, corrupt, or vindictive than Biden, or whichever aide was running the country then.
“Taking the housing market down with them?” Where have you been the last four and a half years?! Biden had runaway inflation that pumped up the housing market astronomically and the interest rates under him went from 2.5% to over 7%! Biden is who took the housing market down with him and left a mess for Trump and the Republicans to clean up. Wishing them the best. People need to be able to get into the housing market.
You are the one who is self diluted. It takes 4-8 years for a presidents economic policies to have an effect on the economy. So the run away inflation is being caused by Trump’s economic policies of his first term. The additional inflation was caused by Corporate GREED and the tariffs. SO the only person to blame is TRUMP!
Ok cool so everything happening now…is the result of Biden’s time in office…
Denice… AGREED!!
HUH? Housing affordability is on the rise! I wlll be buying in the next few months.
Hey, if they are innocent, then why hide anything. Light only reveals what is trying to hide in the darkness. The rot within all the institutions must be exposed and removed like a cancer from the body. I suspect that there are others who need to be exposed regardless of their political affiliation.
The people who need to be exposed are those who lied on their mortgage applications to get a better deal…… not the ones who are blowing the whistle on them.
Clearly, Pulte is doing Trump’s illegal bidding, acting as his puppet. Anytime you dismiss an entire investigations unit, you are obviously trying to hide something. His recommendation to offer 50 year mortgages just shows you how little he understands the housing market. He should be fired.
All loan documents are public record recorded with the local county clerk of court.
NOT ALL loan documents, not even “most”. The ones that are likely most critical in this investigation would likely be the actual application (not public), and some docs on which the borrower affirms that certain facts and statements are true (also not public.) I think the only one that would be public would be the actual mortgage, which places a lien upon the property, names the grantor and the grantee, no mention of whether it is owner-occupied or otherwise, which is the key issue
The deed is public and it indicates whether or mot it is homestead
What you are missing mr Krauss is if the Loan product was only funded to people who only lived in the home. That the loan application public or not is less relevant to the actual loan agreement signed papers. I would think there is a clause about living there.
Germany and much of Europe have had 50yr mortgages for decades
… not a new idea and not part of Trump. I fail to see the connection between Trump being evil and 50yr mortgages. Was the 30yr mortgage equally evil then? It allowed for millions to get off the rent doles and onto home ownership. What mortgage period becomes not evil?
I’m an appraiser & I think adding these types of loans will have home prices (especially of lower valued or entry level homes) to increase faster than they should and that’s due to limited supply.. The best solution is to incentivize building entry level/lower priced homes, plus include cc&r’s that mandate owner occupancy for at least 3 years whenever a home is sold in that development.. These types of developments are never even discussed, so too many institutional investors have been buying up these homes for decades.. They are supposed to be investors yet they aren’t contributing to a community when they’ve made it harder for typical families to compete.. So to me the bigger issue has been ignored, we need stipulations on institutional investors, at the very least they should not be allowed to purchase homes up to the median home price..
Let’s go further than that and declare residential zones where non-citizens and non-owner occupants can’t own in that area. That will help the situation. I also agree that a specific amount of time as an owner-occupant should be met too. How about only 1 owner-occupant loan every 3 years? Lots of ways to keep our citizens in home ownership.
Unfortunately with price increases come longer mortgages. No different than car loans 5 or 7 years when they ysed to be 4.
Much of Europe (basically all of it) along with nearly every other country on Earth has had universal healthcare for residents for decades. If we are going to start copying economic models, let us start there.
Also, why not the shorter work week most of them have? More vacation time?
Let’s not make this like a Bible discussion (or the Constitution) and pick and choose just the ideas that suit us. Let’s pick the ones that help the most people.
For instance, I’ll bet if we had universal health care, people would have a LOT more money and magically would not NEED a 50 year mortgage.
Weird how that could solve problems…
NO! Trump is not doing anything illegal. TDS needs to end.
He isn’t doing anything illegal with the fifty year mortgages, those are just dumb and a failure by government to properly aid the average citizen in building a better life.
Outside of that, though? The list of stuff he does that IS legal is much shorter to count.
No, it shows he understands how HIS portion of the housing market (new construction) works (it is overpriced), and he wants to help himself to keep making money.
Nobody working in this administration is doing so to help normal people, they are all there to line their own billionaire pockets.
Yes, they are available at the county and easy to find if you’re targeting specific homeowners. In many more affluent areas, residential homes are in Trusts, LLC’s etc. which makes the finder work a little harder to locate data on people they’re targeting.
This whole negative thought on Trump is of course to be applied when they were scrambling for stuff on Trump for four F-ing years . You find it easy to condemn Trump for stuff but not your so called angels of the Democratic party.
When a person of means takes out a full-page ad in a newspaper condemning 5 youths to death who were not guilty: Yes, I question not only his credibility but everything about his motives. I wasn’t aware that incompetence and revenge were assigned to just one political party, and if I am correct, was he a member of both parties at one time?
Scrambling for stuff?? The man is a convicted felon and sexual predator who is pardoning criminals daily. Why anyone in the real estate industry would be simping for Trump is beyond me… but you’ll find out soon enough.
No need to ‘scramble’, just open one’s eyes to reality, not suffer from ‘TDS’ (just the other way).
He was found guilty of felonies and oh, yeah, assaulting a woman then lying about it (and found liable for that too).
I was a Republican for a very long time (despite Reagan being a traitor), but this dude? THIS dude? People are going to be VERY embarrassed in another ten years when all of his worst garbage really comes out. It will be like the Germans pretending they didn’t know who the Nazis were.
I mean…he literally has the RESOLUTE DESK on display in his private home (pictures available online!). If that were Obama or Biden or Clinton, I would be no less outraged than you, but because this dude lies to you about whatever your triggers are, you will walk off a mountain for him.
Weird.
Trump is still our President. Cry harder.
When has Fannie or Freddie not been due for a house cleaning ? do not agree with everything Pulte is doing or has done….