Hillary bellies up to Obama’s banksters – She
reeks of the smell of BRIBES and BAILOUTS
Jun 25, 3:33 AM EDT
JEFF HORWITZ
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WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The government is considering whether to sue banks and other mortgage
servicers to recover its losses from alleged insurance kickbacks that may
have cost government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
hundreds of millions of dollars, according to an internal report.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which is responsible
for guarding Fannie and Freddie's finances, told its inspector general's
office that it will consider filing the lawsuits and will make a formal
decision over the next year.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which have been under the
FHFA's conservatorship since 2008, lost an estimated $168 million from the
fees in 2012 alone, according to the report by the FHFA's inspector general.
The FHFA didn't accept the inspector general's estimate of damages, but the
agency's official response to the report said it "does not object"
to the recommendation that it consider suing.
Banks and other mortgage servicers that might be subject to
such lawsuits did not immediately respond to phone calls and email messages
seeking comment on the threat of litigation.
Though the FHFA barred banks and other mortgage servicers
from collecting payments from insurers on June 1, the agency does not
normally discuss prospective litigation and has not previously indicated that
it might consider suing over past misbehavior.
Should the FHFA decide in favor of such litigation, the
lawsuits could reopen a controversy over how the country's biggest banks
profited from what is known as "force-placed insurance," a
high-cost version of property insurance that protects the homes of uninsured
borrowers. Typically purchased by banks when a borrower falls behind on
mortgage and insurance payments, force-placed insurance ballooned into a $1
billion-a-year industry after the 2008 housing bust.
According to a 2012 investigation by New York's Department
of Financial Services and a slew of private lawsuits, large banks and insurers
colluded to inflate the price of force-placed insurance, splitting the
profits. Insurers paid banks for referring business. Struggling homeowners
and mortgage investors like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bore the cost in the
form of higher insurance premiums, often many times the price of normal
homeowners insurance.
Since insurance kickbacks are illegal, major banks and
insurers allegedly contrived to mask the payments as legitimate business
transactions. The FHFA inspector general's report did not name specific
institutions. But some banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and
Citigroup, set up insurance agencies to accept supposed commissions from the
two dominant force-placed insurers, Assurant and QBE. But as New York and
private plaintiff's attorneys separately uncovered, these bank-owned
insurance agencies were little more than empty shells. In one example,
JPMorgan's own employees stated in court documents that a bank-owned
insurance agency did not employ a single insurance agent. In other instances,
insurers rewarded banks through generous reinsurance deals or simple,
lump-sum multimillion-dollar payments, New York state found.
In the wake of the New York investigation, other state
probes and private lawsuits, many of the country's largest mortgage servicers
- including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Citigroup - renounced commissions in
2012 and 2013.
The FHFA's prospective lawsuits against banks and insurers
would not be automatic victories, its inspector general said. But similar
class-action lawsuits brought by private attorneys representing homeowners
have been successful, indicating the government would be in a strong position
if it were to sue. Over the past three years, mortgage servicers and their
force-placed insurers have paid out $674 million to settle such cases -
preventing a single one from reaching trial. In September of 2013, JPMorgan
and Assurant reached the biggest single settlement, a $300 million payout.
According to New York's Department of Financial Services,
JPMorgan Chase took in more than $600 million from force-placed reinsurance
deals since 2006.
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BANKS
and GEITHNER ….He was the banksters' HOPE & NO CHANGE man in the white
house!
CRONY CAPITALISM: HOW
OBAMA AND HIS CRONY BANSKSTERS LOOTED AMERICA – It’s a work still in progress!
As he puts it, “We did save the economy, but we
lost the country doing it.” Geithner adds, “Conventional wisdom still holds
that we abandoned Main Street to protect Wall Street.”
OBAMANnomics: HOW HIS CRONY BANKSTERS LOOTED AMERICAN AND
WERE PAID MASSIVE BONUSES FOR DOING SO!
THE
OBAMA YEARS – THE GOLDEN AGE OF BANKSTER LOOTING AND BANKSTER WELFARE…
INCEST!
The case of bankster-owned Barack Obama and crony Jamie Dimon of JP MORGAN…
their looting continues!
OBAMA’S CRONY BANKSTERS PARTY UP AND STILL GIVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THE
MIDDLE FINGER
'Not when those foibles had resulted in real harm to millions of people
in the form of foreclosures, wrecked 401(k)s, and a devastating unemployment
crisis.'
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