Gilbert: Feds on 'witch hunt' against Quicken Loans

[nitpicker]

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2015/04/24/gilbert-feds-witch-hunt-quicken-loans/26346861/

Gilbert: Feds on 'witch hunt' against Quicken Loans

Joel Kurth and Christine MacDonald 12:29 a.m. EDT April 26, 2015

Detroit – — Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert says the U.S. Department of Justice is on a "witch hunt" and sought a "nine-figure settlement" before filing suit on allegations his company approved hundreds of mortgage loans that didn't meet federal standards.

Speaking to The Detroit News one day after the lawsuit was announced, Gilbert on Friday vigorously defended his company against government claims the FHA lost "millions of dollars in insurance claims on hundreds of bad loans."
(snip)

The government alleges that Quicken knowingly submitted claims for hundreds of improperly unwritten FHA-insured loans. Some of the errors included: inflated appraisals, poor credit risks and insufficient incomes. The government alleges Quicken gave "speed bonuses" to underwriters and encouraged a culture of bending the rules to encourage loan approvals.
(snip)

The government's suit contained numerous emails between high-level Quicken supervisors. In one, Quicken's operations director Mike Lyon, wrote that a lender had "bastard income," which was defined as "trying to put some kind of income together that is plausible to the investor even though we know its creation from something evil and horrible." In another, an executive wrote that a customer was still approved for a loan even after he stopped paying on other bills and his credit score dropped 100 points. The government claimed Quicken employees regularly spoke of "fudging" a borrower's income to get approval for FHA insurance.
(snip)

The Justice Department has reached several settlements with prominent lenders over accusations of fraud in FHA lending practices, including JP Morgan Chase, SunTrust, U.S. Bank and Bank of America. Wells Fargo has been in litigation with the Justice Department since 2012. The Wall Street Journal reported in February that the San Francisco-based Wells Fargo was in negotiations with the U.S. attorney's office on a settlement for under $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter. But those talks broke down and the bank is "again engaged in discovery," according to its annual report.
(snip)

[Demeter]

1. A Criminal Hunt, not a Witch Hunt

Tag, you are it, Gilbert!

[Fuddnik]

2. Make him put up Lebron James for collateral.

[Gothmog]

3. Quicken grew too fast and sold bad loans to the govt