United States ex rel. Kraus v. Wells Fargo & Co.

117 F. Supp. 3d 215, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96965, 2015 WL 4509036
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedJuly 24, 2015
DocketNo. 11 Civ. 5457(BMC)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 117 F. Supp. 3d 215 (United States ex rel. Kraus v. Wells Fargo & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States ex rel. Kraus v. Wells Fargo & Co., 117 F. Supp. 3d 215, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96965, 2015 WL 4509036 (E.D.N.Y. 2015).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION & ORDER

COGAN, District Judge.

Before me is defendants’ motion to dismiss the Third Amended Complaint in its entirety for failure to state a claim. Rela-tors bring this qui tam action under the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq. (“FCA”), alleging essentially that defendants and their predecessors in interest presented false information to the Federal Reserve and Federal Home Loan Banks in connection with their receipt of payments in the form of loans and advances from those entities. On July 30, 2014, the United States notified the Court that it had elected to decline intervention. The Third Amended Complaint was filed shortly thereafter, and the United States again declined to intervene. For the reasons that follow, defendants’ motion to dismiss [218]*218is GRANTED, and the Third Amended Complaint is dismissed.

BACKGROUND

Except wher’e otherwise noted, the following facts are taken from the Third Amended Complaint (“Complaint”) and are accepted ás true for the purpose of deciding the instant motion. Defendants include Wells Fargo & Company (a bank holding company), Wells Fargo .Bank, N.A.,, and their “subsidiaries and. affiliates.” This case also, and to a large extent, concerns the activities of the former Wachovia Corporation and its subsidiaries, which merged into defendants’, group of companies in 2008.1 Relators are former employees who became aware of certain allegedly improper practices at the defendant banks.

From about 2001 onward, according to the Complaint, the defendant banks engaged in far-reaching “control, fraud,” through which individuals in control of the banks inflated short-term profits for personal gain (ie., inflated compensation and perks), at the expense of the banks’ financial health. These allegations of financial chicanery — which span 79 pages of the Complaint — principally concern defendants’ issuance of “toxic” loans backed by commercial real estate (“CRE”) assets, a species of financial product that has become all too familiar in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. For example, rela-tors allege that defendants avoided reserve capital requirements by, among other things, “warehousing” toxic CRE-backed loans in off-balance sheet single purpose vehicles;- engaged in fraudulent internal credit-grading and financial modeling practices; and concealed the risk created by these and other improper activities.

The intricacies of these allegations are not critical to the validity of the FCA claims in this case; it is sufficient to note that they include allegations of improper banking practices that impacted defendants’ balance sheets and financial health; allegations of inaccuracies in financial statements and other disclosures made to regulators, shareholders, and the public; and allegations that these “known frauds,” when discovered, would require “costly and extensive remedial measures to rebuild and incorporate risk management, internal control and accounting processes” at the banks that survived the merger.

Relators also allege (and it is-indisputably the case) that during this period of time, defendants were subject to various laws and regulations that governed the banking industry, including interagency “safety and soundness” regulations, which mandate certain internal controls, as well as various reporting requirements including: FDIG audit and reporting requirements; the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; certain criminal fraud provisions of 18 U.S.C. §'47; and 12 U.S.C. § 1831(n)(a)(2)(A)/ which mandates compliance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”).

This brings us to the alleged “false claims” at issue in this case. Relators essentially allege that during what they define as the relevant period, from 2007 until the present, defendants sought and obtained payments and advances from the Federal Reserve discount window, which through its “primary credit program” afforded defendants certain preferential borrowing terms, and the Federal Reserve [219]*219Term Auction Facility (“TAF”).2 Relators allege (and it is not disputed) that as a condition of receiving the loans, defendants adopted certain representations set forth in the Federal Reserve’s Operating Circular No. 10, dated October 15, 2006 (the “Circular”), which in turn formed part of the agreement that governed the loans (the “Lending Agreement”).

Relators also allege that defendants are liable under the FCA because they received “payments ... in the form of advances” from certain regional Federal Home Loan Banks (“FHLBs”) pursuant to a lending agreement that contained false certifications. Relators allege that false claims made to the FHLBs, which are privately owned, are subject to the FCA essentially because their obligations “are considered to be guaranteed by the United States.”3

DISCUSSION

On a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), a court must assume the truth of “all well pleaded, nonconclusory factual allegations” in the complaint. Harrington v. Cnty. of Suffolk, 607 F.3d 31, 33 (2d Cir.2010) (citing Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009)). The Court must also draw “all reasonable inferences in the plaintiffs favor.” Famous Horse Inc. v. 5th Ave. Photo Inc., 624 F.3d 106, 108 (2d Cir.2010). Nevertheless, the factual allegations in the complaint “must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).

To encourage private citizens to report fraud against the United States government, the FCA allows for qui tarn lawsuits such as this one. See 31 U.S.C. § 3730(b). Relators assert three causes of action under three distinct provisions of § 3729(a), for presenting false claims; making or using false records; and conspiracy. The former two of these provisions were amended in 2009, while the conduct alleged- in this, case was ongoing. Nevertheless, relators’ distinct causes .of action need not be-treated separately for purposes of this opinion. See U.S. ex rel. Colucci v. Beth Israel Med. Ctr., 785 F.Supp.2d 303, 310 (S.D.N.Y.2011), aff'd sub nom. Colucci v. Beth Israel Med. Ctr., 531 Fed.Appx. 118 (2d Cir.2013). In short, for a defendant to be liable under the FCA, the relator “must show that defendants (1) made a claim, (2) to the United States government, (3) that is false or fraudulent, (4) knowing of its falsity, and (5) seeking payment from the federal treasury.” Mikes v. Straus, 274 F.3d 687, 695 (2d Cir.2001).

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Bluebook (online)
117 F. Supp. 3d 215, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96965, 2015 WL 4509036, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-ex-rel-kraus-v-wells-fargo-co-nyed-2015.