United States v. Countrywide Financial Corp.

961 F. Supp. 2d 598, 2013 WL 4437232, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117140
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedAugust 16, 2013
DocketNo. 12 Civ. 1422(JSR)
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 961 F. Supp. 2d 598 (United States v. Countrywide Financial Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.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 v. Countrywide Financial Corp., 961 F. Supp. 2d 598, 2013 WL 4437232, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117140 (S.D.N.Y. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

JED S. RAKOFF, District Judge.

The Government, having intervened in what began as a “qui tam” case, brings [601]*601this civil fraud action against defendants Countrywide Financial Corporation, Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., and Countrywide Bank, FSB (collectively, “Countrywide”), Bank of America Corporation, and Bank of America, NA (collectively, “BofA”), and individual defendant Rebecca Mairone, the Chief Operating Officer of Countrywide’s Full Spectrum Lending division during the period relevant to this case. The Government alleges that the defendants engaged in fraud and made false representations in connection with the sale of loans by Countrywide and BofA to the Government-sponsored entities Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”), all in violation of the False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. §§ 3729(a)(1)(A) & (B), and the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (“FIRREA”), 12 U.S.C. § 1833a(c)(2). The FIRREA violations, in turn, are predicated on civil violations of the mail fraud and wire fraud criminal statutes, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1343. See Amended Complaint (“Am. Compl.”) ¶¶ 218-27.

On December 21, 2013, the defendants moved to dismiss the Government’s then-operative complaint on three grounds: first, that the complaint failed to state a claim under FIRREA because the sale of loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not directly “affect” a federally insured financial institution as required by the statute; second, that the complaint also failed to state a claim under FIRREA because the predicate mail and wire fraud violations were premised on statements that did not, as a matter of law, constitute fraudulent misrepresentations; and third, that the complaint failed to state a cause of action under the False Claims Act for false claims made after May 20, 2009, the date on which liability under the False Claims Act was broadened to reach false claims made to entities like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.1 In addition, individual defendant Mairone moved to dismiss the FIRREA counts against her on the ground that the complaint failed to adequately plead facts that would support an inference that she acted with the requisite intent.

In response to defendants’ motion, the Government, with leave of Court, amended its complaint on January 11, 2013, after which the Court permitted the defendants to renew their motions and to supplement their moving papers. There followed additional briefing by both parties, after which the Court heard oral argument on April 29, 2013. On May 8, 2013, the Court issued a “bottom-line” Order granting the defendants’ motions to dismiss the False Claims Act counts but denying their motions to dismiss the FIRREA counts. This Opinion explains those rulings.

On a motion to dismiss under Federal Rule of Procedure 12(b)(6), the Court takes all well-pleaded allegations as true. Since, however, the claims here sound in fraud, the circumstances constituting fraud must be pleaded with particularity. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 9(b). For purposes of the instant motions, the well-pleaded factual allegations include the following:

Government-sponsored entities such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchase single-family mortgages from lenders like the defendants based on the lenders’ representations and warranties that the loans comply with the standards outlined in applicable “guides” and “master” agree[602]*602ments. These guides and agreements set forth, among other things, underwriting, documentation, quality control, and self-reporting requirements. See Am. Compl. ¶ 36. The relevant requirements include, for example, the lenders’ representations that they employ prudent underwriting and quality assurance checks and that the lenders will self-report loans that they identify as fraudulent, noncompliant with guidelines, or otherwise materially defective. Id.

Pursuant to these requirements, when the defendants sold loans to Fannie Mae, they represented that each loan conformed “to all the applicable requirements in [the] Guides and this [Master] Contract” and that the seller knew “of nothing involving the mortgage, the property, the mortgagor or the mortgagor’s credit standing that [could] reasonably be expected to: cause private institutional investors to regard the mortgage as an unacceptable investment; cause the mortgage to become delinquent; or adversely affect the mortgage’s value or marketability.” Id. ¶ 39. In representing to Fannie Mae that each loan was an acceptable investment, the defendants further warranted that all required loan data was true and complete, that certain underwriting conditions were met for loans processed through automated systems, and that no fraud or material misrepresentation had been committed. Id. ¶ 41. Freddie Mac’s guides and purchase contracts imposed similar requirements on loans sold to it by the defendants. Id. ¶¶ 44-45.

The Government alleges that notwithstanding these requirements — indeed, at a time of increasingly tight underwriting requirements imposed as the secondary market for single-family loans became more conservative — Countrywide sought to quickly boost its loan revenue by fraudulently modifying its loan origination process. Id. ¶ 66. More specifically, the Government alleges that in order to achieve its aim of maintaining its historically high revenue despite a cratering market for sub-prime mortgages, Countrywide’s Full Spectrum Lending division initiated, in August 2007, a loan origination program called the “High Speed Swim Lane,” or “HSSL.”

Ostensibly, the HSSL program was designed to reduce the number of days spent processing loans from 45-60 days to 10-15 days, with some loans processed within a single day. Id. ¶¶ 68-69. To achieve this reduction, however, the HSSL program reduced effective oversight of the loans and removed most of the so-called “toll gates” that were previously set up to ensure loan quality. For example, the HSSL program eliminated underwriter review of many riskier loans, and eliminated the position of “compliance specialist,” a position intended to perform a final independent check on a loan application before the loan was funded. Id. ¶¶ 70-71, 79. Instead, under the HSSL program, a “loan processor” simply verified that the data about a given loan that were entered into an automated loan processing system actually matched the underlying loan documentation. Id. ¶¶ 50, 70. Similarly, under the HSSL system, loan processors could fully process “stated income” loans (i.e., loans that require no documentation of a borrower’s income) without oversight from an underwriter or other checks that were part of traditional mortgage processing. Id. ¶¶ 71-73. The HSSL program also removed the requirement that the loan processors complete underwriting checklists and how-to forms called “job aids” that were designed to assist reviewers in performing underwriting tasks, such as how to assess the reasonableness of stated income and how to review an appraisal. Id. ¶¶ 77-78.

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Bluebook (online)
961 F. Supp. 2d 598, 2013 WL 4437232, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-countrywide-financial-corp-nysd-2013.