FHFA-OIG Racks Up Funds from Criminal, Civil Investigations
May 27, 2016
The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General reported that the compensation resulting from six months of probes into criminal and civil investigations amounted to $3.6 billion. The bulk of the monetary damages awarded, more than $3 billion, was in civil settlements, while more than $480 million was from criminal fines, restitutions, forfeitures, and settlements. There were a total of 53 indictments, five trials, 73 convictions and 75 sentencings. Laura Wertheimer, inspector general at the FHFA, said when there’s not sufficient evident to refer a case for criminal charges, the FHFA will work to bring civil claims. One of those recent civil settlements was with Morgan Stanley, which agreed to pay a $2.7 billion penalty to resolve claims related to its mortgage-backed securities.