Fifth Third Bancorp became the latest mortgagee to fall victim to the federal False Claims Act after it agreed recently to an $85 million settlement with the government over alleged failures to self-report defective mortgages to the FHA. The settlement between the Department of Justice and FTB and its banking subsidiary resolves civil fraud claims arising from the bank’s origination of FHA-insured residential mortgages. According to the DOJ, the Ohio-based direct endorsement lender admitted to originating approximately 1,400 home loans it previously certified as FHA-eligible but which later turned out to be materially defective. FTB, however, did not report its discovery to the Department of Housing and Urban Development as required, resulting in millions of dollars in losses to the FHA Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. Under the settlement terms approved by ...