The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of New Jersey, in the civil investigation of Freedom Mortgage Corporation.  Freedom has its principal place of business in Mount Laurel, NJ, and became an FHA-approved direct endorsement lender in 1993.  As a direct endorsement lender...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the Office of Program Enforcement in the investigation of Land Home Financial Services, Inc. to determine whether it violated HUD requirements when underwriting loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).  Land Home is an FHA mortgage lender, located in Concord, CA.    Based in part on OIG’s review...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of New York, in the civil investigation of Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company, also known as M&T Bank.  M&T Bank has its principal place of business in Buffalo, NY.   On March 19, 2013, a former employee of M...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut in the civil investigation of The Alphabet Group, LLC, Marks Group, LLC, and Imagineers, Inc. Alphabet and Marks are owners of residential housing in Hartford, CT, and Imagineers administers the Section 8 program for the City of Hartford Housing Authority. On May 17, 2012...

We reviewed the Malakoff Housing Authority, Malakoff, TX. The review was part of a joint initiative between the HUD Office of Inspector General’s Office of Audit and Office of Investigation. We completed the review and referred the former executive director’s improper use of Authority funds by hiring and contracting with family members to HUD’s Office of Program Enforcement for action under the Program Civil Fraud Remedies Act of 1986...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigated alleged violations of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) regulations by RANlife, Inc.  We reviewed the single-family FHA loan files processed by RANlife to determine whether it complied with HUD’s rules and regulations in originating, underwriting, and endorsing the loans for FHA insurance. On November, 23, 2015, RANlife...

Based on a request from the Assistant U.S. Attorney’s Office in Salt Lake City, UT, we provided information about single-family lenders with high default rates. We then reviewed the available case binders for 38 loans for which the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) had paid claims that were underwritten by City First Mortgage Services, LLC. We completed the review and referred alleged violations to the U.S. Department of Housing...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at a time. ...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that contrary to program residency requirements, 37 borrowers did not live in the property associated with the loan and were renting the property to participants in HUD’s Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program.   Renting the properties to Section 8 program participants violated...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program and found that 33 borrowers had more than 1 loan under the program.  Having multiple loans violated program requirements because HUD requires borrowers to reside in the mortgaged residence as their principal residence and borrowers may not have more than one principal residence at a time. ...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, DC, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Colorado, in the civil investigation of Franklin American Mortgage Company.  Franklin American has its principal place of business in Franklin, TN.  Franklin American became an FHA-approved direct endorsement lender in 1995. ...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York in the civil investigation of Pilgrim Village Associates, L.P.; North-Ellicott Management, Inc.; and Trammell Property Management (Pilgrim Village). Pilgrim Village Associates, L.P., was the owner of Pilgrim Village Apartments, a 90-unit multifamily housing development...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), investigated Cunningham and Company to determine whether it violated HUD requirements when underwriting loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).  Cunningham is an FHA mortgage lender, formerly located in Greensboro, NC. Based on OIG’s review, HUD contends that Cunningham may be liable under the Program Fraud Civil...

We reviewed the City of Brackettville Housing Authority, Brackettville, TX. The review was part of a joint initiative between the HUD Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) Office of Audit and Office of Investigation. We completed the review and referred the former executive director’s improper use of Authority funds for personal expenses to HUD’s Office of Program Enforcement for action under the Program Civil Fraud Remedies Act of 1986...

The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act), and implementing guidance provided in the Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-15-12, is a mandate that Federal agencies must follow to report their financial, budgetary and programmatic information to the USASpending.gov web site.  We have reviewed the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) compliance efforts as of July 15, 2016. ...

We conducted a review of the District of Columbia Housing Authority’s payments for outside legal services in conjunction with an ongoing internal audit of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of public housing agencies’ expenditures for outside legal services.  Our review objective was to determine whether the Authority made payments for outside legal services in compliance with applicable...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) performed a review of The Retreat at Church Ranch bank records based on our audit conducted of the project.  Our review disclosed that the owner allegedly made payments for personal expenses from the project’s bank account.  We requested that HUD pursue proceedings against the owner. On July 22, 2015, HUD notified the owner of his...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s Federal Housing Administrations rules and requirements pertaining to nonprofits purchasing real estate-owned (REO) homes during the exclusive listing period.  We initiated this review based on information found during an audit of a nonprofit that purchased homes during the exclusive listing period in memorandum 2015-DE-1801.  Our...

We are conducting an audit of the City of Jersey City’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program based upon an Office of Inspector General (OIG) hotline complaint containing several allegations, one of which was that the City’s Division of Community Development’s lead risk assessor was not qualified or producing monitoring reports for rehabilitation work funded under the City’s Homeowner Rehabilitation Program.  The...

We conducted an attestation review of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Special Needs Assistance Continuum of Care Program, regarding drug control accounting and associated management assertions for fiscal year 2015.  The objective of our attestation review was to evaluate HUD’s financial reporting and assertions for drug control funds to determine if its reporting was in compliance with...