We audited Venta Financial Group’s Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan origination because it was one of the top lenders that originated FHA-insured loans with downpayment assistance from the City of Las Vegas.  A previous U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD OIG) audit (Evergreen Home Loans, 2016-LA-1011) found that Evergreen originated FHA-insured loans in connection with the City of...

We audited MB Financial Bank, a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved direct endorsement lender, as part of our efforts to protect the integrity of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) single-family housing mortgage insurance programs.  We selected MB Financial for review based on an analysis of underwriting and default data maintained by HUD.  Our objective was to determine whether MB Financial...

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 Massachusetts in the civil investigation of First American Mortgage Trust.  First American has its principal place of business in Brighton, MA, and does business as NXTLoan.Com Corp., a Delaware corporation.  First American is the parent company of NXTL. On October 18, 2016, First...

We audited JPMorgan Chase’s (Chase) Federal Housing Administration Home Affordable Modification Program (FHA-HAMP) stand-alone partial claims.  We selected Chase for review based on our analysis of risk factors of loan servicers that filed FHA-HAMP stand-alone partial claims and in accordance with our annual audit plan.  Our audit objective was to determine whether Chase complied with the FHA-HAMP stand-alone partial claim market rate...

Very low REAC scores are not prevalent across ORCF’s portfolio.  The majority of RCFs that received a REAC score scored at least 80 on their last inspection, and more than three quarters scored at least 60.  Despite the small percentage of RCFs that scored below 31, we noticed an overall decline in REAC inspection scores across ORCF’s portfolio from 2000 to 2016. REAC has adopted an inspection process that applies uniformly to all...

We conducted an audit of BLM Companies LLC’s controls and performance under its Management and Marketing III program field service manager contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for area 1D.  Area 1D included HUD real estate-owned and custodial properties in New Mexico, North Texas, Utah, and Colorado.  During the audit period, BLM held 7 of 18 HUD field service manager contracts throughout the Nation...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Washington, DC, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida in a civil investigation of Financial Freedom Acquisition, a division of CIT Bank, N.A.  Financial Freedom was originally owned by IndyMac Bank until its failure in 2008, when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation...

We audited Alpine First Preston Joint Venture II, LLC, a contracted asset manager in HUD’s real estate-owned Management and Marketing III program, as part of the activities included in our 2017 annual audit plan and because it was the sole contractor to market and sell U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) owned properties located in Illinois. Our audit objective was to determine whether Alpine complied with its contract with...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD’s rulemaking process for its single family note sales program. We initiated the audit due to the large amount of Federal Housing Administration claims paid on note sales and because our office has never audited the single-family note sales program.  Also, there are public concerns over the creation and administration of the note sales...

Enforce the requirement for all HUD web applications and services to be approved and authorized by OCIO. The OIG has determined that the contents of this recommendation would not be appropriate for public disclosure and has therefore limited its distribution to selected officials. Corrective Action Taken In January 2023, HUD's Office of the Chief Information Officer developed and released a Web Applications Directive to all HUD program...

We received a referral from the Quality Assurance Division of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Philadelphia Homeownership Center concerning a borrower who allegedly made false statements to obtain Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance.  The borrower provided false and conflicting employment and income information, which was used in originating and obtaining an FHA loan.  Further, 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 2016.  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 regulations and...

The U.S. Department of Housing Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited HUD to determine whether it ensured that lenders properly processed voluntary terminations of insurance coverage on single-family Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans and disclosed all implications of the terminations to the borrowers.  We initiated this audit because of our concern that borrowers might not be aware of the rights they give up...

Twenty-two Promise Zones were selected through three rounds of national competition. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), oversees 14 urban Promise Zones, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) oversees 8 rural and tribal Promise Zones. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) tasked HUD and USDA to lead the Promise Zone initiative and play essential roles in gathering information about progress in Promise Zones...

This report is for informational purposes only and does not represent an OIG perspective or position. The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act was designed to bring an orderly and systematic means of Federal disaster assistance for State and local governments to carry out their responsibilities to aid citizens.  Although, State and local governments may carry out their responsibilities in an orderly and...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois’ Eastern Division, conducted a joint review of the former president and founder of MDR Mortgage Corporation. MDR Mortgage provided annual verifications to HUD in 2006, 2007, and 2008, certifying that none of its...

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, Eastern District of Michigan, in the civil investigation of United Shore Financial Services, LLC.  United Shore is a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved mortgage lender, with its principal place of business located in Troy, MI. United Shore became...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) procurement of major service contracts by the Office of the Chief Procurement Officer (OCPO) as part of our fiscal year 2016 audit plan and due to a hotline complaint regarding a contract for scanning services.  Our audit objective was to determine whether HUD had adequate procedures in place to plan and monitor major service contracts to prevent waste and abuse. HUD’s...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) oversight of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans originated with borrower-financed downpayment assistance.  The audit was initiated based on the results from three HUD, Office of Inspector General (OIG) audits, which determined that lenders allowed FHA borrowers to finance their own downpayments through an increase in their mortgage interest rate as part...

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 for the District of New Jersey in a civil investigation of Security National Mortgage Company.  Security National is a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved mortgage lender with its principal place of business located in Salt Lake City, UT. On...