We audited the City of Hawthorne because of a corrective action verification audit done by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) that identified $840,741 in HOME Investment Partnerships Program funds that were transferred to the Section 8 program between 2005 and 2006 (2013-LA-0802).  The objectives of the audit were to determine (1) the eligibility of $840,741 in 2005 and 2006 HOME program transfers to the Section 8 program, (2) whether...

We investigated an alleged preforeclosure scheme involving 31 properties financed with Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans.  As a result, the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California brought a civil case against Mr. Mario Menendez under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA). In August 2011, the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a complaint in U.S. district court...

We reviewed the County of Santa Barbara’s HOME Investment Partnerships program due to concerns expressed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development regarding the County’s administration of its HOME program.  Our objective was to determine whether the County performed its monitoring responsibilities and ensured that incurred HOME program expenditures were eligible...

We audited the City of Santa Ana’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2).  We initiated the audit as part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) fiscal year 2012-2013 annual audit plan.  Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its program funds in accordance with applicable HUD rules and requirements.  Specifically, our focus was to determine...

We audited the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loan process at All Western Mortgage’s Las Vegas, NV, home office as part of our efforts to improve the integrity of the single-family insurance programs. We selected All Western Mortgage because it is one of the top 10 originators in Nevada and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Quality Assurance Division had not performed a review since 2005. The...

We reviewed the City of San Bernardino’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and CDBG-Recovery Act (CDBG-R) programs because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development expressed concerns about the City’s administration of its CDBG program. Our objective was to determine whether the City administered its CDBG and CDBG-R program funds in accordance with applicable HUD...

We audited Bay Vista Methodist Heights, San Diego, CA, to determine the full extent of the misuse of its trust funds. We selected Bay Vista for review based on a referral from the Office of Multifamily Housing, stating that Bay Vista violated its trust fund agreement with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) because the former chief financial officer transferred more than $3 million in restricted funds into Bay Vista’s...

We completed a corrective action verification of a recommendation made to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) pertaining to our review of the City of Hawthorne, CA’s Section 8 program, Audit Report 2011-LA-1008, which was issued March 28, 2011. The purpose of the corrective action verification was to determine whether HUD officials appropriately closed audit recommendation 1A....

We conducted a limited review of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans underwritten by Standard Pacific Mortgage, Inc. We selected the lender based on the results of an auditability survey, which determined that Standard Pacific Mortgage allowed prohibited restrictive covenants to be filed against FHA-insured properties. The objective of our review was to determine the extent to which Standard Pacific Mortgage failed to prevent the...

We audited the Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Public Housing Capital Fund grants as part of our objective to review funds provided under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. We selected the Authority because it is a newly formed entity, created January 1, 2010, and the Authority and the entities that formed it received more than $21 million in Recovery Act Capital Fund grants...

We reviewed the City of Inglewood’s HOME Investment Partnerships Program. We initiated the review because of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Los Angeles Office of Community Planning and Development’s expressed concerns about the City’s administration of its program funds. Our objective was to determine whether the City complied with HOME rules and requirements for obligations, commitments, expenditures, program...

In conjunction with our external audit of Innotion Enterprises, Inc. (Audit Report #2012-LA-1010), we reviewed termite inspection passthrough costs that it submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for payment as part of its real estate-owned (REO) Management and Marketing III (M&M III) program field service manager contract. We selected Innotion’s Las Vegas, NV, branch based on the size and scope of its...

We conducted a limited review of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans underwritten by Shea Mortgage, Inc. We selected the lender based on the results of an auditability survey, which determined that Shea Mortgage allowed prohibited restrictive covenants to be filed against FHA-insured properties. The objective of our review was to determine the extent to which Shea Mortgage failed to prevent the recording of prohibited restrictive...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a civil fraud review of an alleged foreclosure rescue scheme operated by Terrill L. Meisinger of Seal Beach, CA. The alleged scheme involved more than 100 properties in three States that were financed through Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and conventional loans and allegedly defrauded distressed homeowners, renters, and lenders. Based on...

We conducted an audit of the City of Long Beach because it was awarded more than $22.2 million in Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2) funds on February 11, 2010 as the lead agency in a consortium with Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles (Habitat), making it one of the largest NSP2 fund recipients in the Los Angeles area. Our objective was to determine whether the City of Long Beach...

We audited loans originated by Bankers Mortgage Group, Woodland Hills, CA, in response to a referral from the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) Office of Investigation alleging that Bankers Mortgage Group originated loans with false documentation. Our objective was to determine whether the lender originated FHA-insured loans using sufficient, reliable, and valid documentation. Bankers Mortgage Group did not originate loans using sufficient...

We audited the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) real estate-owned (REO) Management and Marketing (M&M) III program at Innotion Enterprises, Inc., to determine whether Innotion performed property preservation and protection services according to contract requirements. The review was part of our efforts to improve the integrity of the single-family insurance programs. We selected Innotion’s Las Vegas, NV, branch based...

We completed a review of the Oakland Housing Authority in response to a hotline complaint alleging that the Authority engaged in various questionable functions involving its inspection services. The objective of the review was to determine whether the complaint allegations against the Authority were valid. Most of the allegations against the Authority were generally not valid. However, we found indications that 13 of the 19 housing units...

We audited the Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services’ Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 (NSP2). We performed the audit because American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 reviews are part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual plan and Neighborhood Housing Services was awarded $60 million in Recovery Act NSP2 funds in a consortium agreement with 12 other organizations on February 11, 2010. Our audit objective was to...

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), conducted a review to determine whether Indymac Bank followed Federal Housing Administration (FHA) policies and procedures when it originated FHA-insured loans. We identified a set of questionable loans originated by Indymac that had been generated by Beechwood Incorporated, a company that conducted various real estate services. Based on our review...