The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited CitiMortgage’s processing of partial claims.  Our audit objective was to determine whether CitiMortgage filed for partial claims only after completing the loan modifications and reinstating the loans. CitiMortgage improperly filed for 66 partial claims before completing the loan modifications and reinstating the loans. The Federal Housing…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), reviewed preforeclosure sales under the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) program in the St. Louis, MO, area.  We found that the purchaser of a property being sold in a preforeclosure sale entered into a consulting agreement with the realtor.  The agreement required that when the purchaser later sold the property, he would pay half of the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, audited James B. Nutter & Company, a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) lender located in Kansas City, MO.  We selected James B. Nutter based on data analysis showing that the servicer might be completing foreclosures faster than the industry standard, which would suggest that it might not be fully using HUD’s loss mitigation tools.  Our…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General (OIG), assisted the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, in conducting a review of CitiMortgage, Inc. CitiMortgage is a direct subsidiary of Citibank, N.A., and Citibank is an indirect subsidiary of Citigroup. CitiMortgage is based in O’Fallon, MO. The review began due to a qui tam filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern…

As part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) nationwide effort to review the foreclosure practices of the five largest Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage servicers (Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, CitiMortgage, JP Morgan Chase, and Ally Financial, Incorporated) we reviewed Wells Fargo’s foreclosure and claims processes. In addition to this memorandum, OIG issued separate memorandums for each of the other four reviews. OIG…

As part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) nationwide effort to review the foreclosure practices of the five largest Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage servicers (Bank of America, Wells Fargo Bank, CitiMortgage, JP Morgan Chase, and Ally Financial, Incorporated) we reviewed CitiMortgage’s foreclosure and claims processes. In addition to this memorandum, OIG issued separate memorandums for each of the other four reviews. OIG…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited the 68 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) claims submitted by CitiMortgage, Inc., of O’Fallon, MO. Our audit objective was to determine whether Citi properly determined that borrowers were eligible to participate in the Preforeclosure Sale Program. We found that Citi improperly submitted claims totaling nearly $5 million for 63 of the 68…

We performed a limited review of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (Wells Fargo) as a result of our internal audit of the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). During the audit, we visited Wells Fargo and reviewed a limited number of loans to determine whether the National Servicing Center implemented and operated FHA-HAMP in accordance with rules and regulations. Our objective for this limited review was…

We reviewed 12 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans that American Sterling Bank (American) underwrote as an FHA direct endorsement lender. Our review objective was to determine whether American underwrote the 12 loans in accordance with FHA requirements. This review is part of Operation Watchdog, an Office of Inspector General (OIG) initiative to review the underwriting of 15 direct endorsement lenders at the suggestion of the FHA…

We reviewed Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured home equity conversion mortgages (HECM) loans originated by First Call Mortgage Company and sponsored by James B. Nutter & Company (J.B.Nutter) during the period of January 2007 to December 2008. We reviewed these loans because in September 2008 state banking regulators from New Hampshire and Massachusetts found that First Call used deceptive business practices and did not have the…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, audited Midwest Mortgage Capital (Midwest). Our audit objectives were to determine whether Midwest followed HUD requirements for underwriting loans and performing its quality control program for single-family production. We concluded that Midwest did not properly underwrite 7 of the 29 defaulted loans reviewed. These loans had material underwriting…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General, audited CitiMortgage, Incorporated (CitiMortgage). Our audit objectives were to determine whether CitiMortgage followed U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements for underwriting loans and performing its quality control program for single-family production. We concluded that CitiMortgage did not properly underwrite 20 of the 60…