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 a realtor purchased a property in January 2010 using a limited liability company he controlled while also acting as the seller’s agent.   On October 23, 2015, HUD served a complaint on the realtor, alleging…

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 realtor for the preforeclosure sale entered into a consulting agreement with the purchaser of the property.  The agreement required that when the purchaser later sold the property, he would pay half of the net…

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, Freedom…

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, HUD…

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&T Bank…

At the request of the HUD Office of Multifamily Housing Programs, OIG assessed Multifamily’s efforts to determine the impact its affordable housing programs had on preserving affordable housing via tenant outreach and advocacy activities to revitalize communities. Existing performance measures did not provide useful program evaluation information and did not meet Multifamily’s needs. OIG recommended program design and evaluation solutions that…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited Solace LLC’s Section 8 housing assistance payments program because of the results of our previous audit of another multifamily property.  The person responsible for housing assistance program issues at the other property was also Solace’s manager.  Our objectives were to determine whether Solace correctly computed tenant annual income,…

We performed a survey of Evergreen Moneysource Mortgage Company, doing business as Evergreen Home Loans, regarding its Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan origination process.  The review was part of our efforts to improve the integrity of single-family insurance programs.  We selected Evergreen’s Las Vegas branch because of its compare ratio.  Our audit objective was to determine whether Evergreen’s Las Vegas branch…

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Inspector General audited Reflection5 LLC’s Section 8 housing assistance payments program because of the results of a previous audit of another multifamily property.  The person responsible for housing assistance program issues at the other property was also involved with the housing assistance program at Reflection5.  Our objectives were to determine whether…

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 entered…

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 and Urban…

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 referred…

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 program…

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.  As a direct…

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 located in…

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 Remedies Act…

We reviewed the general and application controls over the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Single Family Insurance System (SFIS) and Single Family Insurance Claims Subsystem (Claims) as part of the internal control assessments required for the fiscal year 2015 financial statement audit under the Chief Financial Officer’s Act of 1990. Our objective was to assess the general and application controls over SFIS and Claims for compliance with…

We reviewed Sun West Mortgage Company’s loan underwriting activities, including quality controls, based on a citizen complaint alleging that the mortgage company was deficient in underwriting its loans.  The complaint further alleged that the mortgage company used unauthorized staff in another country and shared user identification numbers to “pre-underwrite” Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans.  Our objective was to…

We audited the Dolores Frances Affordable Housing project, based on a citizen complaint and a suggestion from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Departmental Enforcement Center.  The complaint alleged nonpayment of HUD utility allowances and security deposits, mismanagement of the maintenance department, related parties hired in supervisory positions, and conflict-of-interest vendor contracts by the related party…

We audited the Dolores Frances Affordable Housing project, based on a citizen complaint and a suggestion from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Departmental Enforcement Center.  The complaint alleged nonpayment of HUD utility allowances and security deposits, mismanagement of the maintenance department, related parties hired in supervisory positions, and conflict-of-interest vendor contracts by the related party…