Government

Christy Romero, Special Inspector General for the Trouble Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), announced Tuesday in a press release that David Weimert, of Madison, Wisconsin, has been charged with six counts of wire fraud involving a real estate development transaction.

Freddie Mac released its Monthly Volume Summary for January, 2014, noting their total mortgage portfolio decreased at an annualized rate of 1.9 percent in January. Despite a slight uptick in December, 2013, Freddie Mac’s ending balance has been declining since June, 2013.

A new report by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) says mortgage risk remains unaffected by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) qualified mortgage (QM) guidelines. The group’s National Mortgage Risk Index (NMRI), a measure of loan performance under stressful economic conditions, increased to a reading of 11.8 percent in January from 10.6 percent at the end of 2013.

Per new regulations finalized last week, the GSEs will be required to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) directly with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) rather than through their own regulator. Developed in coordination with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), FinCEN’s final rule is intended to provide law enforcement and regulators with a more complete picture of mortgage fraud.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ordered 1st Alliance Lending, LLC (First Alliance) to pay an $83,000 civil money penalty for violating federal law. The company illegally split real estate settlement fees, leading to the CFPB ordered payout. First Reliance self-reported the violations to the Bureau, admitted liability, and provided information related to other actors that helped facilitate other investigations.

Fannie Mae released its Comprehensive Income Statement for the fourth quarter of 2013, noting a quarterly net income of $6.5 billion. It was the eighth consecutive quarterly profit for the government-sponsored enterprise (GSE), resulting in a large dividend payment to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

After Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Deputy Director Steven Antonakes decried mortgage servicers for not doing enough to mend the industry after the recent housing crisis, one industry leader called his comments "inflammatory and without benefit to the audience."

The Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) announced that two Florida men accused of defrauding homeowners have been sentenced to 84 months in federal prison. Christopher Godfrey and Dennis Fischer were sentenced to 7 years in prison Thursday, as well as a subsequent three years of supervised release, for initiating a scheme to defraud homeowners by charging fees for applications that are provided by the government for free.

HomeSteps, the real estate sales division of Freddie Mac, announced Tuesday it is offering cash incentives to real estate agents who list or sell HomeSteps homes in 23 states. The incentive is available between February 18, and April 15, 2014.

A report released Wednesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) was critical of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s collection of late fees. The report criticized the two for poor management of late fee collection, noting large sums of money either not being consistently collected or collected at all.