Fhfa’s Bill Pulte Is Being Investigated After Mortgage Fraud Referrals

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has launched an investigation to determine whether Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte and other employees misused their authority and resources when making criminal referrals against several public figures over mortgage fraud allegations.

The probe stems from a letter sent by a group of Senate Democrats to Gene Dodaro, the Comptroller General of the United States. The lawmakers noted that public reporting suggests Pulte’s methods for submitting criminal referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) were “bizarre,” “unusual,” and “unheard of.”

A GAO spokesperson told HousingWire that the agency “has accepted this request following our standard process.”

“The first thing GAO does as any work begins is to determine the full scope of what we will cover and the methodology to be used. This can take a few months, and until that is done, we cannot provide any estimates on a completion date,” the spokesperson said. 

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) requested the GAO review of Pulte’s actions.  

Pulte has made criminal referrals against New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.).

The senators wrote that, “it is unclear why Pulte made these claims, how he accessed the information as Director to make such claims, and whether and how official FHFA resources — staff time, government communications systems, or privileged data — were used to do so,” the senators wrote. 

They also said that publicly disclosing the criminal referrals could violate federal privacy laws, including the Privacy Act of 1974.

Reports suggest that Pulte’s methods were questioned internally, prompting Fannie Mae officials to investigate whether he improperly obtained mortgage records of Democratic officials. Some of these officials were subsequently fired, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

Suzanne Libby, Fannie Mae’s chief ethics officer, was removed, and Danielle McCoy, who served as general counsel, resigned under pressure. The FHFA’s acting inspector general, Joe Allen, who forwarded the report to prosecutors, was also asked to step down.