Institutional Investor Fraud Tag Archives

In Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla ruled that a few dozen funds may pursue their mortgage-backed securities fraud lawsuits against Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) According to Reuters, five lawsuits are involved and plaintiffs include funds from Prudential Financial Inc.(PRU), BlackRock Inc. (BLK), TIAA-CREF, and Pacific Investment Management Co. (PIMICO) Judge Failla also said that the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) could proceed with its MBS fraud claims against the San Francisco-based bank, which it filed on behalf of five credit unions that failed after they bought $2.4B in residential mortgage-backed securities.

The funds are seeking to hold Wells Fargo liable for breach of contract and conflict of interest involving over four dozen trusts, breach of due care, and breach of fiduciary duty. Failla, however, did not allow claims contending violation of a NY law related to mortgage trusts, as well as claims of general negligence, to proceed.

The investors contend that the bank took “virtually no action” to make sure that lenders either bought back the faulty securities or fixed the loans that were backing the securities once they knew that the loans were poorly underwritten or had defaulted. They accused Wells Fargo of failing to act despite being aware of these problems.

A jury is ordering Credit Suisse (CS) to pay a $40 million verdict to Highland Capital Management LP. The hedge fund firm, based in Texas, accused the bank of duping it into refinancing a real-estate development that wasn’t solid. According to the ruling, issued in state court in Dallas, Credit Suisse is 65% at fault.

Highland’s Claymore Holdings LLC claimed that the bank knew it was employing a flawed appraisal to garner investments in Lake Las Vegas, which was a massive residential and resort community of over 3,500 acres that filed for bankruptcy six years ago. Credit Suisse said the investment did not go well not because it misled Highland but because of the recession.

The hedge fund company, however, contends that the flawed appraisal used by Credit Suisse inflated the value of collateral behind $540 million in loans to refinance the community in 2007. Highland says that the motivation was the fees made by Credit Suisse to underwrite the transaction.

Articles Tagged with Institutional Investor Fraud

Federal Judge Orders Wells Fargo to Face Institutional Investors’ MBS Fraud Lawsuits

Credit Suisse Ordered to Pay $40M Verdict to Highland Capital