Woman Who Couldn’t Be Intimidated By Citigroup Wins $31 Million
Source: Bloomberg
... In November 2004, (Sherry) Hunt, now 55, joined Citigroup Inc. as a vice president in the mortgage unit. It looked like a great career move. The housing market was booming, and the New York- based bank, the sixth-largest lender in the U.S. at the time, was responsible for 3.5 percent of all home loans. Hunt supervised 65 mortgage underwriters at CitiMortgage Inc.s sprawling headquarters in OFallon, Missouri, 45 minutes west of St. Louis.
Hunts team was responsible for protecting Citigroup from fraud and bad investments. She and her colleagues inspected loans Citi wanted to buy from outside brokers and lenders to see whether they met the banks standards. The mortgages had to have properly signed paperwork, verifiable borrower income and realistic appraisals.
... At the mortgage-processing factory in OFallon, Hunt was working on an assembly line that helped inflate a housing bubble whose implosion would shake the world. The OFallon mortgage machinery was moving too fast to check every loan, Hunt says.
... All a dishonest person had to do was change the reports to make things look better than they were, Hunt says. I wouldnt play along.
Instead, she took her employer to court -- and won. In August 2011, five months after the meeting with Polkinghorne, Hunt sued Citigroup in Manhattan federal court, accusing its home-loan division of systematically violating U.S. mortgage regulations.
Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-31/woman-who-couldn-t-be-intimidated-by-citigroup-wins-31-million.html
bluestateguy
(44,173 posts)crickets...
rocktivity
(44,588 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 1, 2012, 02:01 AM - Edit history (1)
her lawyers don't get paid (30% minimum!) until she gets the check, so it may not take as long as you think.
rocktivity
tinrobot
(10,927 posts)The check comes from the federal government and is paid out of the $158 million settlement.