There are a few reasons. For 1014 the statement has to be knowingly false and made for the purpose of influencing the lender. If she provided accurate info on application (used to assess the rate) that suggests she wasn’t misrepresenting her occupancy on the instrument in order to get better rate.
Journalists shouldn't take the slanderous bait. Instead, focus on how wild it is to use a twitter rumor about financing a home in 2021 as an excuse to fire a black Fed Governor FOR CAUSE, when she is a qualified, accomplished professional who hasn't been allowed to defend herself.
Beyond the criminal liability question, I think it’s just bad journalism for reporters to assert or imply that these representations were made outright on the application—we don’t know that. All we know is that she signed a contract containing a standard occupancy clause w/ conditional language.
How did Pulte get her application and agreement?
It’s likely that any mortgage paperwork discrepancy was created by the mortgage company when they processed the documents. Pulte’s public disclosure of confidential agreement documents is a crime. She should sue him.
If her lawyers push this angle I bet the government will eventually say that the “unitary executive” privilege applies to other officials “following orders”
I wonder if DOGE was involved. I also wonder if these are the people we know about, which public figures are they blackmailing privately?
This is starting to piss me off 🤬
Ken paxton caught red handed doing worse and yet pulte not referring to doj.
I don’t know that he has her applications. His criminal referrals (as well as Trump’s statements and DOJ’s court filings) appear to refer exclusively to the mortgage instruments/agreements, which are public records.
Fannie/Freddie have the complete loan files, and he has personal dominion over both companies. He is almost certainly telling their fraud units to pull files for various targets and asking them to review. No shadowy Palantir/AI tools needed for this, just garden variety Nixonian abuse of power.
Friendly advice to anyone covering this story is to read up a bit about how FHFA and the conservatorships actually function, legally. FHFA Director can be astonishingly powerful if they choose to be.
What he posted online was nothing more than signature blocks.
@annabower.bsky.social , you do the Lord's work.
When is he going to criminally refer paxton for his mortgage app shenanigans?
And when media outlets refer to their review of “mortgage documents,” they are almost certainly referring to the publicly available mortgage *instruments/agreements*. Anyone can easily locate those in state property records databases—but not the mortgage *applications,* which aren’t public records.
One thing to realize is that you can take out a mortgage as primary Buy another house and as a primary And it has NO Effect On the original loan Primary is at origination of loan only Same for FICO Score and LTV Etc…
Who is the victim when banks dont do their due diligence? 🤔
Yo mamma
Mortgage applications contain personally identifiable information and would not be public. These stunts are more instances where the MAGAts think they've got evidence but it just turns out they don't know how anything works. Fucking idiots.
I retired from banking and worked in operations. Banks are just about constantly under some kind of audit of review by the state and feds. If there were problems with applications such as easily identifiable fraud, they would have already been flagged/addressed. This is pure bullshit.
*audit or review
Very interesting
I presume if we have the mortgage instruments we have the addresses, yeah? I would imagine you can use process of elimination to identify her application data on the national HMDA LAR published by the CFPB. I’ve done that a couple times before. But still wouldn’t know if an MLO said to do it.
Thank god Yates is healthy again.
Media outlets are notoriously lazy in their coverage
Apparently, only Trump and his cronies are allowed to blatantly lie, cheat, steal, abuse and grift. *not suggesting Cook did any of those things.
Now look at Josh Hawley. www.columbiamissourian.com/opinion/gues...
bsky.app/profile/niti...
Which should not have information like what her primary residence is. And an agreement between the buyer and seller is not public either. The deed of sale is.
If it's through FinCEN, we should be very, very alarmed.
Does it matter? I hate that this is happening but I think great effort is being wasted. The problem is the Unitary Executive's ability to turn what might be a clerical error into "cause". POTUS creates the liability which is, in this specific context, undefensible. It's crazy. It's happening.
Until SCOTUS limits POTUS' authority we are all screwed.
What I wanna know is, it’s rich that DJT is accusing her of mortgage issues and propping up values to get preferential treatment on loans…same crap he did and even his valuation of size of his apartment…grossly over valued. So what gives…
By nefarious means, I would posture.
DOGE Bros is my guess
That’s the right question I haven’t heard enough people ask. I always thought it was illegal to access mortgage info due to very very strict privacy laws…add Pulte’s name to the the very long list of ‘admin’ officials who needed to be eventually investigated/prosecuted.
I'm reading a number of sources that say mortgage documents are public.
The mortgage “instruments” (agreements) are public. The mortgage applications are not.
Thank you, Anna. And thanks for all the great coverage of all these legal cases. If the applications are private how did these get released? Who is liable?
I’d love to see someone dig up some dirt on Pulte.
More dirt on Pile of sh*t PULTE than her!! So PULTE just randomly planned to fire the only black woman on the FEDERAL RESERVES? KKK PRESIDENCY
DOGE
I used to process mortgages & close them. If someone owns a primary residence already & is buying a new home as their primary residence we always required documentation at closing about the 1st primary residence being sold or possibly converted to a rental.
The first home's status may not change for the existing mortgage. You do have to change the status when paying the property taxes. There are some exceptions about primary residence status, too. themortgagereports.com/29744/mortga...
What no one's talking about is the violation of the FINANCIAL PRIVACY ACT! Bill Pulte as chair of FNMA and FHLMC apparently conducted a fishing expedition into the loan records of Dumpty enemies (and probably friends). The absolute irony is that Dumpty has been convicted of lying to his lenders.
Key Provisions of financial privacy act: Customer Consent: Govt agcies get cust consent before accessing financial records. Notification: Cust must be notified before their records are disclosed & allowed to challenge. Exceptions: Specific conditions-valid subpoena or search warrant.
So far at least the referrals seem to have relied on public records
(And, btw, what’s on the application def doesn’t settle the matter! She could’ve been eligible to apply for primary residence on both applications even if she didn’t intend to occupy the property as such. E.g., if she was purchasing the GA condo for a parent to live in.)
Thank you, and there is even more latitude between banks.
Less so for conforming loans
and also, whatever she wrote on any mortgage documents is irrelevant to her ability to do her Fed job ethically and competently. Not to mention she didn’t yet have the Fed job when she signed the documents. It’s frivolous in at least three distinct ways.
They did this same bullshit to BW Senator Angela Also Brooks & BW Marilyn Mosby. How convenient to try to bring them down w/ false "mortgage fraud" applications. Let's see all of ur documents 2.0 & GOP. Clerical errors are common in mortgage lending, as the applicant doesn't fill it out.
Also, now,some AI lending software won't let you pull a rate until you check certain boxes. Doesn't mean anything nefarious & she's allowed to have more than one primary residence for her own purposes. I do, in DC(w/ husband) & MD(w/ elderly parent). That's my business. Such disingenuous arguments 🙄
On one of our mortgages, there were errors in the original docs that were presented to us to sign. I caught it, and we signed corrected docs. But somehow that error-riddled original got reported to the credit reporting agencies, and the issue of conflicting information still bedevils us.
Happens all the time. More than people realize. It costly for title companies to go back & correct clerical errors. Most don't bother. One of my mortgages was never recorded. Then title company went outta business. So, I had to get title insurance to correct it. Pain in the ass but it happens.
Also, my understanding is that a person can, in some cases, designate a second primary home if their job requires them to be a distance away from their original primary home and they intend to keep it and occupy both at different times.
If I purchase a second home that I intend to make my primary, am I obligated to contact my first mortgage provider to advise them that this is no longer my primary residence?
Sometimes. Depends on your agreement.
I'd like to see preexisting relevant cases that would clarify how this type of case is normally handled. It bears noting Trump was a serial mortgage fraudster on a scale that dwarfs there allegations.
Or co-signing
I think someone said she cosigned for her daughter's home. Not sure where I saw it.
meanhwil, just icymi, the Texian AG has what seems to be his own paperwork issues... apnews.com/article/paxt...
Does this lady have 34 convictions for business fraud? Was she fined $25 million for running a fraudulent university? If not, I'd give her a break.
100%
Not bad journalism, it’s bullshit. CNBC is pro tiny shit pants
Agree. Bad journalism to imply anything without the facts.
Is this rate differential enough to bother misrepresenting on an application? I mean... she's a successful banker. You dont need to care much about rates when you can pay it off before the term is over.
This is "the headshot," no?
Can all reporters also include in every headline and story how highly unusual and inappropriate it is that this info is even in the hands of Pulte.
Yeah, def the bigger story but it’s more complicated to explain, and most media like trump, so this will be the focus instead.
Isn't the agreement generated by the bank, while the application was filled out by the applicant? So if the agreement says it was for a primary residence, that could just mean that a bank employee entered it that way.