For a US financial institution, we were asked to investigate the underwriting activities of a major mortgage lender in connection with ongoing litigation. Although it was well known that this lender had originated billions of dollars of non-performing loans, no one had fully documented the lender’s pattern and practice of providing mortgages to unqualified borrowers.
Over 1,000 former employees, located across the US, were contacted and interviews attempted. Information obtained from the employees, in some instances provided in the form of affidavits, confirmed the lender’s poor practices. Moreover, one witness was an analyst who reported directly to executive level management. This witness told us of his warnings to the lender’s executives and identified specific reports that he had provided to those executives concerning problem loans. Those reports had not yet been produced in discovery.
Our work and the information developed by counsel were used to reach a favorable settlement in the matter.