The whistleblower case the government tried to nix keeps coming back
Academy Mortgage Corporation's $38.5 million whistleblower settlement produced two Ninth Circuit rulings on April 6, 2026, both tied to the ongoing fight over attorneys' fees.
If you thought this case was done, it is not. The Thrower whistleblower case just generated a pair of appellate decisions on the same day, and the full story behind them is one every mortgage professional should know.
Here is what happened. In 2016, Gwen Thrower, a former mortgage underwriter at Academy Mortgage Corporation, filed a lawsuit against the company. She alleged that Academy had been falsely certifying its compliance with the Federal Housing Administration's Direct Endorsement Program – the program that lets approved lenders underwrite and endorse residential mortgages for government insurance without government review. When borrowers default on those loans, the Department of Housing and Urban Development picks up the tab. So when a lender games the certification process, the government is the one left holding the bag.
Thrower's case got off to a rough start. The government reviewed the allegations and decided not to step in, telling her legal team there was not enough evidence of systemic fraud at Academy. Most plaintiffs would have walked away at that point. Thrower did not. Her attorneys at Thomas & Solomon, a seven-person firm out of Rochester, New York, launched their own investigation. They spent weeks building...
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