San Francisco, CAThere’s a new twist in U.S. v. Academy Mortgage Corp., a whistleblower lawsuit brought by former underwriter, Gwen Thrower. In 2016, Thrower filed a claim under the False Claims Act (FCA), asserting that Academy Mortgage was making mortgage loans that did not meet established Federal Housing Authority (FHA) credit requirements. The FHA insures the mortgage and pays the lender if the homebuyer defaults on or fails to repay the loan. Only lenders that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) approves can participate in the program.
When last we left off, Academy Mortgage sought summary judgment against the whistleblower. That would have ended the long-running lawsuit.
Thrower has now filed her own motion for partial summary judgment. She does so on two grounds:
The FCA provides that anyone who knowingly submits a false claim to the government may be liable for three times the government’s damages plus a penalty of that is now linked to inflation. In addition to allowing the federal government to pursue perpetrators of fraud on its own, the law also allows private citizens to file...
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