Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte Talks Lisa Cook's Mortgage Fraud Investigation
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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A big bomb thrown into the mix by Bill Pulte, the head of the nation's leading finance agency, asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. Allegations made by Bill Pulte citing documents that his agency received involving mortgage fraud. the Justice Department has weighed in and said that they are considering looking deeper into the matter. Lisa Cook herself has already responded, saying that she is willing to provide any additional information that the investigators are looking for, but that she won't be bullied into stepping down. I'm pleased to say that Bill Pulte joins us right now. He is the director, of course, of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
And Bill, I do want to start off particularly with the investigation, of course, that you brought to light, that Bloomberg reporters brought to light prior to that, and the documents that are at the center of that, and where exactly those mortgage documents originated from and how they got to your desk.
Well, those are public documents. Anybody who, frankly, can do some research with Google and get to county websites can easily find these documents. You know, the media, including yourself, it sounds like, are going to try to make this into some kind of witch hunt or something like that. Quite the contrary. This is self-evident. This is black and white stuff. And frankly, the fact that the media and so many people are asking questions in the elite class about this goes to show that people think that there are rules for some people and rules for other people. Mortgage fraud is prosecuted every day in this country. And I'm sorry to say, not really though, that a politician or a public official in this case is now the subject of mortgage fraud.
Normal people have to deal with this nearly every day in this country. This is nothing new. Defrauding people is nothing new. And now all of a sudden that you have somebody very powerful, now people have to question it. It doesn't make any sense to me. And I believe that she committed mortgage fraud.
When you look at the documents that you have, the publicly available documents, I am curious whether you or anyone at your agency had a chance to actually speak to Lisa Cook, her lawyers, or any representatives about what you found in those documents.
Obviously, while I respect the question, anything that has to do with the federal investigation, I am not going to comment on. However, I would say, well, what is within the confines of the referral letter of which I'm willing to speak about.
What are the allegations against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook?
What is your involvement in the investigation, Bill? Well, as you know, I'm the regulator of Fannie and Freddie as well as the conservator of Fannie and Freddie. And so this is right in the bullseye of what my job is. I promised before the Senate, before I was confirmed by the Senate, that I would investigate mortgage fraud. And I'm not going to be intimidated by anyone. I'm not going to be intimidated by the media, the politicians. They can say whatever they want. If it's a Republican who's committing mortgage fraud, we're going to look at it. If it's a Democrat, we're going to look at it. If it's a wealthy politician or a lawyer, we're going to look at it. So we're not just looking at everyday people.
And I'd say the one thing, Romaine, which is that we refer people almost every day. I refer people daily. every week on a minimum to the Department of Justice for mortgage fraud. This is literally what I am required to do underneath the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which is to ensure the safety and soundness of the mortgage market.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:04
2
What are the allegations against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook?
3:04–6:36
3
How does Bill Pulte justify the investigation into Lisa Cook?
6:36–12:38
4
What role does the Federal Housing Finance Agency play in mortgage fraud investigations?
12:38–15:04
5
How does Bill Pulte respond to questions about intimidation in investigations?
15:04–16:47
Speakers
7 identifiedMore from Bloomberg Talks
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