Bloomberg Talks
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte Talks Lisa Cook's Mortgage Fraud Investigation
21 Aug 2025
Chapter 1: 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.
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Chapter 2: 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.
When you say you're referring, you're talking about just rank and file people going through your own agency documents. Is that a routine process or is this something that has been very specifically started over the last few weeks or months?
We look at fraud generally. We say, look, if everybody and anybody who knows about mortgage fraud, they can go to fraudtips at fhfa.gov. We will take in all of the requests and all of the submissions that people have. We've poured through many of these tips. We have seen just an insane amount of tips on mortgage fraud. Mortgage fraud is a huge issue in this country.
So we get it from fraudtips at fhfa.gov. We get it through traditional other means, whether it be by mail or what have you. And also there's stuff There's stuff in the media all the time as it relates to mortgage fraud. So we will take it from anywhere and everywhere. And again, our main focus is on the safety and soundness of the mortgage market.
OK, that makes sense. So I guess my question to you, Bill, is was there some kind of tip off to look into Lisa Cook's documentation specifically?
As I have said publicly, there was a tip that we received. I do not comment on the source, identity, or any other means that we use during a federal investigation as it pertains to things that are outside of the referral letter.
You can imagine that if we start exposing, whether it be on this investigation or other investigations, where we receive tips from, where we get whistleblowers from, this is a very serious thing. And so when people are trying to, in my view, intimidate whistleblowers, intimidate tipsters... I strongly condemn that.
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Chapter 3: How does Bill Pulte justify the investigation into Lisa Cook?
Is it Is it mortgage fraud to say that you live in one area and not another area? Yes, it is mortgage fraud. So you're not focusing on the fraud. You're focusing on the investigators for purposes of trying to undermine what it is that she did, allegedly, and what it is that mortgage fraud and the risk that mortgage fraud poses to the system. And we're not going to be intimidated.
I mean, we swore an oath and we are going to continue to prosecute mortgage fraud. It doesn't matter whether it's a Republican, a Democrat, a public official, or Joe Blow on the street. Absolutely.
And we are in agreement for that. But what we are doing here is we are actually focusing on both issues, both the potential for fraud, and we are digging deeper into that. And we should point out that Bloomberg has made concerted efforts to reach out to Lisa Cook and her representatives, to the Fed, as well as to folks in the White House and administration beyond you.
At the same time, Bill, we also have raised concern about whether this might be a weaponization of your office, a weaponization of the White House. And I am curious if there has been direct I don't know, guidance from the White House to pursue this?
We discovered this within the confines of our charter that Congress has given us. We continue to receive tips within the confines that Congress has given us. As I said, people can go and email us. They can send us tips. We encourage that to happen. And that's how this was sourced. And it's going to continue to be sourced.
And just because now, somebody said to me earlier today, they said, mortgage fraud is being controversial by some people in the media because you've really hit on power. And that struck me because I'm like, shouldn't power be against mortgage fraud?
It just doesn't make sense to me now that you have somebody who's in this type of position and now it's controversial and maybe now mortgage fraud isn't mortgage fraud. I mean, you saw the Federal Reserve president from Kansas City. That was quite an odd exchange that he had about, you know, blaming the forms and stuff like that. Let's call it what it is.
People have a responsibility and people in power especially have a responsibility to read legal documents before they sign them.
Well, I mean, to that point here, I mean, there's been a lot of talk about a report that the Philadelphia Fed put out, I think, back in 2023, specifically on this issue of owner occupancy fraud, basically the idea of putting on a mortgage application that you're going to use something at your primary residence and get to get a lower mortgage rate. What is that?
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Chapter 4: What role does the Federal Housing Finance Agency play in mortgage fraud investigations?
I think that number is north of 50%. $500 billion now that these assets are worth. Since taking office, not just focusing on mortgage fraud and other systemic issues like safety and soundness mandates, like we just spent the last 10 minutes on, but is also focused on driving value and treating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as if they're businesses.
Taking cost out of these businesses that is redundant and unnecessary. and also making sure that we are always thinking about how do we, within the confines of the law and in the best interest of the American people, run these things as businesses. So if people aren't performing, we get rid of them.
We don't keep them around for years and years and years and decades just because they're politically connected. And so I think that this has enabled the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac story to really, with President Trump's help, unlock a lot of value for the American people. And it'll be very interesting to see what the president decides to do in this regard.
With regard, so I mean, I mean, I was looking at the video that you guys put out. I think it was came through the White House's account about the Great American Mortgage Company. So basically the combination of these two, also what does appear to be a rebranding of your agency and this U.S. financial technology segment, which I guess would sort of help with regards to the securitization.
Now, what is the idea? All of that bill would be under the same umbrella. And I assume the that you would be at the helm?
Well, we'll see. I mean, you know, these companies are in conservatorship, as you know, which basically means that the president is in charge of these companies. And there was a Supreme Court ruling which made that very clear. I would say that any and all options are on the table. One of the things that I've been focused on, Romain, has been since getting in this seat is on creating value. Now,
What the president ultimately decides to do with that value is entirely up to him. But we had a thing called common securitization solutions. Nobody understood what this thing was generally out there. And so we decided to rebrand it as US FinTech and really focus on what it is, which is financial technology. I believe this business is worth billions and billions of dollars.
It was previously neglected in my view. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have put almost a billion dollars into this platform. And so we're unlocking value there. And then with Fannie and Freddie, we'll see. We'll see if the name has changed. We'll see if these things are there. But we're trying to aspire to a new tomorrow.
You know, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were these once nearly bankrupt assets or bankrupt assets, many people would say. And we're trying to revitalize those. These should be great American icons. We are the greatest economy in the world.
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Chapter 5: How does Bill Pulte respond to questions about intimidation in investigations?
Mm-hmm.
and we have a great president, and we are going to use these assets to benefit the American people and get the most value out of these assets that we can.
Do you have any sense of a timetable of maybe when that will either get done or at least we'll get a little bit more guidance, the public will get more guidance on when that will be done?
That'll entirely be up to the president. The only one who knows that it is in his brain. And so I'll let him decide on timing, of course. But I would say that, you know, the president's very interested in this issue. And it's very nice to have a president who cares about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
All right. We thank you. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte joining us. And reminder that we are once again out to Fed Governor Lisa Cook for comment. And so far, she has declined our requests for an interview.
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