FHFA says it told DOJ of North Koreans, Chinese at GSEs

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte claims the regulator has made criminal referrals for alleged North Korean and Chinese workers at the government-sponsored enterprises. 

The director made the claim in a televised interview Tuesday with Bloomberg and didn't share additional details. The FHFA referred five or six different people to the Department of Justice for working at either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. 

"There were non-citizens who were posing as either real Americans or in some cases contractors," said Pulte. "And we also recently uncovered some other things, where some of the Indians were also working inside of the companies as well. So more to come on that."

His comment regarding Indians seemingly refers to hundreds of employees Pulte fired at Fannie Mae last month over unspecified misconduct. The Times of India and other media previously reported hundreds of Telugu people from India fired from Fannie Mae on ethical grounds. 

A spokesperson for the FHFA in an email Wednesday declined to comment on ongoing investigations. 

Somebody close to the FHFA said the director was very surprised there wasn't more awareness and more alarm of the North Korean and Chinese workers, and that the director would make the issue a big priority moving forward.

Pulte in the interview also reiterated a claim that he's made over 50 directives in his short tenure. 

"The amount of nonsense going on is truly staggering, and these are going to be great American icons once again," said Pulte. 

Pulte has made only 12 orders related to the mortgage industry public via his social media account. Those include axing efforts like the GSEs' Special Purpose Credit Programs.  

The agency didn't respond to a question whether the FHFA was complying with an executive order by President Trump requiring all departments and agencies to disclose details about terminated programs, cancelled contracts and discontinued grants to the fullest extent allowed by law. 

A FHFA source however said the agency is in the process of aggregating the orders to publicly disclose them, and they should be coming forward in the next few weeks. 

Senate Democrats have also asked for answers from Pulte and said they'll continue to press the agency after its watchdog demurred on their investigative demands. 

Pulte shared a few other insights in the Bloomberg interview and a separate Milken Institute panel discussion, including suggesting the FHFA will review loan-level pricing adjustments in the next 2-to-4 months. He also confirmed that President Trump's cost-cutting task force was not involved with the GSEs but that he would welcome them, and that the agency has been doing its own cutting of fraud, waste and abuse at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. 

Throughout his frequent social media posts and interview appearances, Pulte hasn't hinted at whether the Trump administration is actively moving to privatize the GSEs. The director said the decision was up to President Trump and that he's discussed the GSEs with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, but declined to comment on whether they've had meetings regarding privatization.