UWM antitrust suit from America's Moneyline quashed (for now)

A federal judge has moved to toss another antitrust suit against United Wholesale Mortgage and its All-In initiative. 

America's Moneyline, one of the first mortgage brokers to be targeted by UWM for breaking the All-In ultimatum, filed a countersuit in February 2022, claiming the wholesale lender is "seeking to create a monopoly in the wholesale mortgage lending industry." A Michigan federal judge threw out the complaint March 29, relying on a recommendation made by a Florida judge one month earlier as justification.

In February, U.S. Magistrate Judge Laura Lothman Lambert recommended a suit filed by  Florida-based brokerage The Okavage Group, which also accused UWM of violating federal antitrust laws, be dismissed because it failed to convince her that the wholesale lender's ultimatum is anticompetitive. 

"Plaintiff includes no factual allegations to plausibly allege the potential for genuine adverse effects on competition and thus, fails to allege a sufficient link between the ultimatum and harm to competition within the overall mortgage market or the wholesale retail mortgage market," Florida's magistrate said. 

(The Okavage Group filed an objection to Lambert's filings, which will eventually be reviewed by the U.S. District Judge Wendy W. Berger in the Middle District of Florida, based in Jacksonville.)

Michigan-based U.S. District Judge Laurie J. Michelson wrote she agrees with and adopts the Florida ruling and is granting UWM's motion to dismiss. Despite this, Judge Michelson said that if Judge Lambert's recommendations get reversed, the Michigan court would "consider those rulings and whether they merit reconsideration of this one." 

AML did not respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for UWM said the company is "not surprised with the decision from the Federal court." "This is exactly what we expected and know it's the right decision based on the law and the contracts that were signed," the company's spokeswoman added. 

As of Monday, AML's website was no longer functioning and it currently sponsors only two loan officers, per the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System. 

Meanwhile, Mortgage Moneyline, an entity created two years ago by AML's owner Shawn Nevin and Dean Lob, the company's former chief operating officer, has over a dozen AML employees registered and an active website. Mortgage Moneyline was created in May 2022, three months after UWM filed its $2.8 million suit, documents show. 

UWM is suing three other companies for selling loans to Fairway and Rocket, with two of those cases filed in the past four months. Another lender, Mid Valley Funding, agreed to settle and pay UWM $40,000 last June, the company confirmed. (Since February, Fairway is no longer involved in wholesale lending.)