Compliance

It's time for eggnog and yearend lists—top news stories, newsmakers, stuff like that. But what about the great mortgage rumors that got away? Here lay five stories/rumors that went nowhere:

The Federal Housing Finance Agency believes California Attorney General Kamala Harris is pestering Fannie Mae with stupid questions. Whether that opinion is enough justification for the government-sponsored enterprise to ignore her queries is to be determined.

E*Trade Financial Corp. and its insurers have agreed to pay $79 million to settle a class-action suit brought by investors over losses in its mortgage and home-equity loan portfolios.

The Justice Department late Wednesday announced that it has reached a $335 million settlement with Countrywide Financial Corp., now owned by Bank of America, in the largest fair lending action in history.

Democratic Rep. Brad Miller and Republican Rep. Walter Jones are sending a message to federal officials who will need to sign off on any settlement agreement reached between state attorneys general and mortgage servicers: do not release the servicers from any violations of a federal law that protects members of the military.

The U.S. Government Services Administration entered into a contract with eMASON that will allow federal agencies to purchase the mortgage technology vendor’s software at negotiated prices.

After reading bits and pieces of the Securities and Exchange Commission's complaint against the former heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac one thought comes to mind: what exactly is a subprime loan again?

Bank of America is close to settling a Justice Department probe into whether its Countrywide Financial Corp. unit violated fair-lending practices, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Daniel Mudd, the former Fannie Mae CEO who is the subject of a new, massive SEC fraud suit, announced Wednesday morning that he is taking a leave of absence from his current employer, Fortress Investment Group, New York.

It looks like Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller won't be getting his Christmas wish this year. Miller, who is leading the settlement talks with the top five mortgage servicers, said earlier this month that the settlement should be reached by the holiday.

During the week of Dec. 5, three conspirators in a Valley mortgage-fraud ring say a Mesa minister with a worldwide following masterminded the scheme. A former loan officer, escrow agent and straw buyer who have pleaded guilty as part of a deal with federal authorities SAY THEY HELPED CLINT ROGERS launder millions of dollars through his ministry.

An Illinois man pleaded guilty in federal court for advertising and selling property in northwestern Alabama that he did not own or provide title for after receiving payments from prospective homebuyers to purchase these assets.

With a nod to Bob Dylan's prophetic lyrics, it seems the times are changing for the mortgage industry. Significant changes now taking place in the way mortgage loans are originated have created new challenges. Creative loan products have become a part of the past.

The trustee of the Meridian Investors Trust has filed a lawsuit on behalf of investors of the failed Meridian Mortgage funds to recoup over $150 million relating to a Ponzi scheme using their money.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, told investors at the beginning of 2011 that potential repurchases of private-label mortgage securities are "not that material" for his bank - an assertion that increasingly appears to be in doubt.

Nevada's attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto this week filed civil fraud charges against Lender Processing Services and two subsidiaries alleging the company engaged in a widespread fraud of forging foreclosure documents.

Alabama prosecutors opened a trial this week against a woman accused of helping her brother run a sophisticated fraud that helped obtain millions of dollars in fraudulent mortgages from First Educators Credit Union in Birmingham and other lenders to finance condominium rehabs at the Gulf Shores resorts.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday sued Richard Syron, the former chief executive officer of Freddie Mac, and Daniel Mudd, ex-CEO of Fannie Mae, over disclosures they made about subprime assets the GSEs invested in.

FHFA Inspector General Steve Linick said he has opened "numerous" criminal and civil investigations of lenders, servicers, individuals and other firms that have victimized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Mortgage document preparation technology vendor DocuTech acquired competing doc prep technology Docs3D in a deal announced Tuesday.