Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Report: Feds bust Corey Johnson's company for racial discrimination

Corey Johnson's employers must pay $3.5 million to settle a racially-based lending discrimination lawsuit brought by the Federal Government. The following is the press release issued to announce the settlement.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
UNITED STATES REACHES LENDING DISCRIMINATION
SETTLEMENT WITH GFI MORTGAGE BANKERS INC.

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Thomas E. Perez, the Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, and John TrasviƱa, Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD"), announced today that GFI Mortgage Bankers Inc., a large independent home mortgage firm that concentrates on the New York, New Jersey, and Florida markets, will pay $3.555 million to resolve a lending discrimination lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit alleges that GFI engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination by pricing residential mortgage loans for qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers higher than for similarly qualified non-Hispanic white borrowers between 2005 and 2009. The consent order, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan – where GFI is headquartered – was approved today by U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: "With the settlement we announce today, the hundreds of victims of lending discrimination committed by GFI will be made whole, and the company has admitted the conduct that led to this lawsuit, and agreed to reform its residential lending practices. The swift resolution of this case demonstrates the commitment of this Office and of the entire Department of Justice to aggressively enforcing the laws against discriminatory lending, and to holding accountable those who engage in this illegal conduct."

See the rest of the press release after the jump