Latest news with #U.S.FederalHousingFinanceAgency
Business Insider
11 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
BTC, ETH, XRP: U.S. to Consider Crypto Assets on Mortgage Applications
In what's being called a major shift, the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency is directing lenders to consider a person's cryptocurrency assets when evaluating home mortgage applications. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter The Housing Finance Agency has issued a directive ordering Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FMCC) to formally consider crypto as an asset in single-family mortgage assessments. The new order directs both housing finance agencies to develop proposals that include digital assets without requiring borrowers to liquidate them into U.S. dollars prior to a home loan closing. The move is being viewed as a new era of crypto integration into traditional finance and comes as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump pushes to legitimize digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and XRP (XRP). New Approach The U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency said in a social media post that the move aligns with President Trump's efforts 'to make the United States the crypto capital of the world.' Historically, cryptocurrency has been excluded from consideration in loan and mortgage applications due to its volatility and price swings, as well as the inability to easily verify reserves. That approach is now changing as the U.S. federal government and institutions embrace crypto across banking, payments, and as policy. 'Cryptocurrency is an emerging asset class that may offer an opportunity to build wealth outside of the stock and bond markets,' states the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency's order. The new directive restricts crypto mortgage consideration to digital assets that are stored on U.S.-regulated, centralized exchanges and can be clearly verified. It also requires Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop internal adjustments to account for crypto's market volatility. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has gained 11% this year. Is BTC a Buy?
The Herald Scotland
09-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
FBI opens investigation into NY AG Tish James, reports say
President Donald Trump has frequently attacked James since she won a $454 million judgement against Trump for defrauding lenders by inflating his assets in 2024. In a criminal referral filed in April, the Trump-appointed director of the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency accused James of falsifying bank documents and property records in multiple instances in order to acquire government backed assistance loans and more favorable loan terms. FHFA head William Pulte alleged in the referral that James potentially misrepresented property descriptions and claimed her primary residential status as Norfolk. He cited "media reports" as the basis. On April 24, attorney Abbe Lowell sent a letter to the Justice Department arguing the accusations against James are meritless and that they are motivated by Trump's personal animus towards James. "These baseless and long-discredited allegations, put to rest by my April 24th letter to the Department of Justice, are suddenly back in the news just days after President Trump publicly attacked Attorney General James," Lowell said in a May 8 statement on behalf of James. "This appears to be the political retribution President Trump threatened to exact that AG Bondi assured the Senate would not occur on her watch. If prosecutors are genuinely interested in the truth, we are prepared to meet false claims with facts." The Justice Department declined to comment. James is currently suing the Trump administration over cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services' and executive actions pertaining to elections that she says are unconstitutional. At the White House on May 6, the United States attorney general, Pam Bondi, declined to comment on the referral. "Well, I don't want to get involved in something that Pamela is involved with," Trump said, before he lit into James. The president said James is a "disaster for New York" and called her a "horrible, horrible human being" and "total crook." "That's just my opinion," he said. "Pam is going to have to do what she wants. She's a very bad person. She's a very, very bad, a very bad person who campaigned solely on, I'm going to get Donald Trump, over and over again." Trump again said that his comments, made in the presence of his hand-picked attorney general, have "nothing to do with what Pam does. Pam is going to do what's right. She always does." News outlets began reporting that DOJ had opened an investigation into James two days later.
The Independent
18-04-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Trump official urges criminal probe of New York attorney general, who calls request 'retaliation'
In the summer of 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James helped her niece buy a modest house in Norfolk, Virginia, by becoming a co-borrower on the mortgage loan. A top housing official in the Trump administration has now seized on a document in that transaction to argue that James should be prosecuted for bank fraud, asking the U.S. Justice Department in a letter to open a criminal investigation into the Democrat. The request for an investigation comes as the administration has pursued a campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump 's longtime foes in the legal world. James won a $454 million judgment against Trump last year in a lawsuit claiming he had lied about the value of his assets on financial statements given to banks. James called the allegations against her 'baseless." 'It is nothing more than a headline, nothing more than retaliation against all the actions I have taken successfully against Donald Trump," she said Wednesday in an interview on the New York cable news station NY1. In an April 14 letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi asking for an investigation, U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte cited 'media reports' claiming James had falsely listed a home in Virginia as her principal residence, which he hypothesized was an effort to avoid the higher interest rates people often pay for mortgages on second homes. As evidence, Pulte cited a legal form James signed on Aug. 17, 2023, in which she gave her niece, Shamice Thompson-Hairston, the authority to sign documents on her behalf in connection with the sale two weeks later. Those forms are required when a person involved in buying a house can't be present for the closing. That form included a line that says, 'I hereby declare that I intend to occupy this property as my principal residence.' 'At the time of the 2023 Norfolk, VA property purchase and mortgage, Ms. James was the siting Attorney General of New York and is required by law to have her primary residence in the state of New York — even though her mortgage applications list her intent to have the Norfolk, VA property as her primary home,' Pulte wrote in the letter asking for an investigation. James' office, however, shared a partial copy of a loan application in which she appeared to disclose that she didn't intend to live in Virginia. On the application, James was asked the question, 'Will you occupy the property as your primary residence?' She checked the box that said 'no." 'Donald Trump's weaponization of the federal government continues to careen out of control – and now they are using cherry-picked information to attack the Attorney General,' her office said in a statement. On another part of the loan application, James indicated she was applying for joint credit with Thompson-Hairston, who intended to use the home as her primary residence. That kind of arrangement isn't uncommon when parents help their children buy a starter home. Real estate lawyers who spoke to The Associated Press said it was difficult to tell, based on the limited number of documents available publicly, whether anything improper had taken place or whether James had tried to deceive anyone about where she intended to live. One Virginia lawyer told the AP he had never seen a power-of-attorney form before that had a reference to a primary residence. Brooklyn town house subject of scrutiny Pulte also accused James of lying about the number of apartments in a New York City town house she has owned since 2001. Pulte's letter cited a certificate of occupancy issued to a previous owner authorizing up to five living units in the Brooklyn building, where James lives and has rented apartments to some tenants. Multiple other city records indicate that the town house has four units. James has indicated in building permit applications and in mortgage documents for years that the building has four units. Past news articles about the building have also referred to it as having four units. Pulte hypothesized that James had misrepresented the number of units in order to qualify for federally backed mortgages offering interest rates unavailable to the owners of buildings with more than four units. Experts in New York real estate said discrepancies about the number of units in a building aren't uncommon when property changes hands and typically only draw scrutiny from regulators when the change allows an owner to reap some improper advantage, such as skirting rent regulations. 'For regulatory and income-generating purposes, going from five units to four units doesn't really help her,' said Andrew Scherer, a professor at New York Law School focused on housing law. 'It seems highly unlikely that this kind of a difference would in and of itself be legally consequential.' James' office said the building has four units and noted that the certificate of occupancy listing it as having five predated her ownership. City inspection finds no violation Beginning in July 2023, shortly before the start of Trump's civil fraud trial, the city's Department of Buildings began receiving anonymous complaints claiming James had illegally misclassified the property. 'Why is she NOT being prosecuted for fraud and filling false documents when other people have been persecuted for far less crimes,' one complaint read. Inspectors with the city's Department of Buildings have found no violations. During their most recent visit on Wednesday, an inspection report determined the complaint was 'unsubstantiated based on department records.' Trump's lawyers have appealed the judgment that James won against him. The president says he didn't mislead anyone about the value of his properties. ___ Sisak and Offenhartz reported from New York.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration targets NY Attorney General Letitia James
NEW YORK (PIX11) – Donald Trump's administration has taken aim at New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has previously taken legal action against the president. Trump's U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director, William Pulte, sent a letter Monday to federal Attorney General Pam Bondi referring James for criminal prosecution. More Local News A copy of the letter was posted to Trump's campaign account on X. In the letter, Pulte accuses James of mortgage fraud. The director accuses James of falsifying bank documents and property records to get loans. In a statement to PIX11 News, a spokesperson for James' office said she will not be 'intimidated by bullies.' 'Attorney General James is focused every single day on protecting New Yorkers, especially as this Administration weaponizes the federal government against the rule of law and the Constitution. She will not be intimidated by bullies – no matter who they are,' said a spokesperson for the Attorney General's office. James previously won a civil fraud case against Trump, accusing him of falsely inflating his net worth and the value of his assets. She has since sued the administration over pulled funding. Emily Rahhal is a digital reporter who has covered New York City since 2023 after reporting in Los Angeles for years. She joined PIX11 in 2024. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
