On Tues. April 8, government sponsored-enterprise Fannie Mae announced that over the past few weeks, it had fired over 100 employees due to fraud, including mortgage fraud, against the company. The announcement did not elaborate on the specifics of what the claimed fraud was.
William J. Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), who was confirmed to the position on March 13, issued a statement following the announcement. Pulte is also chairman of the board of directors of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“In President Trump’s housing market, there is no room for fraud, mortgage fraud or any other deceitful act that can jeopardize the safety and soundness of the housing industry. Since my swearing-in, we fired over 100 employees from Fannie Mae who we caught engaging in unethical conduct, including facilitating fraud, against our great company. Anyone who commits fraud against Fannie Mae does so against the American people,” said Pulte.
“I would like to thank Director Pulte for his empowering of Fannie Mae to root out unethical conduct, including anyone facilitating fraud. We hold our employees to the highest standards, and we will continue to do so,” added Priscilla Almodovar, president and CEO of Fannie Mae, in the statement.
News of firings at Fannie Mae were also reported shortly before the company’s own announcement in Indian newspapers. The Times of India reported that 700 employees in total had been let go from Fannie Mae. Some of this came from expected layoffs, the Times reported, but about 200 Indian-American employees were fired on ethical grounds.
The fraud is described as a misuse of Fannie Mae’s matching gifts program, where the company will match employees’ eligible donations to causes/organizations up to $5,000. The fired employees allegedly colluded with organizations such as the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) to misuse Fannie Mae funds for personal gain.
The Times of India added that one of the dismissed Fannie Mae employees was a regional vice president of TANA. Earlier this year, several Indian-origin employees were let go from Apple for a similar misuse of that company’s matching gifts program.
It was not clear if the Times of India report was referring to the same firings announced by Pulte.
Fannie Mae is not the only housing authority in the government seeing staffing cutbacks. In an X (formerly Twitter) post on April 8, Pulte also highlighted an over 25% reduction in FHFA’s workforce.
“We exceeded DOGE’s expectations,” Pulte wrote, referring to the controversial “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE. “We’re consolidating divisions to focus on building more homes and strengthening safety and soundness.”
One of the Trump administration’s stated goals is ending the government conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in place since the 2008 financial crisis. It remains to be seen how these cutbacks will factor into that plan.
