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submitted 3 months ago by MrSmiley@lemmy.zip to c/news@lemmy.world

WASHINGTON (AP) — A confidant of Bill Pulte, the Trump administration’s top housing regulator, provided confidential mortgage pricing data from Fannie Mae to a principal competitor, alarming senior officials of the government-backed lending giant who warned it could expose the company to claims that it was colluding with a rival to fix mortgage rates.

Emails reviewed by The Associated Press show that Fannie Mae executives were unnerved about what one called the “very problematic” disclosure of data by Lauren Smith, the company’s head of marketing, who was acting on Pulte’s behalf. 

“Lauren, the information that was provided to Freddie Mac in this email is a problem,” Malloy Evans, senior vice president of Fannie Mae’s single-family mortgage division, wrote in an Oct. 11 email. “That is confidential, competitive information.”

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[-] doc@fedia.io 36 points 3 months ago

I don't think that could have been written any harder to understand.

[-] Manjushri@piefed.social 16 points 3 months ago

While Smith still holds her position, the senior Fannie Mae officials who called her conduct into question were all forced out of their jobs late last month, along with internal ethics watchdogs who were investigating Pulte and his allies.

Color me surprised.

[-] Skullkid@lemmy.org 15 points 3 months ago

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac potentially rate-fixing(?) mortgages? Can’t imagine the current admin having an issue with that. How long until the Fannie Mae employees drawing attention to this are fired for unrelated reasons?

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 months ago

Did you not even read the headline? They've already been fired.

[-] Skullkid@lemmy.org 12 points 3 months ago

Actually, no, went straight to the article and totally misread the second half while focusing on how fucked the whole thing was. Shame on me. Just goes to show how utterly dumb some commenters can be (meaning me)

[-] frongt@lemmy.zip 7 points 3 months ago

Competitor? Aren't both of them backed by the government?

[-] rayyy@piefed.social 6 points 3 months ago

Hey, if nobody knows about it, it isn't a problem - much like raping little girls.

[-] VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 months ago

Even if everyone knows about it, we now know no one is gonna do anything to fix it.

this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
237 points (100.0% liked)

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