Claim reportedly seeks damages of over $2m per person
More than 40 former Fannie Mae employees are suing the company, chief executive Priscilla Almodovar and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte for over $2 million per person, alleging defamation linked to their April dismissals.
In April, Fannie said it had fired over 100 employees for unethical conduct, including facilitating fraud, since Pulte’s swearing-in. The FHFA director said a day after the dismissals that some staff had been receiving kickbacks from donations to Fannie’s matching gift program.
But Bloomberg reported complaints filed in Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia on Wednesday said former employees have not been provided with evidence to support claims against them “despite multiple requests.” Forty-one are involved in the claim.
The lawsuit follows another complaint last month by 66 terminated staff members who said their dismissals constituted national origin- and age-based discrimination. Each of those complainants are of Indian descent.
The FHFA has yet to issue a statement responding to the new lawsuit.
Latest development in a dramatic year for Fannie
Fannie and fellow government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) Freddie Mac have rarely been far from the headlines this year, with recent reporting indicating that the Trump administration is planning to launch an IPO for the mortgage giants before the end of 2025.
Pulte and Trump both circulated images referencing a “Great American Mortgage Corporation” on social media at the weekend, fueling speculation that Fannie and Freddie could be merged for that planned public offering.
As the Trump administration embarked on a flurry of cutting measures around Washington in its opening months in office, Pulte also initiated a leadership shakeup at the GSEs by removing more than a dozen board members at Fannie and Freddie during his first week as FHFA director and named himself chairman of both boards, placing dozens of agency staff on administrative leave.
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