The federal government has sued Deutsche Bank. It alleges the bank committed mortgage fraud by repeatedly lying so that it could join a government program that insured mortgages.
The Manhattan lawsuit seeks to recover some of the hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance claims that the government has had to pay when homeowners defaulted on their mortgages. The lawsuit also asked for punitive damages.
According to the lawsuit, Deutsche Bank profited from the resale of the government-insured mortgages.
The government says Deutsche Bank recklessly selected mortgages that violated the rules of the program. It says the bank ignored whether borrowers could afford their mortgage payments.
Deutsche Bank says in a statement that it will fight the lawsuit. It calls the allegations "unreasonable and unfair."
