HSBC Holdings Plc. (HSBC) reached a settlement to pay $10 million over charges that it defrauded taxpayers by submitting inflated bills to process residential foreclosures. Per Reuters:
The civil settlement announced Tuesday is the first to result from an investigation by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan into whether mortgage servicers overcharged the government on foreclosures on federally-backed home loans.
According to settlement papers, HSBC admitted and accepted responsibility for having failed in 2009 and 2010 to properly police foreclosure-related fees charged by outside lawyers and other service providers.
