Taking a break from the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert sat down for an interview with Bloomberg to discuss another big sector on his radar, mortgages.
The interview started by asking Gilbert what he expects from the Trump Administration.
On area in particular that Gilbert is happy to hear President-elect Donald Trump talks about are the “crazy regulations” and the “over-regulated environment.”
This is an area that Quicken Loans knows all too well. "We're probably the most heavily regulated business in the world," he states in the video below.
Quicken Loans is in the middle of a landmark battle against the "out of control" U.S. Department of Justice, which Gilbert discusses in the interview below.
Quicken, which is the nation's largest Federal Housing Administration-backed mortgage lender, sued the DOJ and HUD in April 2015, stating that it was left with no alternative but to sue due to the DOJ’s demands.
“After three years of struggling to understand the DOJ's position and methodology that would warrant the country's largest and highest quality FHA lender to make untrue admissions and pay an inexplicable penalty or face public legal action, it is time to ask the court to intervene," said Quicken Loans CEO Bill Emerson at the time.
The government, however, wasn’t going to let it go either and countersued Quicken Loans. In the United States government’s lawsuit, it accused Quicken Loans of improperly originating and underwriting loans that were insured by the FHA.
The case isn't progressing super fast, and the last update came in November when a judge ruled that the case could transfer to the Eastern District Court in downtown Detroit. The move marks a significant win for Quicken Loans, allowing the battle to take place in its own stomping grounds. As it stands, there is no exact date for when the lawsuit will be heard in court.
Gilbert emphasized in the video, “Businesses or people, if you’re not wrong, then you shouldn’t settle because all you’re doing is feeding the monster.”
