June 2014: Quinn Emanuel Continues Historic Settlement Victories for the Federal Housing Finance Agency

The firm’s historic partnership with the Federal Housing Finance Agency (“FHFA”), as Conservator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has continued to produce unprecedented settlements with numerous financial institutions for their conduct in the run-up to the 2008 mortgage crisis. As we’ve previously mentioned in these pages, the firm filed fourteen complaints against most major investment banks, asserting billions of dollars of damages from federal and state “strict liability” statutory claims, as well as in certain cases common law fraud claims. The complaints allege that these fourteen financial institutions misrepresented the quality of the mortgage loans underlying the residential mortgage-backed securities that the banks sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 2005 to 2007.

After a series of legal victories in 2013, including a unanimous ruling from the Second Circuit that FHFA’s claims were timely, Quinn Emanuel has worked closely with FHFA to reach satisfactory settlements of ten of the fourteen cases. In 2013 alone, the firm reached a $5.1 billion settlement with J.P. Morgan (which included claims against Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual), a $1.925 billion settlement with Deutsche Bank, an $885 million settlement with UBS, and a $250 million settlement with Citigroup.

The firm’s successes have accelerated in the first half of 2014: in March 2014 the firm reached a $9.5 billion settlement with Bank of America, Countrywide, and Merrill Lynch, as well as an $885 million settlement with Credit Suisse, followed by a $280 million settlement with Barclays and a $110 million settlement with First Horizon in April 2014. All told, the firm has helped FHFA recover over $20 billion for U.S. taxpayers, and Quinn Emanuel continues to litigate the remaining four cases.