Client of St. Louis attorney Wasinger awarded $63 million in False Claims Act suit

St. Louis attorney David G. Wasinger will share a portion of a recent $63 million settlement awarded to a whistleblower who filed a False Claims Act against JPMorgan Chase.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York on March 7 filed an order of settlement that shows Keith Edwards, who filed the qui tam complaint against JPMorgan Chase in 2013, will receive $63,870,000.

Edwards' suit helped bring about a $614 million settlement.

The lawsuit alleged JPMorgan Chase submitted false certifications to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Federal Housing Administration that caused the three to accept for government insurance and refinancing thousands of loans that were not eligible.

When those loans defaulted, it caused substantial losses to the federal agencies. JPMorgan Chase was also cited for failing to self-report the loans it had identified as either fraudulent or deficient.

The settlement was split into two parts:

-To HUD, JPMorgan Chase is paying $564.6 million, of which $56.46 million will go to Edwards; and

-To the VA, JPMorgan Chase is paying $49.4 million, of which $7.41 million will go to Edwards.

JPMorgan Chase admitted to failing to report 582 loans from 2007-09 that it identified as having been affected by borrower or correspondent fraud.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara stated: “For years, JPMorgan Chase has enjoyed the privilege of participating in federally-subsidized programs aimed at helping millions of Americans realize the dream of homeownership. Yet, for more than a decade, it abused that privilege.

“JPMorgan Chase put profits ahead of responsibility by recklessly churning out thousands of defective mortgage loans, failing to inform the Government of known problems with those loans, and leaving the Government to cover the losses when the loans defaulted.”