The British lender HSBC Holdings Plc agreed to pay $10 million to settle claims that it overcharged the US government by submitting inflated bills to process residential foreclosures. This is the first civil settlement resulting from an investigation by US Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan into mortgage servicers suspected of fraud relating to foreclosures on federally-backed home loans.

According to the settlement, HSBC admitted and accepted responsibility for its inadequate oversight in 2009 and 2010 over foreclosure-related fees charged by outside lawyers and other service providers. HSBC would submit these inflated fees to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Fannie Mae for reimbursement, which, according to Bharara, caused millions of dollars of losses for the FHA and Fannie Mae. The civil settlement resolves FCA claims filed by a whistleblower whose identity could not immediately be determined.

Read the entire article, “HSBC settles U.S. fraud charges over foreclosure fees”