“Certain Ginnie Mae documents have been flagged as potentially subject to federal laws protecting trade secrets,” the filing reads. “To administer its programs, Ginnie Mae requires program participants to submit proprietary, commercially sensitive, and other competitive information. Advantages of non-public information.”
Portions of this information belong to non-parties described as direct competitors of TCB, and Ginnie Mae is consulting with counsel to determine whether such information qualifies as providing a commercial advantage.
Other regulations require government agencies to preserve “government contract pricing structures and other details of competitively bid contracts,” the document said. “Some of Ginnie Mae’s documents may reveal confidential pricing information that may only be available to designated attorneys. The review was delayed by an unexpected vacancy in the office responsible for compliance with these regulations.
Government lawyers argue that the OIG investigation also complicates the government’s ability to meet current deadlines.
“The Office of the Inspector General is reviewing the documents to determine whether law enforcement privilege, confidentiality issues, or any other privileges are involved,” they wrote.
There were other concerns that other non-public information might come to light, the document said.
“Certain documents relate to Ginnie Mae’s responsibility to use disclosed and non-disclosed methods to monitor the regulatory compliance of program participants,” the filing reads. “Law enforcement privilege prevents disclosure of such non-disclosed methods. In order to determine whether involvement The reviewers are consulting with relevant personnel within Ginnie Mae to understand their oversight and monitoring techniques.
The government is requesting that the discovery deadline be extended to July 15.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the presiding judge had not responded to the case filing.
This is the latest development in the lawsuit between TCB and Ginnie Mae, which was originally filed by the bank in the United States in October 2023. U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. TCB alleges that the state-owned company “without consideration foreclosed TCB’s first-priority lien on tens of millions of dollars of collateral” stemming from federal housing administration (FHA)-sponsored Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program.
Although the government dismissed most of TCB’s claims and sought dismissal of the case, the trial judge allowed most of the case to proceed while dismissing only a small portion of the claims against the government. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk found that most of TCB’s arguments against Ginnie Mae had merit worthy of trial.
Following the judge’s ruling, Ginnie Mae quickly issued a point-by-point response to TCB’s initial complaint. It denies most of the claims against it, admitting only the policies, procedures and, in some cases, material facts about each entity’s participation in the HECM and HECM-backed securities (HMBS) programs.
