Washington Mutual Implicated In Appraisal Fraud Case
“I was pressured for 2 weeks to change both my value and the conditions of my appraisal report …. of an appraisal I completed that did not come to their predetermined value for a ‘valued’ Wamu client.”
– Appraiser (subscription required) in eAppraiseIT’s appraiser network, in e-mail to eAppraiseIT, April 17, 2007
The Wall Street Journal reported today (subscription required) that New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed suit against eAppraiseIT, a unit of First American, alleging that it allowed Washington Mutual to use favored appraisers and gave in to pressure from Washington Mutual to increase appraisals in order to allow loans to go through.
Shares of Washington Mutual (WM) are off almost 14% in the last two days on the news, pushing the shares to 7 year lows (WM 10 Year Chart).
This again raises the question: “Is WaMu The Next Countrywide?”