Bank Run by Trump Treasurey Secretary Nominee Accused of Racial Discrimination
The bank formerly headed by the finance chair of Donald Trump's presidential campaign—and a front-runner to become Trump's treasury secretary—is facing allegations that it discriminated against minorities.
Two California nonprofit housing organizations have formally asked the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to investigate allegations of racially discriminatory practices at OneWest Bank, now a subsidiary of CIT Bank and formerly headed by Trump adviser Steven Mnuchin. The complaint alleges that OneWest systematically refused to loan to people of color or to establish branches in minority communities in California.
In 2009, Mnuchin and a group of investors bought IndyMac Bank on the cheap, after it had suffered one of the biggest bank failures in US history. The bank, famous for making loans to people who couldn't document their income, had collapsed under a mountain of bad debt and left behind a wake of foreclosed homes. After the sale, Mnuchin became chairman and CEO and changed the name to OneWest Bank.
The complaint to HUD is the latest in a string of legal complaints against OneWest, which has faced criticism for its foreclosure proceedings that disproportionately affected minorities. It has been successfully sued for mortgage fraud, and activists have frequently accused the bank of moving too quickly to foreclose. (In one case, it went so far as to lock a Minnesota woman out of her mother's home during a blizzard.) Because of these abuses, community lending activists tried to block OneWest's merger with CIT, which was finalized in August 2015. After the merger, Mnuchin joined the CIT board.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/11/bank-run-trumps-pick-treasury-accused-racial-discrimation
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