Beazer Homes USA
Encyclopedia
Beazer Homes USA is a Fortune 500
American homebuilding company based in Atlanta
, Georgia
. The company builds and sells primarily single-family homes in twenty states of the continental United States. It also offers home mortgage
services through its subsidiary
, Beazer Mortgage Corporation.
In 2006 and 2007 Beazer Homes USA won awards across the country in various Parade of Homes events.
subpoena
from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina
seeking documents related to its mortgage origination services. Media reports have indicated that the company is under federal investigation for alleged mortgage fraud
, a charge the company denies. Beazer has said the U.S. Attorney's Office has "made no allegations of wrongdoing by Beazer Homes at this time and that the statements made by an Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesperson about the fact of an investigation and the scope of the investigation were unauthorized, and should not have been made."
Beazer reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on May 3, 2007 that the SEC has launched an informal investigation of the company. The company said that the inquiry will determine whether any person or entity related to Beazer Homes has violated federal securities laws.
Beazer also has been named as a defendant
in a putative securities class action
lawsuit and a putative homeowner class action lawsuit. And it has recently learned a second putative homeowner class action lawsuit has been filed in South Carolina and that it has been named as a nominal defendant in a shareholder derivative complaint filed against some of its current and former executive officers and directors claiming violations and breaches of fiduciary duty related to the company's mortgage origination business. The company said it is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney and the document production request and intends to vigorously defend each of the lawsuits.
Beazer says its audit committee has begun an internal review of the company's mortgage origination business and related matters and has retained independent legal counsel and an independent financial consultant to assist with the review.
In June 2007, on the heels of probes into its mortgage practices, Beazer Homes announced in regulatory filings that it had fired its chief accounting officer for attempting to destroy documents. In initial reports, Bloomberg
reported that Beazer, government officials and Rand, 44 and a 10-year Beazer veteran, could not be reached for comment, but Beazer spokesman Leslie Kratcoski later told the Wall Street Journal "We have informed the U.S. attorney's office and the SEC about this issue" and that an internal investigation by the company's audit committee, assisted by independent legal counsel, continues.
On July 4, 2007, it was reported that a lawsuit has been filed by 10 homebuyers against Beazer Homes USA, Beazer Mortgage Corporation, and a Beazer sales agent, Roderick D. Williams, in Mecklenburg County
Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges that fraudulent tactics were so pervasive in a Beazer Homes housing development in Charlotte that corporate management must have participated or condoned the approach, according to a lawsuit filed against the Atlanta-based company. "This is an abuse-of-trust case," said Charlotte lawyer Ken Davies, whose firm represents the plaintiffs, most of whom bought their first homes in Beazer's Oak Hill development. "Our clients all say, 'I should never have bought this house, but I was told I could afford it and I could qualify for a loan....' They had a right to rely on the professionals to guide them appropriately." The homebuyers are seeking compensation for homebuyers' losses and punitive damages from Beazer. An analysis by The Charlotte Observer shows that at least 14 of 140 homes in Oak Hill have fallen into foreclosure
, a 10 percent foreclosure rate. Nationally, less than 3 percent of home purchases end in foreclosure. The newspaper's analysis also found that 10 of Beazer's subdivisions in Charlotte had rates of 20 percent or higher. The lawsuit said Williams, the sales agent, falsified documents to help buyers get loans for Beazer homes. Among the allegations are that assets and debts were misrepresented on loan applications and important information concealed. The lawsuit says one buyer lost her home in foreclosure and another filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, property values have declined because of the foreclosures, the lawsuit says. At least three other homeowner lawsuits — two in the Charlotte area — target Beazer's sales and mortgage practices.
On July 23, 2007, Beazer Homes USA Inc. reported that it received a formal order of private investigation issued by the SEC on July 20, 2007. Beazer was placed under an informal investigation in May 2007.
Federal Settlement: On October 30, 2007, six home builders, including Beazer Homes USA Inc., agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle federal allegations that they illegally established title insurance companies that took payments for a portion of the insurance risk. Under the settlement announced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Beazer Homes, TOUSA, Pulte Homes, KB Home, Meritage Homes Corp. and Ryland Group denied any wrongdoing, but said they settled the civil cases to avoid legal expenses. The companies agreed to six separate settlements. Beazer Homes and its captive title reinsurance company Security Title Insurance Co. agreed to pay a $261,000 settlement. HUD alleged that the builders were illegally using their own "captive" title insurance companies to receive payments for a portion of the insurance risk, when no such arrangement is necessary in the single-family home market.
Under the deferred prosecution agreement, Beazer agrees to pay $10,000,000 immediately toward restitution for victimized home-buyers, and additional money as Beazer recovers financially, up to $50,000,000 million. This $10,000,000 includes the $2,500,000 Beazer paid to the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks in May 2009 to provide restitution to North Carolina victim home-buyers, and the remaining $7,500,000 will be paid into a national restitution fund. Any additional payments, up to $50,000,000, will be paid into the national restitution fund. Any monies in the national restitution fund that are unclaimed by victimized home-buyers after the expiration of the agreement will revert to the Federal Housing Administration, subject to the terms and limitations in a separate civil agreement between Beazer and the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
As described more fully in the bill of information, Beazer and its subsidiary, Beazer Mortgage Corporation, admit to engaging in several fraudulent mortgage origination practices, including (1) fraudulently retaining so-called “discount points” that should have been used to provide some home-buyers with a decreased interest rate; (2) fraudulently informing some home-buyers that they were receiving a “gift” from a charity to cover their down-payment when, in truth, the price of the home was increased to offset the supposed “gift;” (3) fraudulently circumventing the “Neighborhood Watch” and “Credit Watch” programs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to avoid action from HUD in response to the high foreclosure rate of some Beazer Mortgage offices; and (4) instituting a strategy of willful blindness with regard to some stated income loans.
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
American homebuilding company based in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. The company builds and sells primarily single-family homes in twenty states of the continental United States. It also offers home mortgage
Mortgage loan
A mortgage loan is a loan secured by real property through the use of a mortgage note which evidences the existence of the loan and the encumbrance of that realty through the granting of a mortgage which secures the loan...
services through its subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
, Beazer Mortgage Corporation.
In 2006 and 2007 Beazer Homes USA won awards across the country in various Parade of Homes events.
2007 investigations and litigation
In March 2007, Beazer received a grand juryGrand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
subpoena
Subpoena
A subpoena is a writ by a government agency, most often a court, that has authority to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. There are two common types of subpoena:...
from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina
United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina
The United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina is a Federal district court which covers the western third of North Carolina....
seeking documents related to its mortgage origination services. Media reports have indicated that the company is under federal investigation for alleged mortgage fraud
Mortgage fraud
Mortgage fraud is crime in which the intent is to materially misrepresent or omit information on a mortgage loan application to obtain a loan or to obtain a larger loan than would have been obtained had the lender or borrower known the truth....
, a charge the company denies. Beazer has said the U.S. Attorney's Office has "made no allegations of wrongdoing by Beazer Homes at this time and that the statements made by an Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesperson about the fact of an investigation and the scope of the investigation were unauthorized, and should not have been made."
Beazer reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing on May 3, 2007 that the SEC has launched an informal investigation of the company. The company said that the inquiry will determine whether any person or entity related to Beazer Homes has violated federal securities laws.
Beazer also has been named as a defendant
Defendant
A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute...
in a putative securities class action
Class action
In law, a class action, a class suit, or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued...
lawsuit and a putative homeowner class action lawsuit. And it has recently learned a second putative homeowner class action lawsuit has been filed in South Carolina and that it has been named as a nominal defendant in a shareholder derivative complaint filed against some of its current and former executive officers and directors claiming violations and breaches of fiduciary duty related to the company's mortgage origination business. The company said it is cooperating with the U.S. Attorney and the document production request and intends to vigorously defend each of the lawsuits.
Beazer says its audit committee has begun an internal review of the company's mortgage origination business and related matters and has retained independent legal counsel and an independent financial consultant to assist with the review.
In June 2007, on the heels of probes into its mortgage practices, Beazer Homes announced in regulatory filings that it had fired its chief accounting officer for attempting to destroy documents. In initial reports, Bloomberg
Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial software, media, and data company. Bloomberg makes up one third of the $16 billion global financial data market with estimated revenue of $6.9 billion. Bloomberg L.P...
reported that Beazer, government officials and Rand, 44 and a 10-year Beazer veteran, could not be reached for comment, but Beazer spokesman Leslie Kratcoski later told the Wall Street Journal "We have informed the U.S. attorney's office and the SEC about this issue" and that an internal investigation by the company's audit committee, assisted by independent legal counsel, continues.
On July 4, 2007, it was reported that a lawsuit has been filed by 10 homebuyers against Beazer Homes USA, Beazer Mortgage Corporation, and a Beazer sales agent, Roderick D. Williams, in Mecklenburg County
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
-Air:The county's primary commercial aviation airport is Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte.- Intercity rail :With twenty-five freight trains a day, Mecklenburg is a freight railroad transportation center, largely due to its place on the NS main line between Washington and Atlanta...
Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges that fraudulent tactics were so pervasive in a Beazer Homes housing development in Charlotte that corporate management must have participated or condoned the approach, according to a lawsuit filed against the Atlanta-based company. "This is an abuse-of-trust case," said Charlotte lawyer Ken Davies, whose firm represents the plaintiffs, most of whom bought their first homes in Beazer's Oak Hill development. "Our clients all say, 'I should never have bought this house, but I was told I could afford it and I could qualify for a loan....' They had a right to rely on the professionals to guide them appropriately." The homebuyers are seeking compensation for homebuyers' losses and punitive damages from Beazer. An analysis by The Charlotte Observer shows that at least 14 of 140 homes in Oak Hill have fallen into foreclosure
Foreclosure
Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...
, a 10 percent foreclosure rate. Nationally, less than 3 percent of home purchases end in foreclosure. The newspaper's analysis also found that 10 of Beazer's subdivisions in Charlotte had rates of 20 percent or higher. The lawsuit said Williams, the sales agent, falsified documents to help buyers get loans for Beazer homes. Among the allegations are that assets and debts were misrepresented on loan applications and important information concealed. The lawsuit says one buyer lost her home in foreclosure and another filed for bankruptcy. Meanwhile, property values have declined because of the foreclosures, the lawsuit says. At least three other homeowner lawsuits — two in the Charlotte area — target Beazer's sales and mortgage practices.
On July 23, 2007, Beazer Homes USA Inc. reported that it received a formal order of private investigation issued by the SEC on July 20, 2007. Beazer was placed under an informal investigation in May 2007.
Federal Settlement: On October 30, 2007, six home builders, including Beazer Homes USA Inc., agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle federal allegations that they illegally established title insurance companies that took payments for a portion of the insurance risk. Under the settlement announced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Beazer Homes, TOUSA, Pulte Homes, KB Home, Meritage Homes Corp. and Ryland Group denied any wrongdoing, but said they settled the civil cases to avoid legal expenses. The companies agreed to six separate settlements. Beazer Homes and its captive title reinsurance company Security Title Insurance Co. agreed to pay a $261,000 settlement. HUD alleged that the builders were illegally using their own "captive" title insurance companies to receive payments for a portion of the insurance risk, when no such arrangement is necessary in the single-family home market.
2009 investigations and litigation
On July 1, 2009, Beazer Homes USA, Inc reaches $50,000,000 settlement of Mortgage and Accounting Fraud with United States.Under the deferred prosecution agreement, Beazer agrees to pay $10,000,000 immediately toward restitution for victimized home-buyers, and additional money as Beazer recovers financially, up to $50,000,000 million. This $10,000,000 includes the $2,500,000 Beazer paid to the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks in May 2009 to provide restitution to North Carolina victim home-buyers, and the remaining $7,500,000 will be paid into a national restitution fund. Any additional payments, up to $50,000,000, will be paid into the national restitution fund. Any monies in the national restitution fund that are unclaimed by victimized home-buyers after the expiration of the agreement will revert to the Federal Housing Administration, subject to the terms and limitations in a separate civil agreement between Beazer and the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
As described more fully in the bill of information, Beazer and its subsidiary, Beazer Mortgage Corporation, admit to engaging in several fraudulent mortgage origination practices, including (1) fraudulently retaining so-called “discount points” that should have been used to provide some home-buyers with a decreased interest rate; (2) fraudulently informing some home-buyers that they were receiving a “gift” from a charity to cover their down-payment when, in truth, the price of the home was increased to offset the supposed “gift;” (3) fraudulently circumventing the “Neighborhood Watch” and “Credit Watch” programs of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to avoid action from HUD in response to the high foreclosure rate of some Beazer Mortgage offices; and (4) instituting a strategy of willful blindness with regard to some stated income loans.