Berkshire Hathaway-owned mortgage lender Trident Mortgage Company Pay $ 20 million Prosecutors announced Wednesday to resolve state and federal prosecutors’ allegations that they worked to prevent non-white people in Philadelphia and the surrounding area from applying for mortgages.
As part of a settlement that the Justice Department has called the second largest in history, Trident will fund a program that seeks to rush to start lending in areas previously excluded from the business. The unloaned company plans to sign new lenders to open at least four offices in Philadelphia, Camden, NJ and the minority district of Wilmington, NJ.
At a press conference in Philadelphia on Wednesday, prosecutors from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware met with Justice Department officials and the Director of Consumer Finance Protection to announce a settlement and repair the damage caused by the redlining. We talked about the program. Exclude certain populations, especially black Americans, and neighbors from the numerous financial and local government services that are widely available elsewhere.
In a statement emailed to reporters, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Department of Justice clearly reminds us that this reconciliation is not a problem since the days when the Redlining was gone. “. She couldn’t open an office in a minority neighborhood and discouraged non-white customers from applying for a loan, “denying equal access to mortgages and of wealth and value in the neighborhood. It robbed me of the opportunity to build low-end real estate. “
According to a statement from the Justice Department, Trident employees used racial slurs in emails to “call the color community a’ghetto’.”
Trident, which financed through Berkshire Hathaway’s regional mortgage broker, stopped lending in December 2020. The representative did not respond to voice or email messages asking for comment.
Mortgage lending has recently benefited Berkshire as Covid’s early solid interest rates in the pandemic spurred a home buying boom. The company leader refused to discuss Trident’s settlement.
Berkshire owner Warren Buffett’s assistant Debbie Bosaneck contacted by phone, saying “no one is available for interviews here.”
