Federal Court Dismisses FCA Claims Against Bank's Outside Directors

FDIC Directors & Officers False Claims Act / FIRREA

On January 3, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois held that a relator failed to support allegations that the outside directors of a failed bank misrepresented to the FDIC the quality of the bank’s collateral on real estate loans, and dismissed those claims. U.S. v. Veluchamy, No. 11-4458, 2014 WL 51398 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 3, 2014). The relator alleges that the outside directors, as well as bank managers and employees and the bank’s appraisal company, violated the False Claims Act by engaging in a scheme to defraud the FDIC by misrepresenting the loan-to-value ratios for real estate lending and submitting fraudulent Call Reports based on overvalued appraisals. The court held that the bank’s outside directors were not shown to be involved in the day-to-day operations of the bank, and that the relator failed to demonstrate the directors had knowledge of or contributed to the alleged scheme. The court denied motions to dismiss filed by the other defendants. The court also held that the relator’s claims were not barred by prior public disclosure of the allegations. The court explained that a Material Loss Review issued by the FDIC’s inspector general following the bank’s failure did not include “critical elements” of the relator’s fraud claims, and that a prior state court employment case filed against the bank by the relator also did not reveal essential elements of the current claims.