Bill Pulte, who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency under President Donald Trump, confirmed Thursday that he filed a criminal referral against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook for alleged mortgage fraud.
Bill told Bloomberg Television the referral might lead to something bigger, saying Cook’s situation could ultimately help expose Jerome Powell, who still chairs the Federal Reserve.
The allegations center on a pair of mortgages linked to Lisa. She reportedly claimed primary occupancy on both, which violates loan rules. “There was a tip that we received,” Bill said, adding that he pushed Attorney General Pam Bondi to launch a formal investigation.
The referral was first reported Tuesday night, and by Wednesday morning, Trump posted online that Lisa “must resign, now!!!” as the White House weighed in. Bill also spent Wednesday publicly pressuring Lisa to quit or be removed.
But Lisa fired back the same day. “I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” she said in a statement through a Fed spokesperson.
“I do intend to take any questions about my financial history seriously as a member of the Federal Reserve and so I am gathering the accurate information to answer any legitimate questions and provide the facts.”
Justice Department escalates referral while Palantir hunts fraud
On Thursday, Ed Martin from the Justice Department sent a letter to Powell, saying Lisa’s case “requires further examination.” Prosecutors are now urging the Fed to remove her. Bill told Bloomberg this is routine work for his agency.
“Sometimes I do multiple per day and certainly multiple per week,” he said. “And my agency, along with the inspector general in my agency, works hand in hand with the Department of Justice. Has done it under the Biden administration, did it under the Obama administration, did it under the first Trump administration.”
Ed also made it clear that the investigation isn’t political. “If it’s a Republican who’s committing mortgage fraud, we’re going to look at it. If it’s a Democrat, we’re going to look at it.”
Bill explained that they brought in Palantir to scan through massive loan data at Fannie Mae. “We partnered with Palantir at Fannie Mae,” he said.
“We said, look, everybody, beware: We are looking for mortgage fraud. We brought in Palantir. We have made tremendous efforts globally, across the population, across the data set, across the data set of loans from Fannie Mae.”
Fed’s Hammack rejects rate cut, triggering a tiny market reaction
While Lisa’s situation intensified, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s new president, Beth Hammack, spoke Thursday at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, during an interview with Yahoo! Finance. She said she wouldn’t support any rate cuts if the Fed were voting this week.
“We have inflation that’s too high and has been trending upwards over the past year,” Beth said. “With the information I have, if the meeting was tomorrow, I would not see a case for reducing interest rates.”
Beth said unemployment remains close to her version of full employment, despite labor market worries. “When I look at the balance there, to me, it’s important that we maintain a modestly restrictive stance of policy to continue bringing inflation back to target.”
Beth also addressed tariffs, saying the effects haven’t fully hit yet:
“I do expect from the conversations I’ve had that we’re not going to see the full impact of tariffs pass through until sometime next year. It usually takes three to four months to start seeing the early impacts of tariffs, and so we’re just at that point right now.”
Meanwhile, prediction market Kalshi reported that the chances of no rate cut in September rose to 34%, the highest since August 1st. The Fed’s next meeting is set for September 16–17.
Beth’s words rattled the crypto market a little bit, as Bitcoin slipped 1.6%, trading around $112,300, after falling as low as $111,982, while Ethereum dropped 2.9% to $4,268, Solana tumbled 3.5% to $180, and XRP slid 3.4% to $2.87.
