A funding vehicle once controlled by the now defunct mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, and called for an examination of the federal regulator that oversees Freddie Mac, Reuters reported yesterday. Ocala Funding LLC filed for chapter 11 protection less than one month after a federal appeals court upheld the April 2011 conviction of former Taylor Bean Chairman Lee Farkas, who is serving a 30-year prison term for being what prosecutors called the mastermind of a $2.9 billion bank fraud. Ocala said in a court filing that it was established to buy Taylor Bean mortgage loans and then sell them to third parties, mainly Freddie Mac. Ocala said that from September 2008 until Taylor Bean collapsed in August 2009, Farkas and other Taylor Bean employees schemed to defraud it and its creditors by arranging to transfer about $805 million to Freddie Mac. In seeking an examination, Ocala asked for court permission to subpoena documents and question FHFA and Freddie Mac officials over "potential fraudulent transfer and other claims," with a goal of recovering more assets for creditors.
