By KIMBERLEY HAAS
A Florida mortgage broker challenging United Wholesale Mortgage’s ultimatum agreement wants to include recent disclosures and statements related to the company’s successes to help prove his antitrust claims.
Daniel Okavage of The Okavage Group in St. Augustine is pursuing a federal class-action suit on behalf of all mortgage brokers that work, or have worked, with UWM and sustained damages after the company’s CEO, Mat Ishbia, announced in March of 2021 they could no longer simultaneously do business with Rocket Pro TPO or Fairway Independent Mortgage.
Okavage’s attorney, Robert Goodman, says thousands of brokers were cut off from opportunities to refer customers to the mortgage lender of their choice, resulting in business losses.
Lawyers for UWM have moved…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS
An investor has filed a class action complaint claiming he and other shareholders were misled prior to a merger deal involving United Wholesale Mortgage.
Lawyers for Richard Delman say false and misleading disclosures induced public stockholders of Gores Holdings IV, LLC to invest in a merger rather than redeem their shares, causing monetary damages.
Company leaders for UWM and Gores announced the deal in September 2020, saying upon completing the transaction UWM would go public and be listed on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “UWMC.”
“The transaction values UWM at approximately $16.1 billion, or 9.5x the company’s estimated 2021 adjusted net income of approximately $1.7 billion,” a press release stated.
Alec Gores, chairman and CEO of The…
By JARED WHITLEY
Despite Mat Ishbia’s repeated claims that his company, United Wholesale Mortgage, has never laid anyone off; the facts – and common sense – belie his statement, as UWM’s employee count is down 30 percent over the past two years.
“While my competitors are cutting investments and laying off thousands and thousands of people, we continue to invest in technology, take care of our people, and have never laid off a single team member in our 37-year history,” Ishbia said at a recent webcast townhall.
But, according to the company’s annual report filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, UWM slashed its workforce by nearly a third – from a height of 8,600 in January 2021 down to…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS
The executive vice president of Rocket Pro TPO told brokers across the country on Monday that they are willing to indemnify those who choose to fight United Wholesale Mortgage’s anti-competition ultimatum.
During a live-streamed Ignite Live event, Mike Fawaz said he believes the ultimatum was one of the worst things to happen to independent mortgage brokers in 50 years.
“The ultimatum uses lawyers and contracts to limit choice – both for the broker and for the clients the broker services,” Fawaz said. “There’s no other way to put it – the ultimatum is immoral, reduces broker incomes, and increases the rates the clients of brokers will pay.”
Fawaz said that they stand behind brokers who want to…
Andrew Hubacker has been named Chief Financial Officer at United Wholesale Mortgage, the company announced in a press release.
Hubacker is taking on the role immediately. As CFO, he will oversee the company’s finances, including accounting, reporting, compliance, tax, treasury, budgeting, forecasting, and liquidity management.
“I’m humbled to be named UWM’s Chief Financial Officer,” said Hubacker.
“From helping to take the company public through the largest SPAC in history, to becoming the #1 overall mortgage lender in the nation, my experiences at UWM have been nothing short of extraordinary. The positive mindset and service mentality every single team member and leader have here is truly unmatched. I’m eager to continue elevating and enhancing the role and capabilities of our finance…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS The new executive vice president of Rocket Pro TPO took to social media on Tuesday to question the actions of United Wholesale Mortgage’s CEO. Mike Fawaz, who served as senior vice president of sales before recently being promoted to EVP, published a piece called “Mortgage Brokers – Still Truly Independent?” on LinkedIn where he said UWM’s President and CEO Mat Ishbia believes they have “pricing power” over brokers. “If he’s right, that presents a very clear danger to America’s mortgage brokers and their clients. One of the most powerful benefits of being a mortgage broker is independence. Independence of choice and real competition is the only effective tool a broker has to ensure someone else doesn’t dictate margin and…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS A United States district court judge in Michigan has granted in part United Wholesale Mortgage’s motion to dismiss complaints in an ultimatum lawsuit filed by America’s Moneyline. According to court documents, on Dec. 22 Judge Laurie Michelson dismissed fraud and promissory estoppel claims, as well as all but one declaratory-judgment subclaim. Lawyers for America’s Moneyline say that in 2021 leaders at United Wholesale Mortgage issued an ultimatum that forced a number of mortgage brokers, including their client, to choose between doing business with UWM and two of their competitors. AML leaders, relying on alleged promises that UWM would not enforce the ultimatum against it, continued to do business with both UWM and Rocket Pro. After UWM sued…
Rocket Pro TPO’s executive vice president recently turned heads with an opinion piece claiming United Wholesale Mortgage represents a massive threat to America’s mortgage brokers and their future independence. In the piece called “America’s Mortgage Brokers Face an Unprecedented Threat to their Independence,” Austin Niemiec said leaders at UWM have reduced broker optionality by contractually forcing their brokers to choose between Rocket Mortgage and UWM, enforcing that same “ultimatum” contract to eliminate a UWM broker from brokering to Fairway Independent Mortgage, and engaging in a price war to eliminate the competition. “If Mat Ishbia and UWM were truly committed to the real kind of competition that benefits brokers and their clients, he wouldn’t use his lawyers to take away brokers’ options, and he wouldn’t celebrate the demise of other…
Last year, United Wholesale Mortgage CEO Mat Ishbia raised eyebrows when he promised generous stipends to 133 Michigan State University men’s basketball and football players. Ishbia paid each player, regardless of position, $500 per month in exchange for marketing UWM on their social media pages. NCAA athletes had long been banned from receiving such payments while playing college sports. But the conference changed its player compensation rules last year to allow student-athletes to sign endorsement deals on their own Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL). MSU players will receive a $500 monthly payment for a total of $6,000 over the year, regardless of position. While fans of MSU’s men’s sports cheered the move, Ishbia faced backlash from critics over the exclusion…
United Wholesale Mortgage has ended one of its ongoing legal battles by paying $2.7 million to settle a lawsuit claiming the company unfairly treated its employees, including forcing them to work overtime without pay. In a letter to employees, UWM executive vice president Allen Beydoun claimed the company did nothing wrong and workers should not expect the culture inside the nation’s largest wholesale mortgage lender to change. “While we are extremely confident that our account executives were and are fairly and accurately compensated for the work and time dedicated to their business, UWM chose to stop spending additional time and money with attorneys,” Beydoun wrote. According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, the arbitrator made no ruling on…
