On July 31, 2015, U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Polk Failla approved a $235 million class action settlement involving Citigroup Global Markets Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., and UBS Securities LLC, over mortgage-backed certificates issued by Residential Accredit Loans, Inc. (“RALI”).
In the litigation, plaintiffs contended that Citigroup, Goldman and UBS, as the underwriters of the mortgage loan collateral, conducted inadequate due diligence in originating the loans at issue and made “material misstatements and omissions of material facts” in offering documents in violation of the Securities Act. Specifically, the plaintiffs alleged that the registration statements and prospectuses issued by RALI were misleading as to the quality of the mortgage loans backing the securities, which Citigroup, Goldman and UBS helped underwrite.
As a result, the plaintiffs claimed to have suffered significant damages when their investments were downgraded.
This $235 million settlement follows a 2013 resolution for $100 million among the plaintiffs, and Residential Capital, LLC, Residential Funding Company, LLC, RALI, and certain individual defendants.
