Colleen Colombo and Colleagues Resist Mortgage Fraud
Synopsis
In 2005, Colleen Colombo and five other female employees filed a harassment and wrongful termination lawsuit in the California Superior Court on Concord branch of BNC, a small office in California that funded over a billion dollars in loans per month. Colleen was hired as a senior underwriter for BNC in 2003 and was an exceptional employee even receiving a “exceeds expectations” rating in a performance review according to court records. (Hellriegel, pg. 250) A male employee and wholesaler for BNC began bribing Colleen in 2005 by bringing her loans that were questionable. Most of the loans her brought to her had occupations, home values, and salaries that were false. The wholesaler tried to payoff Colleen in order for her to allow the fraudulent information to pass through the system. (Hellriegel, pg. 250) Bribes, or spiffs, were typical at BNC and happened on a day-to-day basis according to Sylvia Vega-Sutfin, one of the females and wholesalers for BNC that filed the lawsuit with Colleen. Sylvia claimed that a quite a few underwriters wanted spiffs of $1,000 to $2,500 even if they didn’t approve the mortgages. Her commission checks suffered when she refused to pay off the underwriters and her loan files went missing. Sylvia claimed that her supervisors wanted to make an example of her to others if she complained about not paying off the bribes. (Hellriegel, pg. 250) Colleen claimed that the regional vice president of operations for BNC ignored her complaints after she reported the wholesaler through an email and even brought it up in a meeting that resulted in her leaving the office in an emotional mess. The branch manager at her office also told her that a fellow employee wanted her fired for the complaints she filed against the wholesaler. (Hellriegel, pg. 250) The wholesaler didn’t