Law360, Washington (March 31, 2015, 7:19 PM ET) — Two homeowners have told a New York federal court that Wells Fargo & Co. and Ocwen Financial Corp. illegally collected payments on mortgages they fraudulently declared in default, according to a False Claims Act suit made available Tuesday.
Originally filed under seal in September 2014, plaintiffs Mr. and Mrs. Schiano claim the companies diverted a payoff they had made for refinancing their home and told the loan’s owner, government sponsored entity Freddie Mac, that the pair had defaulted.

As a result, the suit claims, Freddie Mae only received 80 percent of the payoff of the first mortgage from its insurer, Genworth Financial, while Wells Fargo and Ocwen were able to secure a “double recovery” through the original payoff and subsequent refinancing.

“This ‘False Default’ scheme allowed Wells Fargo and Ocwen to obtain, and continue to obtain through…