On May 31, 2012, the United States Department of Justice ("DOJ"), on behalf of over 20,000 African American and Hispanic borrowers, filed this lawsuit under the Fair Housing and Equal Credit Opportunity Acts against SunTrust Mortgage in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The DOJ asked the court for injunctive and monetary relief, claiming that the defendant engaged in discriminatory lending practices that adversely affected African American and Hispanic borrowers. Specificlly, Plaintiffs claimed that from 2005 to 2009, Defendant engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination on the basis of race and national origin in residential mortgage lending.

On September 14, 2012, the Court approved a consent order resolving the plaintiffs' claims. The settlement provided $21 million in compensation for African American and Hispanic borrowers who were charged higher fees based on their race or national origin. The settlement also required the defendant to continue using the new policies and practices that it adopted during negotiations leading up to the lawsuit and that avoided discriminatory practices by the mortgage lenders.

On November 4, 2016, Judge Robert E. Payne signed off on the parties Consent Order of Dismissal with Prejudice. The order stipulated that two organizations which received a portion of the settlement, The Up Center and Tallahassee Lenders' Consortium, and had not yet spent all of the money distributed to them. The order states that these organizations had until November 30, 2016 and January 15, 2017 respectively to spend those funds in accordance with the 2012 Consent Order, or they will return unutilized money to SunTrust.

The case is now closed.

Gregory Pitt - 07/16/2012
Asma Husain - 02/16/2016
Edward Cullen - 03/21/2019


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