The Federal Housing Finance Agency is trying to recover of some losses that the two government-controlled companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, lost on mortgage securities packaged and sold by the two Wall Street firms.
Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, during the housing market's best years, grabbed up securities that contained some of the riskier loans made during the housing boom years which ultimately declined drastically in value after the housing market went belly up.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency has issued almost 65 subpoenas trying to obtain loan files and other documents to make a determination as to whether or not the sellers of those securities made any omissions or false statements.
Unfortunately, the ability to recover any money depends on whether the mortgage companies that made the loans are still in business. Most of the lenders who put together the worst-performing loans are now out of business.
These mortgage-backed investments, which are also known as "private label" securities, are different than those issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and both of them have also been trying to recover money on their own securities by forcing various lenders to buy various loans that have already gone into default.
Any and all money that is recovered by the Federal Housing Finance Agency will help offset taxpayer losses on Fannie and Freddie and to date has cost taxpayers $145 billion as a result of trying to rescue the two giant mortgage finance companies.