The post-bank crisis economic landscape has been dotted with a myriad of bank whistleblower lawsuits regarding mortgage practices from before 2008.

Many if not most of these lawsuits have occurred because an inside employee made a bank whistleblower complaint regarding the practices of his or her current or former employer.

What many people do not know is that a bank whistleblower is protected from retaliation from the employer under the False Claims Act.

Recently, Credit Suisse was ordered to pay $5.3 billion in one of the last post-bank crisis lawsuits leftover from pre-2008. Of this, $2.48 billion will be paid out in civil penalties and an additional $2.8 billion will be paid out in consumer relief.

This consumer relief includes money that is paid out in the form of mortgage modifications and state programs that help homeowners who are having trouble paying their mortgages.

Before the end of 2016, it agreed to pay the Department of Justice to settle the wrongdoing that occurred regarding mortgage-backed securities.

Over $46 billion has been paid out by America’s largest banks over the last several years for their mortgage-backed security violations.

The issue at hand is that these big banks were in full knowledge that they were writing bad home loans while telling their investors and the government that the loans were good.

Most mortgages are backed by the government and big banks like Credit Suisse and Bank of America are called “Direct Endorsement Lenders.” This means that they are able to write loans that are government guaranteed.

As they write loans, the bank should be conforming to federal loan-writing rules. But, in fact, most of these loans did not meet up to these federal guidelines.

In addition, these junk loans were later bundled and sold to investors. These investors thought they were buying solid loans when in fact they were not.

When the market collapsed in 2008, these loans were exposed as bad loans and companies like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae lost billions of dollars.

Since then banks have paid billions of dollars to settle lawsuits about bad mortgages. The Credit Suisse settlement is only one of these cases.

Banks like Barclays, Wells Fargo and Bank of America have undergone numerous lawsuits for these and other shady practices.

What Does a Bank Whistleblower Have to Do With the Banking Crisis?

Most of these giant lawsuits were started because someone on the inside, usually an employee or former employee, has information about the mortgage practices of the bank. A bank whistleblower has firsthand knowledge of the wrongdoing.

The False Claims Act, a whistleblower protection law, often awards a bank whistleblower for offering important information. The law allows a private person with evidence of fraud to begin what is called a qui tam lawsuit.

The False Claims Act also provides relief for the employee if he or she is fired or otherwise discriminated against because of their participation in a qui tam lawsuit.

A bank whistleblower can be awarded up to 15 to 25% of the amount recovered from the lawsuit. However, the bank whistleblower must contact an experienced attorney to understand how to properly file a whistleblower claim. An experienced bank whistleblower attorney is available to provide a free case review and consultation for those who qualify.