Freddie Mac Sued Over Race Allegations
A black former executive of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. filed a $15-million lawsuit against the mortgage giant Wednesday, alleging a hostile work environment that included racist e-mails.
Freddie Mac spokesman David Palombi acknowledged that several incidents occurred but said the company quickly addressed the issue.
“Have we had problems? Yes, but this is clearly a situation where the company has moved extraordinarily aggressively,” Palombi said.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by Tony Morgan, Freddie Mac’s former director of executive corporate relations, follows a complaint the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed in a Virginia court in July 1997. The EEOC alleged that the McLean, Va.-based company maintained a “racially offensive work environment” dating to 1991. The EEOC and Freddie Mac are negotiating that case.
Morgan alleges he was excluded from top company meetings after writing a memo on what he saw as the company’s poor performance in purchasing mortgages of minority and low-income home borrowers.
