After this stint, he founded RatPac-Dune Entertainment, which produced a number of notable films, including the X-Men film franchise and Avatar.[6] Dune bought the failed housing lender IndyMac in 2009, buying it out of bankruptcy from the FDIC and renaming it OneWest with Mnuchin as chair. According to The New York Times, OneWest "was involved in a string of lawsuits over questionable foreclosures, and settled several cases for millions of dollars." OneWest was sold to CIT Group in 2015.[5]
In November 2016, two nonprofits filed a complaint with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, alleging redlining by OneWest Bank.[7]
The California Reinvestment Coalition, which opposed CIT Group's acquisition of OneWest, helped to highlight a number of issues about the bank, using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. First, the "shared loss agreements" that Mnuchin and his group of investors secured from the FDIC when buying IndyMac and La Jolla banks proved to be quite lucrative. According to data obtained from the FDIC, as of December 2014, it had already paid out over $1 billion to OneWest for the costs of failed loans (foreclosures). The FDIC estimated it would have to pay out another $1.4 billion to OneWest before 2019.[8]
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This represents about 39% of all federally insured reverse mortgage foreclosures during that time frame. The 39% figure was criticized by CRC, who estimated that Financial Freedom only serviced about 17% of the market. In other words, Financial Freedom was foreclosing at twice the amount that one would expect, given its share of the market.[9]
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Because Mnuchin received stock in CIT Group when it purchased OneWest, it's possible he could sell it tax free if he were confirmed to be Treasury Secretary and if he reinvested the proceeds in Treasuries or government approved funds, according to Bloomberg, which suggests Mnuchin has $97 million in CIT stock.
In Hollywood, Mnuchin, along with film producer Brett Ratner and financier James Packer, working with RatPac-Dune Entertainment, produced American Sniper and Mad Max: Fury Road. Mnuchin was co-chairman of the trio's movie company, Relativity Media, but left before it went bankrupt.[5] A source close to the company said that he had resigned because of the potential for a conflict of interest between his duties at Relativity and OneWest, which had been sold days ago; weeks prior to Relativity's insolvency filling, OneWest was allowed to drain $50 million from it.[6]
