| William Erbey | |
| Citizenship: | American |
| Alma Mater: | Harvard Business School[1] |
| Occupation: | American businessman |
William Erbey is an American businessman and the founder of Ocwen Financial Corporation.[2] [3] Erbey made billions during the subprime mortgage crisis by positioning Ocwen to take advantage of larger banks leaving the market; however, he later lost much of his wealth amid allegations of frequent legal violations and conflicts of interest by the company.[4] [5] In 2014, these conflicts of interest led to Erbey's resignation from Ocwen's board as part of a settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services.
Erbey was the founder of Ocwen Financial Corporation, a mortgage services company that made large amounts of money during the subprime mortgage crisis.[6] In 2014 he stepped down as board chairman as part of a settlement with the New York Department of Financial Services, and resigned from positions at several related companies, over what the New York regulator called "serious conflicts of interest."[7] [8] Erbey chaired, and was the largest stakeholder for, four companies which had close business relationships with Ocwen; by directing default-related business to these companies, Erbey was able to profit by putting borrowers in default.[9] In order to do so, Ocwen used backdated letters to borrowers to make it appear as if they had not replied in the required timeframe and violated over a thousand of its other legal obligations.[10] As part of his resignation, Erbey received a lump-sum payment of $1.2 million dollars from Ocwen.[11]
Erbey has blamed what happened to his company on what he calls a "concerted smear campaign" by PIMCO and BlackRock, which he sued in 2017. PIMCO and BlackRock have been accused of a “wilful and wanton scheme . . . to cripple, if not outright destroy” Ocwen.[12]