Freddie Mac Releases BBG From Scrutiny

Big Five appraisal firm BBG is no longer under investigation by Freddie Mac.

Freddie Mac has removed BBG from its list of vendors “under review,” according to a list provided to agency lenders and reviewed by The Real Deal. The move allows BBG to once again provide appraisals and valuations for Freddie loans.

Freddie stopped accepting loans using appraisals from BBG last year. The government-sponsored agency appeared to be looking into Jon DiPietra, a managing director of BBG’s New York office, who was placed on the much harsher “restricted vendor” list.

Freddie said it would not accept any appraisals or valuations that involved DiPietra in any capacity, essentially placing him on the agency’s blacklist. DiPietra left BBG months after the news broke.

DiPietra worked on big-ticket deals in New York, such as Silverstein’s 52-story 7 World Trade Center, 650 Fifth Avenue and Durst’s Hallett’s Point.

DiPietra is still on Freddie’s restricted vendor list, according to a list reviewed by TRD. He is now executive vice president of commercial property at the appraisal firm Horvath & Tremblay.

Dallas-based BBG is part of the Big Five national commercial real estate services firms, touting 4,500 active clients, according to its website. It was the first-known appraisal firm to come under investigation by Freddie or Fannie.

The government-sponsored agencies, which buy loans from private lenders and package them to sell to investors, launched a wider probe into suspect deals and mortgage fraud. The agencies alongside the Federal Housing Finance Agency discovered that borrowers were inflating rent rolls or flipping properties between related parties in order to obtain larger agency loans.

The powerhouse brokerage Meridian Capital Group was the first to be blacklisted in 2023 as Freddie looked into whether brokers had inflated financial information to obtain loans. Meridian has since been removed from both agencies’ blacklists.

It is unclear what prompted Freddie Mac to place BBG under review in the first place, and there’s no indication the firm committed fraud. After DiPietra left, the company made leadership changes and new hires, which could have helped it fall back into Freddie’s favor.

BBG CEO Chris Roach became a senior advisor to the company’s board of directors and was replaced by the firm’s CFO Bill Britain. BBG also hired Marty Skolnik, the former chief appraiser and director of multi-family appraisals at Freddie Mac, as its GSE compliance officer.

BBG did not return a request to comment.