The Department of Justice has been notified of North Korean and Chinese nationals “working inside of Fannie Mac and Freddie Mac,” according to Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

Pulte made the revelation during a Bloomberg TV interview on Tuesday, in which he said the individuals had been “criminally referred” to the DOJ.

“There were non-citizens working who were posing as either real Americans or, in some cases, contractors,” Pulte alleged. “I think we’re referred five or six different people to the DOJ just in terms of North Koreans and Chinese working in the companies.”

People from China or North Korea who are legally authorized to work in the U.S. would not be prohibited from working at Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or from contracting with the government-sponsored enterprises, according to the companies’ employment policies. As equal opportunity employers, both companies prohibit discrimination based on national origin.

Other Fannie and Freddie matters

During the Bloomberg interview, Pulte provided clarity on why he removed 14 members of the Fannie and Freddie boards and named himself chairman of both boards after becoming FHFA director, commenting that he disagreed with the direction of the multifamily lending programs at the mortgage giants.

“I was unsettled with some things that I found in multifamily when I first started,” Pulte said. “That was part of the reason that I did some of the changes that I made at the board level, including the chairmanship, because I felt like I needed to get involved and have the FHFA director be intimately involved in some of the multifamily stuff.”

Pulte also said he would be open to working with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has been involved with workforce reductions and budget cuts across a broad swath of federal agencies.

“DOGE has not been involved in Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. We would welcome them, frankly, because I think they’re very bright people,” Pulte said. “But we are doing our own cost-cutting, our own trimming of the fat, so to speak.”