The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 's Federal Housing Administration guarantees home mortgage loans for low and low-to-moderate income families . The settlement resolves allegations that when Beazer Mortgage Corp. made Federal Housing Administration ( FHA ) insured mortgage loans for the purchase of homes built by Beazer Homes USA Inc . , the companies fraudulently and improperly : 1 ) required purchasers to pay " interest discount points " at closing , but then kept the cash and failed to reduce interest rates ; 2 ) provided cash " gifts " to home purchasers through certain charities , so purchasers could come up with minimum required down payments , with assurances the " gifts " would not have to be repaid , and then increased home purchase prices to offset the amount of the gifts ; 3 ) obscured which of its branches made defaulting mortgage loans to avoid FHA detection of excessive default rates , and ; 4 ) ignored " stated income " requirements in making loans to unqualified purchasers .