That is, PwC failed to confirm that assets—in this case, mortgages—actually existed. Rothstein in her opinion establishing liability set the stage with a dramatic flair. "On August 3, 2009 at approximately 9:30 am, special agents from the FBI and the Treasury Department simultaneously raided the offices of Colonial and Colonial's largest customer, TBW. "And with that, the United States financial sector, which was already reeling from the subprime mortgage crisis, the collapse of Lehman Brothers, and a drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average of more than 20 percent, was rocked by yet another financial crisis: Colonial, one of the 25 largest banks in the United States at the time of the FBI raid, had been the victim of a multi-year, multi-faceted, multi-billion dollar fraud." And its auditor, PwC, was totally oblivious. The misdeeds involved Colonial customer Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corporation, or TBW.