Marano personally signed the SEC filings on at least $8.7 billion worth of residential mortgage-backed securities sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to documents included in the FHFA lawsuit. "Defendants falsely represented that the underlying mortgage loans complied with certain underwriting guidelines and standards, including representations that significantly overstated the ability of the borrowers to repay their mortgage loans," the lawsuit states. Marano, the company and all the other defendants "deny there was an abandonment of reasonable due diligence procedures," according to court documents. "Individual defendants deny that the securitizations … contained material misstatements of fact or omissions of fact," the defendants' response to the FHFA complaint filed in court reads. Marano also directed executives to withhold "every fee" from credit rating agencies that had lowered the ratings on the firm's mortgages bonds, according to the AMBAC complaint.