April 4, 2012 Attorney General Martha Coakley One Ashburton Place Boston, MA 02108-1518 RE: Oakland County et al.

v. Federal Housing Finance Agency et al. Dear Attorney General Coakley: I write to draw your attention to a recent opinion by the United States District Court in Michigan, and urge you to investigate the practices of Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and Federal Home Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) with respect to the non-payment of excise taxes at Massachusetts Registries of Deeds. If you believe, as I do, that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have illegally avoided millions of dollars in excise tax payments to the Commonwealth, then I urge you to commence an action in the United States District Court in Massachusetts as part of an effort to recover these unpaid taxes on behalf of the taxpayers. Under Massachusetts law, any person or corporation that records a deed or foreclosure deed with the Registry of Deeds must pay an excise tax. That tax is calculated at $4.56 per one thousand dollars of consideration. For example, if a party records a deed for $100,000 that party must pay an excise tax of $456. As you may know, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac routinely record deeds and foreclosure deeds at Massachusetts Registries of Deeds. However, when they do so, they assert an exemption from the excise tax in accordance with 12 U.S.C. 1452(e) et seq. Recently, Judge Roberts of the United States District Court in Michigan had an opportunity to examine whether the exemption under Title 12 permits Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to avoid the payment of excise taxes to the state of Michigan. On March 23, 2012, the court issued an opinion in Oakland County et al. vs. Federal Housing Finance Agency et al. The court held that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not entitled to the exemption. The court ruled that the assertion of this exemption is improper, both because Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are privately-owned mortgage companies, and because the excise tax does not fall within the definition of all taxes contained in Title 12. I urge you to apply the Oakland County reasoning here in Massachusetts, and thereby pursue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for unpaid excise taxes.

The losses suffered by the Commonwealth are substantial. Since January 1990, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been party to property transfers totaling at least $33,996,873 in stated consideration in Berkshire County alone. These transactions would have generated a combined $155,031 in tax revenue for the Commonwealth. My colleague John L. OBrien Jr. of the Southern Essex Registry has identified another $4.2 million in unpaid excise tax, and I surmise that a review of documents at other registries throughout the Commonwealth would indicate millions of dollars more. I respectfully request that your office immediately commence an investigation into the practices described above. If you determine that Fannie Mae and Freddie Macs practices have not complied with state or federal law, I urge you to pursue an action to recoup all unpaid excise taxes, with accrued interest. Please contact me with any questions or comments you may have. My staff and I stand ready to assist you. Very Truly Yours,

Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr. Register of Deeds cc: Commissioner Amy Pitter, Massachusetts Department of Revenue John F. Meade, Barnstable Register Frances T. Brooks, Berkshire Northern Register Wanda M. Beckwith, Berkshire Southern Register Barry J. Amaral, Bristol Northern Register J. Mark Treadup, Bristol Southern Register Bernard J. McDonald, III, Bristol Fall River Register Dianna E. Powers, Dukes Register Robert F. Kelley, Northern Essex Register John L. OBrien, Jr., Southern Essex Register Joseph A. Gochinski, Franklin Register Donald E. Ashe, Hampden Register Patricia A. Plaza, Hampshire Register Richard P. Howe, Jr., Northern Middlesex Register Eugene C. Brune, Southern Middlesex Register Jennifer H. Ferreira, Nantucket Register William P. ODonnell, Norfolk Register John R. Buckley, Jr., Plymouth Register Francis Roache, Suffolk Register Kathleen Reynolds Daigneault, Northern Worcester Register Anthony J. Vigliotti, Southern Worcester Register

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