NCUA Inspector General William DeSarno told House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in a letter that amounts paid to attorneys working under contingency contracts on securities fraud suits are reasonable and are not unnecessarily high.

The agency's Office of the Inspector General reached the conclusion based upon an independent review of costs. However, the highly redacted report shields that information from the federally insured credit unions that are repaying corporate losses through assessments.

Those legal costs are subtracted from settlement amounts received from the suits, which are attempting to recover losses that resulted from securities sold by investment banks to corporate credit unions.