Catherine Austin Fitts (born December 24, 1950) is an American investment banker and former public official who served as managing director of Dillon, Read & Co. and, during the Presidency of George H.W.

Previously, the government had sought to sell residential properties at the highest possible value, which resulted in a glut of real estate in its portfolio that had to be managed at great expense, as well as in shortages of housing stock in some high-density markets.

[4] While managing HUD's portfolio, Fitts devised a location-based mortgage debt resale software program that may have resulted in an increase in department revenue of several hundreds of millions of dollars.

[4] One outside complainant, a government contractor, charged insider dealing and bid rigging in its contention that Hamilton Securities had obtained its HUD business due to favoritism.

In a 2004 study published in World Affairs: The Journal of International Issues, she purported to find "evidence that a very large proportion of the nation's wealth is being illegally diverted since several decades into secret, unaccountable channels and programmes with unspecified purposes, including covert operations and subversions abroad and clandestine military R&D at home.

[15] Fitts has claimed that HUD's mission of spurring economic growth is secondary to what she contends is its use as a fundraising mechanism for military and intelligence agencies involving a complex securities scheme using HUD-backed Ginnie Mae investments.

[4][14] According to Fitts, HUD overpays to rehabilitate public housing and funnels the difference into unaudited black budget programs at the behest of national security agencies.