In a case stemming from the biggest U.S. bank failure to date, the FDIC has sued three former officers of Washington Mutual (WaMu) for negligence in mortgage lending. The suit names ex-CEO Kerry Killinger, ex-COO Stephen Rotella, and head of home loans David Schneider. In an unusual move, the agency also named Killinger’s and Rotella’s wives, charging that they helped their spouses attempt to hide family resources in expectation of the suit.

Seattle-based WaMu, which once had $307 billion in assets, failed in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis. The FDIC arranged to sell the bank to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion.

The lawsuit charges that the three officers allowed mortgage lending to grow at WaMu in spite of what they knew — or should have known — about inadequate lending standards and poor underwriting controls.

The officers caused their institution to make a large volume of bad loans in order to maximize their own compensation, the FDIC alleged. That charge is “baseless and unworthy of the government,” Killinger declared.

In the lawsuit, the FDIC asserted that WaMu, made increasing numbers of very risky mortgages just when the defendants expected the real estate bubble to burst. The agency cited a number of e-mails among the three in which they allegedly acknowledged that WaMu’s loan officers were overly aggressive and paid little heed to the bank’s underwriting staff. The result was a large number of loans made “with little or no regard for borrowers’ ability to repay them.”

FDIC spokesman Andrew Gray said the agency “will initiate lawsuits against former officers, directors and other professionals of failed institutions when the case has merit and is expected to be cost effective.”

The FDIC now has lawsuits pending against 158 officers and directors of failed banks. More lawsuits involving recently failed banks are likely, as investigations typically take fifteen months to finish.