And now a word about real estate fraud

More than 400 Arrested in Mortgage Fraud Sting

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More than 400 real estate industry workers have been indicted since March in a Justice Department crackdown on incidents of mortgage fraud nationwide -- a key contributing factor to the country's housing crisis.
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The financial losses to homeowners and others who fell victim to the mortgage schemes are estimated to have cost some $1 billion, according to the FBI.
"Mortgage fraud and related securities fraud pose a significant threat to our economy, to the stability of our nation's housing market and to the peace of mind to millions of Americans," Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip said in a statement Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

Dubbed "Operation Malicious Mortgage," more than 406 people have been arrested since March 1, with 60 people arrested on Wednesday alone.

Officials identified 10 "mortgage fraud hotspots" in California, Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York, Georgia and Florida, the AP reported.
Those named in the cases include housing developers, mortgage lenders and brokers, lawyers, real estate agents and appraisers, said Sharon Ormsby, section chief in charge of financial crimes for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI announced that it is aggressively investigating corporate fraud related to mortgage lending.
"I'm content to say (they're) generally rather large corporations," Director Robert Mueller said Thursday at a news conference, according to Reuters. The agency previously had said its probe of potential fraud in the home mortgage industry encompassed 19 companies. It has not identified them.

To people who have committed fraud or are contemplating doing so, FBI Director Robert Mueller said: "We will find you, you will be investigated and you will be prosecuted." Those named in the cases include housing developers, mortgage lenders and brokers, lawyers, real estate agents and appraisers, said Sharon Ormsby, section chief in charge of financial crimes for the FBI.

In some cases, gang, drug and organized crime investigations have resulted in mortgage fraud cases because such schemes enable criminals to launder money, Ormsby said.

Mortgage foreclosure rescue scams, which promise to help struggling homeowners stave off foreclosure and keep their homes, also have become a major problem, officials said. Typically, unsuspecting owners sign over their homes and then find they are victims of fraud.

In separate arrests, two former Bear Stearns managers in New York were indicted today, becoming the first executives to face criminal charges related to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.

Across the country, reports of mortgage fraud have soared over the past year as the subprime mortgage market collapsed, and defaults and foreclosures soared.
Banks reported nearly 53,000 cases of suspected mortgage fraud last year, up from more than 37,000 a year earlier and about 10 times the level of reports in 2001 and 2002, according to the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

In recent months, the FBI has been investigating more than 1,400 mortgage fraud cases and 19 companies — including Bear Stearns — tied to the subprime mortgage crisis.

Officials declined to say who might be the next corporate target, but Mueller said the investigations focus on accounting fraud, insider trading, and failure to disclose the value of mortgage-related securities and other investments.
Under review for potential fraud are: investment banks, hedge funds, credit rating agencies, brokerage houses and due diligence firms — which evaluate loans packaged into investments.
Similar to the federal investigations of Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc., the cases are complex and rely on intense scrutiny of documents, Mueller said. In some cases, gang, drug and organized crime investigations have resulted in mortgage fraud cases because such schemes enable criminals to launder money, Ormsby said.
Mortgage foreclosure rescue scams, which promise to help struggling homeowners stave off foreclosure and keep their homes, also have become a major problem, officials said. Typically, unsuspecting owners sign over their homes and then find they are victims of fraud.
In separate arrests, two former Bear Stearns managers in New York were indicted today, becoming the first executives to face criminal charges related to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.
Across the country, reports of mortgage fraud have soared over the past year as the subprime mortgage market collapsed, and defaults and foreclosures soared.

Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called on Thursday for the government to give the Federal Reserve more powers to regulate Wall Street and other financial sectors.

On the overall economy, Paulson said the nation was facing a "trio of headwinds -- a housing correction, capital markets turmoil and high energy and commodity prices."
"We should quickly consider how to most appropriately give the Fed the authority to access necessary information from highly complex financial institutions and the responsibility to intervene to protect the system so that they can carry out the role our nation has come to expect -- stabilizing the overall system when it is threatened," Paulson planned to say to a women's business group in Washington, according to excerpts the speech released to news services.

In late March, Paulson unveiled a blueprint that proposed the most sweeping overhaul of the nation's financial regulatory system since the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression.
 

brazospete

New member
I say the fatter the fox the more chickens he killed! Start the investigations with Wall street CEOs! Maybe now is a good time to find out WHO owns the Federal Reserve Corporation and make it public!
 
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