Thursday, June 26, 2008
Alaska Announces It Role In Operation Malicious Mortgage
In the past 22 months the U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged 17 individuals and one company with committing mortgage fraud schemes. Eight of them have been convicted and 10 cases are awaiting trial. Just this week the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the sentence of Karoush Partow. As previously reported by Mortgage Fraud Blog, Partow was sentenced to serve in jail 25 months, pay a fine of $50,000, and pay restitution of $190,000 to Countrywide Home Loans and FNMA. Alaska’s US Attorney’s Office stated that it will continue to work side by side with the FBI, IRS–Criminal Investigations and our other law enforcement partners to aggressively take on those who commit these federal crimes.
Operation Malicious Mortgage represents the joint collaborative efforts of the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Trustee Program, Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General, Department of Veterans Affairs Office of the Inspector General, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Office of the Inspector General. Operation Malicious Mortgage is the most recent coordinated sweep in an ongoing law enforcement effort to combat mortgage fraud, which also included Operation Continued Action in 2004 and Operation Quick Flip in 2005.
Mortgage frauds employ a variety of tactics including misrepresentations, deceit and other criminal abuses to fund, purchase or insure mortgage loans. Operation Malicious Mortgage addresses primarily three types of mortgage fraud schemes: lending fraud, foreclosure rescue scams and mortgage-related bankruptcy schemes. Lending fraud frequently involves multiple loan transactions in which industry professionals construct mortgage transactions based on gross fraudulent misrepresentations about the borrower’s financial status, such as overstating the borrower’s income or assets, using false or fictitious employment records or inflating property values. Foreclosure rescue scams involve criminals who target legitimate homeowners in dire financial circumstances and fraudulently collect fees for foreclosure prevention services or obtain ownership interests in residential properties. Both of these fraudulent mortgage schemes may be furthered by filing bankruptcy petitions that automatically stay foreclosure.
The President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force, chaired by Deputy Attorney General Filip, is also responding to issues raised by mortgage fraud in the corporate sector. Created in 2002 to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, the Task Force includes representatives from ten federal departments, commissions and agencies, in addition to seven U.S. Attorney’s Offices and two Divisions within the Department of Justice, combining the experience of thousands of investigators, attorneys, accountants and regulatory experts. Since July 2002, the Department of Justice has obtained nearly 1,300 corporate fraud convictions, including the convictions of more than 200 chief executive officers and corporate presidents, more than 120 corporate vice presidents and more than 50 chief financial officers.
An indictment is not evidence of guilt. All persons charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
mortgage fraud
The mortgage industry continues to scam the nation, by purporting to have cleaned up their act after the sub-prime debachle. Lenders have shifted now shifted ordering of appraisals to aprpaisal management companies who care nothing about experience of the quality of work, and order appraisals from people with minimal experience willing to cut fees and promise unrealistic turn times that does not produce real value estimates. Don’t hold your breath for the next wave of foreclosures and another economic downturm because of these new and supposedly improved policies.
Posted by on 07/01 at 09:38 PM
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Some Sources require Registration.
Suthers Cracks Down On Mortgage Fraud
Rocky Mountain News - Denver, CO
Suther’s office also indicted 10 individuals last March in an $11 million mortgage fraud ring involving 34 local properties...Several other investigations of mortgage fraud are ongoing.
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Agoura Hills, Calif.-based Interthinx, Inc., a provider of risk mitigation and regulatory compliance tools, announced last week the addition of 21 new conflict-of-interest alerts within its FraudGUARD scoring system that identify possible collusion between loan participants.
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The preliminary hearing for two Henderson residents accused of mortgage fraud has been pushed back to March because of the defense attorney's involvement in the O.J. Simpson trial in October.
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Thousands of people in Pima County are facing foreclosure...The U.S. Justice Department is cracking down on mortgage scams. So far this year, more than 400 people have been charged with fraud and other mortgage related crimes.
Task Force Will Fight Mortgage Fraud
St. Louis Post-Dispatch - MO
The U.S. attorney's office in St. Louis announced Wednesday that it was forming a task force to combat mortgage fraud. The effort is intended to "cast a broader net so that we can catch more of these criminals and put them behind bars," U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said in a prepared statement.
Interthinx(R) Identifies Potential Collusion in Mortgage Applications
MarketWatch - USA
Interthinx(R) announces the addition of 21 new conflict-of-interest alerts within its proven FraudGUARD(R) scoring system that identify possible collusion between loan participants. The technology advancement will help lenders identify "non-arms length" mortgage transactions -- a serious indicator of potential mortgage fraud.
Viewpoint: Foreclosure Moratoriums, and Interpreting the Truth
Housing Wire - USA
If you read the headlines, you’d think Citigroup is putting a moratorium on most foreclosures nationwide...There’s just one problem: that’s not what Citigroup really said.
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Rachel Dollar is an attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker who handles fraud recovery litigation for lenders and secondary market investors nationwide. She is a nationally recognized speaker on the topic of mortgage fraud. Ms. Dollar is licensed to practice law in California and maintains offices in Santa Rosa, California. 
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