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. Email Ms. Dollar

Mortgage Fraud Blog is co-sponsored by Interthinx the leading provider of fraud services and solutions for the mortgage industry.

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July 13, 2008 - Tampa Tribune
Close Door on Real Estate Fraud

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Recent Posts

- 16 Indicted In New York Mortgage Fraud Scheme
- Mortgage Fraud Scheme Leads to Prison Term for Houston Man
- Loan Officer Sentenced to 41 Months in Prison for Mortgage Fraud
- Phoenix Mortgage Broker Who Defrauded Seniors Gets Prison Term
- Jeffrey Miller Trial Begins in Topeka, Kansas
- Man Sentenced To 22 Years For Defrauding Church, Among Others
- 2 Indicted In Major Mortgage Fraud Scheme
- Mortgage Broker Sentenced to 12 Months Home Confinement
- 2 Guilty Convictions In NY Foreclosure Rescue Scam
- Guilty Plea In Multi-Million Dollar Mortgage Fraud And Telemarketing Schemes

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.

   

Posted by Staff Reporter on 06/26/08 at 05:21 AM
Mortgage FraudAlaska • Total comments: (1) (0) Trackbacks
  1. 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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TRIAL COVERAGE

Trial coverage provided by Anne Mitchell, Crazy Fish Realty.

 

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Synopsis of Day 2, Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Seating the Jury: The jury selection process was the order of business in day 2 of the USA v. Miller, et al. Court began at 1:00 p.m. The jurors had filled out a questionaire the previous day. The 56 person pool was narrowed to 42 people whose names were called by the court clerk. Of the initial 42 potential jurors, 27 are women, 15 are men. The remaining 14 sat in the observation area with me. The side of the courtroom is divided by an aisle. The Government is to the left of the aisle, along with the jury box. The defendants are on the right side of the aisle. The choice of which side to sit on can be assumed as 'support' of one side or the other. When the jury pool returned from a break, they all filled the left side of the observation area (where I sat) and almost begrudgingly filled the right side. For the better part of the afternoon, Judge Julie Robinson questioned the jurors about whether they had served on a jury before (including any civil matters against banks. Interestingly, this was the only question in which none of the potential jurors raised their hand), their prior criminal or civil history, among other things. Many of the jurors had previous jury experience. None had been forepersons on those juries. On a few occasions, Judge Robinson excused a juror due to answers given, such as financial hardship over the course of the trial from loss of income. One juror explained that he had a close relationship with Court prosecutors due to his sitting through a murder trial of his nephew. He was unsure whether he could be impartial. When the judge would excuse a juror, the clerk would then call the next name of the 14 remaining jury pool members. The 42 were then given a sheet and asked to stand and tell the Court about their education, job, marital and family status, hobbies, favorite TV shows, military history, and what clubs they belonged to. This took the longest part of the day as some of the members spoke at length. Mr. Vanatta remains in custody. He enters and leaves the courtroom with law enforcement officers. The two officers sit 3 feet away from Vanatta during the court proceedings. Mr. Vanatta clearly struggles to keep up with reviewing jury questionaires unlike the other defendants who are free pending the outcome of this trial. Hallie Irvin sits across from Mr. Vanatta. They continue to chat and exchange notes throughout the day. Samantha Harris has no conversation with her tablemate, F. Jeffrey Miller. Harris's attorney sits between the two. I am unsure whether the jurors have yet to identify Miller. He is better dressed than his lawyers and appears to be an attorney. There is a jury consultant in the court room. Aside from myself, he was the only non-jury pool member in the observation area of the courtroom. One of Miller's attorneys', Mr. Bradshaw, appears to be bothered by my presence in the courtroom. On Monday, he approached me in the courtroom. I told him I was simply there to observe the trial. On Tuesday, at one point Mr. Bradshaw 'squared his chair' towards me. Court is not in session today, Wednesday, November 19th. On Thursday, court will reconvene at 9 am. The attorneys will be allowed to ask further questions of the 42. In case of conflict, the remaining 14 are required to return to court as well. Then, the jury members will be selected. The opening statements are much anticipated. Judge Robinson says they will begin mid-morning on Thursday. -article by field reporter, Anne Mitchell, Crazy Fish Realty

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Today's News

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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.

Tech Roundup: Interthinx Tackles Conflict-of-Interest Fraud
HousingWire.com
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.

Sex, Lies, and Subprime Mortgages
BusinessWeek
The sexual favors, whistleblower intimidation, and routine fraud behind the fiasco that has triggered the global financial crisis

More Residents Worry About Mortgage Fraud
Killeen Daily Herald - Killeen, TX
Special Agent Matthew Gravelle is an experienced fraud investigator in the Austin office of the FBI's San Antonio Division. During the last five years, mortgage fraud cases have piled up because of the collapsing mortgage market.

Anti-Mortgage Fraud Law Jams Up Realtors
Bizjournals.com - Charlotte, NC
The situation mainly affects short sales, where the asking price is lower than what the homeowner owes on the mortgage. If the homeowner is 60 days delinquent on payments, the home may be considered a “distressed property” under the state Mortgage Rescue Fraud Prevention Act that took effect July 1.

Hearing Delayed for 2 Mortgage Brokers Accused of Fraud
Las Vegas Sun - Las Vegas, NV
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.

Foreclosure Fallout: Avoid Mortgage Scams, Fraudulent Schemes
KOLD-TV - Tucson, AZ
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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Legal Disclaimer.
The information and notices contained on Mortgage Fraud Blog are intended to summarize recent developments in mortgage fraud cases and mortgage banking matters nationwide. The posts on this site are presented as general research and information and are expressly not intended, and should not be regarded, as legal advice. Much of the information on this site concerns allegations made in civil lawsuits and in criminal indictments. All persons are presumed innocent until convicted of a crime. Readers who have particular questions about mortgage banking, mortgage fraud matters or who believe they require legal counsel should seek the advice of an attorney. The creators, editors and sponsors of Mortgage Fraud Blog do not intend to create a confidential relationship or an attorney-client relationship by communication via or arising from this site.

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