Many Major Real Estate Players Indicted
According to as report out of the capital, over four hundred real estate industry players have been indicted since in the last few months (and many of these over the last several days) in a major government sweep on incidents of mortgage fraud around the country which are a result from the United States housing crisis.
All in all, the Federal authorities such as the FBI put the damage to homeowners and other borrowers who were victims in these scams at more than a billion dollars. These are staggering numbers even for this particular industry.
Since the beginning of March more than four hundred individuals in total have been arrested in the sweep which has been aptly nicknamed “Operation Malicious Mortgage” which has to this point resulted in well over a hundred legal cases across the United States. Szome 60 individuals were arrested in one day, including in Chicago, Illinois, Miami, Florida and Houston, Texas. By the way if you need a superb Hawaii medical malpractice attorney then by all means check out the Law offices of Jeff Crabtree. He is
based in Honolulu. he really is one of the best medical malpractice attorney you will find in Hawaii. The authorities have stated that their increased spotlight on mortgage related crimes is an attempt to solve very serious issues which have arisen out of the volotile and often speculative lending practices which were widespread until the mortgage market disaster which begain in earnest in 2007. Among the worst areas have been California,Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, New York and Florida.
To individuals who have committed fraud or are thinking of doing so in the future, 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 & brokers, attorneys, real estate agents and brokers, among others.
In a number of such cases, gang, drug and mob type investigations have resulted in mortgage fraud cases coming to the surface since they tend to allow the criminals in question to launder large sums with relative ease.
By and large, these Mortgage foreclosure rescue scams, which appear to promise to aid struggling homeowners in holding off off foreclosure have further become a widespread problem, according to publishes reports. Quite often naive owners sign over their homes only to discover that they have been victimized.
In separate arrests, for example, 2 former Bear Stearns managers in New York City were indicted just last week, becoming the very first executives to face criminal charges related to subprime mortgage market disaster. An infamous distiction to be sure.
All across the United States, reports of mortgage fraud have skyrocked over the past year or so as the subprime mortgage market imploded.
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