FFETF Mortgage fraud sweep
“Operation Stolen Dreams”; 1,215 criminal defendants in mortgage fraud related cases that uncovered more than $2.3 billion in losses. Additionally, to date the operation has resulted in 191 civil enforcement actions which have resulted in the recovery of more than $147 million. Not a small project. FFETF has been coordinating efforts nationwide to achieve these results; The President’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources.
“The staggering totals from this sweep highlight the mortgage fraud trends we are seeing around the country,” Attorney General Holder said. “We have seen mortgage fraud take on all shapes and sizes—from schemes that ensnared the elderly to fraudsters who targeted immigrant communities.” The FBI announced that 23 mortgage fraud task forces are set up in “hot spots” around the country, from California and Texas to Florida and New York. FBI investigators and analysts participate in 67 working groups nationwide that share intelligence and industry data to identify emerging threats. “FBI agents and analysts are using intelligence, enhanced surveillance, and undercover operations to identify emerging trends and to find the key players behind large-scale fraud,” FBI director Mueller said.
On its website, the FBI provided some mixed examples and a cartoon like graph:
* In Miami two people were arrested for targeting the Haitian-American community, claiming they would assist them with immigration and housing issues. Instead, they used victims’ personal information to produce false documents to obtain mortgage loans.
* In California, a prominent home builder used straw buyers to sell his houses at inflated prices. The scheme inflated prices on other homes in the area, creating artificially high comparable sales and affecting the overall new-home market.
* In Detroit FBI agents arrested several individuals in a $130 million scheme orchestrated by the local chapter of a motorcycle gang. The conspirators posed as mortgage brokers, appraisers, real estate agents, and title agents and used straw buyers to obtain around 500 mortgages on only 180 properties.
So this operation is not the round up of one large criminal organization or one big scheme but the combined effort of law enforcement agencies to focus on mortgage fraud. A great way to get the attention -which always helps to improve awareness and deterrence- and to improve cooperation between law enforcement agencies and private parties involved in mortgage fraud.
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/June/10-opa-708.html
