On Tuesday, federal authorities said Forty-one people were charged with taking part in a $40 million mortgage fraud scheme in Miami.
Jeffrey Sloman, acting U.S. Attorney, said the fraud implicated a network of fake purchasers, dishonest mortgage brokers and cooperative bank employees who approved for inflated mortgages.
During the boom typical mortgage fraud scams consisited of a team of mortgage professionals that often included attorneys, mortgage brokers and appraisers. They would pay stand-in buyers and use their identities to get mortgages for the purchase of over priced properties. Often time’s payments on the loans and the Miami homes would not be made and they would soon enter foreclosure.
Sloman, at a news conference, said all but one of the 41 people are from South Florida. They were the most recent in an investigation of mortgage fraud that began in September 2007 with a multiagency task force that included the U.S. Secret Service, the Postal Inspection Service, FBI, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and state and local police agencies.
Sloman said, "The success of the Federal-State Mortgage Fraud Strike Force and our mortgage fraud crackdown is evident in the staggering number of prosecutions we have brought to date,''. "Mortgage fraud investigations will continue to be one of our top priorities.''
Sloman said Title agents and attorneys were among those involved in the scam as well.
"As we can see from this case mortgage fraud reaches every aspect of the mortgage industry,'' Sloman said.
A total of 218 people in Florida have been charged with participating in mortgage fraud schemes resulting in nearly $300 million in bogus mortgage loans, since the task force's formation. The FBI is investigating 2,100 cases nationwide, according to Sloman who said that number was five times the number being probed last year.
Contributed by MLR Realty
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