Burning Down the House Mortgage Fraud and the Destruction...

Burning Down the House: Mortgage Fraud and the Destruction of Residential Neighborhoods Ann Fulmer March 2010 DRAFT Burning Down the House: Mortgage Fraud and the Destruction of Residential Neighborhoods Mortgage fraud is bank robbery without a gun. 1 It is a high-yield, 2 low risk enterprise that has been reported in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, 3 Canada, 4 New Zealand, 5 Australia, 6 and England. 7 In the United States, it is committed by organized international and domestic rings, 8 street gangs, 9 terrorists, 10 drug traffickers, 11 real estate agents, 12 closing attorneys, 13 appraisers, 14 mortgage brokers, 15 The targeted victims distinguish mortgage fraud from predatory lending. In predatory lending†¦show more content†¦Department of Justice. bank executives, 16 ministers, 17 teachers, 18 policemen, 19 and, frequently, neophyte property investors. 20 In the federal courts, mortgage schemes are charged as bank fraud, 21 mail fraud, 22 and wire fraud 23 and, depending on the specific structure of the scheme, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, 24 money laundering, 25 aggravated identity theft, 26 bankruptcy fraud, 27 and/or false statements. 28 A handful of states have statutes that address mortgage fraud as a specific crime, 29 but in most state courts it is charged, if at all, as theft or grand larceny. Although the variety of schemes is infinite and limited only by the human imagination, 30 they are generally classified as either fraud-for-profit or fraud-for housing. See, e.g., U.S. v. Gordon, 08-21103-Jordan (S.D. Fla. 2008) (bank’s managing director altered individual’s credit data to inflate mortgage pools’ apparent quality and value upon sale to investors); U.S. v. Levine, 1:09-CR-00554 (N.D. Ga. 2009) (executive vice president in charge of bank’s community redevelopment lending department accused of knowingly over-valuing bank assets (loans to flippers) in reports to the OCC and the FDIC; the defendant is expected to plead guilty in January, 2010).. 17 See, e.g., U.S. v. Sailor, 1:08-CR-105, superseding information (N.D. Ga. 2008). 18 See, e.g., U.S. v. Sprouts, 2:08-CR-0051 (W. D. Pa. 2008). 19 See, e.g., U.S. v.Show MoreRelatedManaging Information Technology (7th Edition)239873 Words   |  960 Pagesthe United States have increasingly been utilizing IT workers in less developed countries to take advantage of lower labor costs for software programming tasks in particular, IT professionals are still critically needed to perform important â€Å"in-house† IT roles. (These will be discussed further in Chapter 13.) BUSINESS/IT RELATIONSHIPS The importance of this type of IT resource was first brought to light in the mid1990s as packaged software systems and the Internet were catalysts for an increaseRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesreceived the Professional Practice Award from the Institute of Industrial and Labor Relations, University of Illinois. Books Published: H. G. Heneman III, T. A. Judge, and J. D. Kammeyer-Mueller, Staffing Organizations, 7th ed. (Madison, WI: Mendota House/Irwin, 2011) Other Interests Although he cannot keep up (literally!) with Dr. Robbin’s accomplishments on the track, Dr. Judge enjoys golf, cooking and baking, literature (he’s a particular fan of Thomas Hardy and is a member of the Thomas HardyRead More_x000C_Introduction to Statistics and Data Analysis355457 Words   |  1422 Pageschildren, 15 months to 6 years old, before the ï ¬â€šu season two winters ago. One percent developed conï ¬ rmed inï ¬â€šuenza, compared with 18 percent of the 532 children who received a placebo. And only one vaccinated child developed an ear infection after coming down with inï ¬â€šuenza. . . . Typically 30 percent to 40 percent of children with inï ¬â€šuenza later develop an ear infection.† The researchers concluded that the nasal ï ¬â€šu vaccine was effective in reducing the incidence of ï ¬â€šu and also in reducing the number of