Former Fannie Mae Executive Vice chairman and Chief Financial Officer J. Timothy Howard has been steadfastly vilified by investors in a mortgage fraud case that pits securities class action investors against Fannie Mae and a number of its former and current business executives. The plaintiffs, which include state pension funds, allege that company officers knowingly… Read More

A lawsuit filed by prosecutors this past Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, New York, pits the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) against one of the nation’s premier banks in a mortgage fraud dispute with a strong I say-you say tinge. Wells Fargo is the defendant in the case, with the complaint alleging that the… Read More

The results of the annual Investigation Mortgage Fraud Index (MFI) were announced last Friday, and Georgia is once again a solid top-10 entry. That is a dubious distinction, given that the MFI pegs higher numbers, such as Georgia’s, to increased evidence of mortgage fraud. The index, which is issued by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, an Alpharetta-based… Read More

In the wake of the housing crisis, federal regulators and law enforcement officials are carefully scrutinizing home equity loans and other transactions that could be related to potential fraud charges. In some cases, individuals who were only tangentially involved in one of these suspected schemes may not even have known about the scheme’s existence. Recently,… Read More

After a conviction in a federal criminal case, there is often a delay before the sentencing hearing. In some cases the delay is longer than others, but in a recent mortgage fraud case, the sentences were not handed down until almost five years had passed. The longest sentence in the case was only about half… Read More

The Atlanta based homebuilding business, Breazer Homes, has been the target of an ongoing investigation into allegations of accounting and mortgage fraud. Now the former Chief Financial Officer has agreed to repay $1.4 million in bonuses and profits from stock sales. The agreement does not require the CFO to admit or deny any allegations The… Read More

According to a report by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a division of the U.S. Treasury Department, allegations of mortgage fraud reported by banks has grown exponentially over the past ten years. Unsurprisingly, the increase in reports year by year closely reflects the mortgage and foreclosure crisis and the downturn in the economy. It… Read More

As part of the legislative agenda being promoted by Georgia’s new Attorney General Sam Olens, the Georgia House of Representatives is considering a bill that would expand Georgia’s mortgage fraud statute to include falsifying or altering documents used by banks in the foreclosure process. The bill, known as House Bill 237, is expected to be… Read More

Five members of the sovereign citizen movement, a group based on anti-government ideology were arrested and charged with mortgage fraud, theft and various RICO crimes. The five people arrested were allegedly involved in a conspiracy to appropriate upscale homes now bank-owned after foreclosure. The group was linked to 17 seized properties which had a net… Read More

Georgia is seeing an uptick in the number of citizens being arrested for housing fraud. Dougherty County appears to be the most affected. Georgia’s Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has partnered with the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to start ‘Operation Clean House.’ Investigators are targeting 80 suspects they claim lied and made misrepresentations… Read More