Mortgage Fraud

The investigation into “the abusive lending and packaging of risky mortgages that led to the housing crisis” announced by President Obama in his State of the Union address will be led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, according to a Huffington Post report.<

In July 2010, Aaron Hand was convicted by a jury of heading up a $100 million mortgage fraud scheme through a corrupt loan origination company called AFG Financial Group, Inc. He was sentenced to 8 1/3-to-25 years in prison and, one month later, was sent to the New York State Coxsackie Correctional Facility.  

Apparently, the mortgage fraud problem is broader than one might think. It turns out that the former president of a chapter of the Hells Angels was engaged in mortgage fraud, too. And now, he is going to spend 70 months in prison, and pay over $1 million in restitution.  

Put “mortgage fraud” into the search box on this page and you will retrieve many, many Financial Fraud Law Blog posts about mortgage fraud. You’ll find stories about mortgage fraud schemes, allegations of mortgage fraud, settlements involving mortgage fraud, pieces about mortgage foreclosure fraud, and the like.

The online site Politico, which first brought the world news of Herman Cain’s NRA troubles, has something today of more relevance to readers of the Financial Fraud Law Blog:  An article by two state attorneys general – Eric Schneiderman of New York and Beau Biden of Delaware – on the “mortgage mess.” 

Last December, Ted Doumazios, an attorney licensed to practice law in New York, pleaded guilty in a New York federal district court to two felonies: wire fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. He admitted that for several years, he was the co-owner and operator of Clearview Abstract, an agent for a title company located in Nassau County, Long Island.

A New York state woman, Marleen Shillingford, has pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna F. Martinez in Hartford to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. The charges stem from Shillingford’s participation in a multimillion dollar mortgage fraud scheme that involved more than 40 properties in Bridgeport, Conn. 

The U.S.

A federal grand jury has charged six defendants with a mortgage fraud scheme in which they allegedly obtained over $25 million in loans. The indictment alleges the defendants conspired to defraud financial institutions, including Countrywide Financial, Fremont Investment and Loan, IndyMac Bank, National City Corporation, Sun Trust Mortgage, Inc.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today reported in its Second Quarter 2011 Analysis of mortgage loan fraud suspicious activity reports (MLF SARs) that financial institutions filed 29,558 MLF SARs in the second quarter of 2011, a significant increase from 15,727 MLF SARs reported in the same quarter of 2010.