Mortgage Fraud exposed by Claudia Sonea

It is for no surprise that US is facing a housing crisis since last year that is worsening day by day. Everyone talked about solutions and the effects of the crisis, but few people talked about the real causes of it. Finally the Justice Department makes its work public at a news conference in Washington as part of the preparation for asking the Congress more money to fund its combat against collar crime and violent crime.
In the last few months there have been investigated 1406 people in the “Operation Malicious Mortgage" that tracks down mortgage fraud at a national level considered being responsible of the present housing crisis. Since March there were discovered 144 cases across the country and over 400 real estate agents and manager have been indicted. Only yesterday 60 people were arrested in Miami, Chicago and other regions, including New York where two former Bear Stearns managers become the first executives charged of such crimes.
The types of fraud were related to false statements of assets, forged documents, and others. The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network announced that the reports of fraud coming from banks are 10 times higher than what it was in 2001 or 2002, while the FBI estimated for the homeowners and other borrowers’ loss to surpass $1 billion.
As it is, US residents should feel more at peace with themselves because at least the Justice Department functions well. However, the indictment of those who are responsible for the housing crisis won’t actually bring a saving solution. The focus should be on that too.



related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080619/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/mortgage_fraud;_ylt=AkKBz310oVnArmVzNMNBIHGs0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who want to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.<br><br><font size=2>These news are original content from young talents around the world and are selected for you by Chris Cantell.</font><br>
posted by Lucia Adamova