Within the past couple of years, we have experienced a complete meltdown of our economy, the mortgage industry and our banking system. As a result, we have witnessed wholesale changes in the way appraisals are purchased. Mortgage brokers, loan officers and anyone else with a financial interest in a transaction are unable to purchase appraisals.Read more

The former chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Homestore.com has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in federal prison for presiding over a scheme to commit securities fraud by artificially inflating the publicly traded company’s advertising revenue to appear to be more profitable to Wall Street analysts. Stuart Wolff of Westlake Village, Calif. was sentenced by United States District Judge Gary A. Feess, who ordered Wolff to begin serving his sentence by June 21.Read more

President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force has announced the launch of StopFraud.gov, a one-stop shop for the American people to learn how to protect themselves from fraud and to report it wherever it occurs. It will also serve as a hub of information about the task force's work. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes.Read more

AllRegs, an information provider for the mortgage lending industry, has announced the approval of four continuing education courses by the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System & Registry (NMLS). These new NMLS course approvals follow the approval of AllRegs’ Pre-Licensing course, the 20-Hour Mortgage Originator SAFE Comprehensive (Course Number 1013), on Aug. 17, 2009. AllRegs became an Approved Education Provider (#1400024) by the NMLS on July 7, 2009.

The following AllRegs courses have been approved for continuing education:Read more

When anyone starts talking about accounting, most people cover their ears and run away. Many would prefer to have a root canal than to learn about financial controls. I’m a CPA, but also a musician and would personally prefer to write about drum sets than accounting. It is an undeniably dull topic, but proper accounting for any business is immensely important. So why learn accounting? Aside from the ability to know if your business is making money, learning accounting can protect your company from the growing threat of corporate theft.Read more

FNC Inc., a mortgage technology company known for automating processes for the nation’s major lenders, has released a new product designed to make appraisal review more efficient. The Web-based workflow software, GAAR Viewer, works hand-in-hand with one of FNC’s flagship products, the Generally Accepted Appraisal Rules (GAAR)—software that scours appraisal reports for any regulatory compliance violations, as well as inconsistencies and excessive adjustments--possible indicators of unsupported values and/or fraud.Read more

Today’s issue is fraud. Fraud affects the secondary markets in two very important ways: The existence of fraud is a valid reason to require a seller to repurchase a mortgage. This is commonly known as a “buyback.” The higher the prevalence of fraud within mortgages originated, the higher the risk of default of these mortgages, and thus, the lower the value of the commodities created and sold in the secondary markets. In other words, the more fraud in our industry, the higher rates will go.Read more

Mortgage fraud is a serious problem … still. Of course, credit standards are much higher today than a few years ago, and it is difficult for a borrower to obtain a mortgage by fibbing about their income or otherwise doctoring their loan application. But where there is a will to defraud, fraudsters will find a way.Read more

Being that my company, Quality Mortgage Services LLC, is a compliance company, we help many mortgage companies combat fraud. The first thing that a company must have in place is a commitment to combating fraud or what we call the “Attitude” which emanates from the company’s leadership and trickles down. When a company has the commitment to of zero tolerance for unscrupulous deals, all the team members will be on board to combat fraud.Read more

Six Louisiana individuals face various federal charges involving fraud against the Louisiana Road Home Program following Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force investigations, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten. Jacqueline Foreman-Pottinger, a resident of Metairie, La., was charged via a Bill of Information with one count of theft of government funds. According to the Bill, Pottinger applied for and received a Road Home Grant of $148, 078.80 for a rental property she owned on Florida Boulevard in New Orleans.Read more