Interthinx has enhanced its flagship FraudGUARD product with new variances to help detect occupancy issues related to mortgage fraud. The changes come in response to a disturbing trend the company uncovered in its quarterly fraud risk reports. Occupancy fraud showed a slight quarter-over-quarter increase in the third-quarter 2009 report, which alerted the Interthinx product team to study issues including occupancy fraud, buy and bail schemes, straw buyers, risks associated with delinquency/default, and risks associated with increased home value.Read more

Citing concerns about increased mortgage fraud, four organizations representing more than 35,000 real estate appraisers voiced their opposition to changes to an Obama administration program that will encourage short sales of homes. The coalition was led by the Appraisal Institute, the nation’s largest organization of real estate appraisers.Read more

United States Attorney A. Brian Albritton has announced that U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. has sentenced Barry C. Westergom of Jacksonville, Fla. to four years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud. The court also ordered restitution in the amount of $866,141.62 and entered a money judgment for $100,000, the amount that Westergom had obtained from the fraud. Westergom had pleaded guilty on Oct. 8, 2009.Read more

A Rainbow City, Ala. woman has pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of bank and mortgage fraud that totaled more than $500,000, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick Maley announced. Roxanne Saunders Gilliland entered guilty pleas before U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr., to one count of making false statements on a mortgage loan application and three counts of bank fraud. She agreed to forfeit $577,796 to the government as proceeds of illegal activity.Read more

Mortgage fraud continues to increase, despite the numerous news articles and media attention that bring to light the many schemes designed to take advantage of mortgage processes. National banking, financial and mortgage trade associations invariably include, in their annual events, specific topics for fraud detection and mitigation strategies. Individual state legislatures are taking action in an attempt to stabilize internal economic factors; including property values.Read more

Representatives of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force met in Miami for the first of a series of Mortgage Fraud Summits. The task force, established by President Barack Obama in November 2009 to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes, is composed of representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement.Read more

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers announced that the Statewide Grand Jury has indicted Marcus Williams, Kimberly Anderson and Scott Peters on suspicion of running an elaborate mortgage fraud scheme under the auspices of Blackhawk Property Management. According to the 23-count indictment, Williams, Anderson and Peters diverted money from home sellers or funding companies to Blackhawk Property Management, which functioned as a shell company.Read more

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Joseph M. Demarest Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Louis Cherico, a lawyer who practiced in New York City and Westchester County, with participating in a wide-ranging scheme to commit mortgage fraud, obstruction of justice, and money laundering.

According to the Indictment filed in Manhattan federal court:Read more

Interthinx has released its quarterly Mortgage Fraud Risk Report, covering data collected during the fourth quarter of 2009. The report includes an analysis of national mortgage fraud and indices for the four most common types of mortgage fraud. It indicates that most fraud types are on the rise, with increases in the risk index for occupancy fraud, employment/income fraud, and property valuation. The latter is up more than 100 percent from two years ago.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