BUILDER Online News Service
Beazer Homes USA confirmed on Wednesday that it had received a request from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte, N.C., for documents "generally related to its mortgage business," Beazer Mortgage. That subsidiary of the Atlanta-based builder was the subject of a scathing four-part series of articles in the Charlotte Observer last week, which raised questions about Beazer's mortgage lending practices in North Carolina several years ago.

California Investigates Subprime Mortgage Industry (Update2)
Attorney General Jerry Brown opens an investigation of the subprime mortgage industry. Half of the 20 biggest U.S. subprime lenders, including No. 2 New Century Financial Corp., which is trying to avoid bankruptcy, are located in California.

Mortgage scheme steals dream, home, credit
While the U.S. Senate looks for someone to blame for a national mortgage meltdown, Brenda Brown sits in her hotel room wondering if she'll ever be able to buy another home. Brown, branch manager at Security Finance in Conway, says she is the victim of a mortgage scheme in which manufactured home dealer Glenn Vaught promised he could get her a new home despite her past credit problems...Chris Orlando, a spokesman for Argent Mortgage, said the lender "is investigating what appears to be a concerted effort to deceive the company" and that Argent will help customers who have been victims of fraud. Argent is the company that loaned the money for Brown's home, but the lender has since sold the loan to another finance company.

Mortgage firm New Century files Chapter 11
New Century Financial Corp., once the largest independent maker of mortgages to high-risk borrowers, sank into bankruptcy proceedings yesterday, swamped by demands that it buy back defaulted loans.The Irvine, Calif., company said it would eliminate 3,200 jobs, or about half its work force.

Federal Bureau of Investigation issues Press Release on Mortgage Fraud
Today the FBI and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) entered into an agreement to combat Mortgage Fraud. The FBI and the MBA will make available a Mortgage Fraud Warning Notice as a proactive means of educating consumers and mortgage-lending professionals of the penalties and consequences of this criminal activity.

FBI: Mortgage Fraud a Growing Problem
The number of mortgage fraud cases investigated by the FBI almost doubled the past three years, reflecting a problem that is "pervasive and growing," the bureau said Wednesday in its annual report on financial crimes. The bureau said its mortgage fraud cases increased from 436 in 2003 to 818 in 2006, and acknowledged that its case load likely represents a small piece of the problem.

State sues mortgage companies in homeowners scam
Three Chicago businesses promised to rescue more than a dozen struggling homeowners since 2003, then scammed them out of tens of thousands of dollars in home equity, state Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.  The firms--Eyes Have Not Seen Inc.; Creative Financial Solutions; and Mutual Trust Funding, formerly known as Greater Investment Solutions--lured victims by offering to help make mortgage payments, according to the suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court. The companies then ran a scam that involved persuading the homeowners to put their homes in someone else's name, the lawsuit alleges.

Mortgage fraud: the new white-collar crime
Blizzard is the division chief over major fraud in the DA’s. Four months ago he led an investigation that landed Houstonian Doris Chen and seven others in jail. But now his division is taking a new huge step to combat this prevalent crime: They are going undercover.

Mortgage Bankers On The Defensive
Now mortgage brokers are facing congressional investigation. The Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, chaired by Christopher Dodd, D-Ct., held a hearing entitled "Preserving the American Dream: Predatory Lending Practices and Home Foreclosures," to look at sub-prime and predatory lending as the reasons foreclosures have risen so fast recently nationwide. Senator Dodd's stated purpose for the hearing was to "create, sustain, preserve, and protect the American dream of home ownership, and to stop abusive practices in the housing market."

Senators examine home foreclosure surge
 With home foreclosures surging, senators on Wednesday examined lending practices that especially hurt minorities and seniors and can heighten the risk of default. "We are seeing increasing evidence that this important source of wealth for so many American families is under a grave threat from predatory, abusive and irresponsible lending practices undertaken by too many subprime lenders," Dodd, D-Conn., said at a hearing.