Mortgage Fraud Suspects Indicted in California: How Could They Get Away With It?
"Operation Stolen Dreams" lands another alleged mortgage fraud conspirator this week. Nationwide, the feds have stepped up prosecution of mortgage and bank loan fraud. This time, it's a builder in Chico, Calif., who has been indicted for allegedly selling unsold new homes to non-existent or straw buyers, thereby scamming loan funds from banks and other duped lenders. Per the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice, almost 500 people have been indicted nationwide since March 1, in a coordinated effort to address the problem of crime in the housing and mortgage industries. Losses from fraud schemes are estimated in excess of $2 billion.

Collateral damage: Innocent victims of the mortgage crisis
They cut the lawns, change the locks, clean and maintain the vacant, foreclosed homes that litter Texas neighborhoods. Like many small businesses, they operate on a shoestring. And dozens of them have been driven to financial ruin because they've never been paid. Banks have no way of maintaining all the homes they now own. They contract so-called "property preservation" firms to manage the work... But News 8 has found that from coast-to-coast, the mom-and-pops are suffering because the contractors who promised to pay them never have.

Protestors gathered on the streets of Chicago over Bank Greed
Things were livelier than one might expect at the American Bankers Association's annual meeting in October 2009. Protestors gathered on the streets of Chicago, mobilized by what they see as fundamental injustice in the aftermath of the bank bailout: large financial institutions are posting huge profits and awarding their employees big bonuses, while home foreclosures across the country continue to climb.  George Goehl, whose organization National People's Action helped organize the protests and Heather Booth of Americans for Financial Reform join Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL to explain why people are angry with the banks, and what they believe community groups can change across the country and in Washington, D.C.

Couple says Ryan Homes misled them: Received tax credit before bought home
A serious allegation against one of the nation's top ten builders. Unhappy clients who called 12 say they got government money they were not entitled to, and they blame Ryan Homes for giving them bad advice...They claim Ryan Homes instructed them to apply for the first time, homebuyer's tax credit with no loan pre-approval..."I'd rather expose them, Ryan, for what they did, than to accept $2,500 just to keep quiet," Jerron said.

If Lenders Say ‘The Dog Ate Your Mortgage’
But if our current financial crisis has taught us anything, it is that many borrowers entered into mortgage agreements without a clear understanding of the debt they were incurring. And banks often lacked a clear understanding of whether all those borrowers could really repay their loans. Even so, banks and borrowers still do battle over foreclosures on an unlevel playing field that exists in far too many courtrooms. But some judges are starting to scrutinize the rules-don’t-matter methods used by lenders and their lawyers in the recent foreclosure wave. On occasion, lenders are even getting slapped around a bit. One surprising smackdown occurred on Oct. 9 in federal bankruptcy court in the Southern District of New York. Ruling that a lender, PHH Mortgage, hadn’t proved its claim to a delinquent borrower’s home in White Plains, Judge Robert D. Drain wiped out a $461,263 mortgage debt on the property. That’s right: the mortgage debt disappeared, via a court order.

Judge finds Tousa was 'insolvent' when loans struck. Orders funds returned to companies by Oct. 23
A U.S. judge ruled that loans taken out by homebuilder and financial services company Tousa Inc six months before it filed for bankruptcy involved fraudulent transfers of assets and voided them, ordering the lenders to return more than $600 million. The ruling, issued on Tuesday in federal bankruptcy court in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, instructed the lenders to wire $403 million plus interest into a disgorgement account on or before Oct. 23. It also ordered other lenders who took as collateral a $207.3 million federal tax refund Tousa received shortly before the bankruptcy filing to turn over those funds plus interest.

Bolivia man sentenced on mortgage fraud charges
A Bolivia man was sentenced in federal court last week to almost six years in prison for his involvement in a mortgage fraud scheme out of Whiteville that netted $6 million. Williams pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Homebuilders Sued Over Lax Lending Rules
Thousands of homeowners nationwide are expected to join a string of federal class action lawsuits accusing eight major homebuilders of using their in-house finance companies to approve people for loans they couldn't afford, contributing to waves of foreclosures pummeling their neighborhoods. The eight suits filed late Thursday in the Central District's Riverside division name the California and national corporate offices of Standard Pacific Homes Inc., Richmond American Homes Corp., Lennar Corp., D.R. Horton Inc., Centex Corp., Shea Homes Inc., Beazer Homes USA Inc. and Ryland Group Inc.

Melvin Lendall Brown, Owner of Brownstone Construction, Indicted in Houston, Texas on Fraud Charges
Brown, 49, of Houston, was charged with 16 counts of wire fraud arising from a scheme to defraud residential mortgage lenders of approximately $5 million in loans in connection with home purchases in the Houston area.

Ohio task force cracks mortgage fraud case involving 453 homes
Uri Gofman of Beachwood, Ohio is alleged to have orchestrated one of the nation's largest mortgage fraud cases by enlisting family, friends and others to invest in his real estate company, Real Asset Fund, with promises of profit. Gofman's enterprise began with seed money from an investor who transferred funds from a bank account in Latvia. The scheme involved using straw buyers to purchase homes, falsely claiming home improvements were performed on houses in order to refinance them, and then selling houses to unqualified buyers with the assistance of real estate agents, mortgage brokers and title companies.