Colorado and federal prosecutors have launched a war on mortgage fraud, and it looks like they are having some great success. Real estate brokers and agents, mortgage brokers, and homeowners have been rounded up in this widespread investigation. HUD investigations alone have yielded 236 indictments and 169 prosecutions in their investigation. This is worth watching as we are seeing a tightening in the enforcement of mortgage fraud throughout the nation.
Investigators have uncovered hundreds of cases in which real estate agents, mortgage brokers and fake-document vendors have collaborated to sell homes to illegal immigrants using fraudulent drivers’ licenses, Social Security numbers, and fabricated income and tax documents.
Grand juries across the state have indicted nearly 90 people since early 2003 who’ve been prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney General’s Office in Colorado or are facing charges ranging from mail and wire fraud to witness tampering and money laundering.
One, nearly year-long case recently culminated in the indictments of 10 defendants by three different grand juries in Jefferson County. Investigators from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation say they discovered hundreds of houses were sold by the defendants to undocumented immigrants. In 191 transactions, every single document a home buyer used was fraudulent, said Bob Brown, the agent in charge of CBI’s Complex Crime Unit.
“We tied all of these transactions to a handful of real estate agents and mortgage brokers,” Brown said. Real estate agents Ricardo Medina, Joe Ramirez and Patricia Soehnge, who worked at a Re/Max office in Lakewood, were charged with racketeering, Brown said. via MSNBC.com
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