Treasury May Expand Mortgage Fraud Rules

[Dee Dee]

Washington Post - Treasury May Expand Mortgage Fraud Rules

Currently only about one-third of the institutions that make mortgage loans are federally chartered and thus covered by federal reporting requirements. "We are presently considering whether to expand the reach of the Bank Secrecy Act to include other parts of the industry" such as mortgage brokers and finance companies, William J. Fox, director of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), said in an interview.

The FBI has been promoting creation of a separate special reporting form for suspicious mortgage activity, which would be called "SMARt" for "suspicious mortgage activity report." The form would resemble the Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, that federally insured financial institutions must file on possible money-laundering or related activities, including mortgage fraud.

WHY can't the FBI set up a similar type of arrangement with appraisers?????
These MB's will NOT snitch on themselves....and we're the ones that see what's going on from the trenches!

Look at this!:

Chris Swecker, FBI assistant director for criminal investigations, said that problems have grown as low interest rates have spurred record home purchases and refinancing. The problem has been exacerbated by identity theft and by financial institution mergers because the person who is reviewing the loan documents may be far from the property's location and unfamiliar with its value.

That's right....they only figure out who the bad guys are AFTER the loans start to go into default, often a couple of years AFTER the dirty deeds are done.

If the Treasury and FBI would give appraisers a place to submit suspicious activity, where we wouldn't be shackled by USPAP confidentiality rules and SOMEBODY would listen, they could catch up to these people much earlier in the game!

 

[Karl]

Do NOT bet on MB's NOT snitching, COMPETITION. & there are several GOOD Mortgage Companies around & they are getting hit same as we are. They say U don't qualify, borrower goes down the street & gets qualified showing the GOOD lender they don't know nothing Until the Repo man comes.

Nothing I read STOPS Appraiser's from sending INFO to these guys.

 

[Karl]

P.S. How about we put a letter together inviting them to the Forunm to see what we face on a DAILY basis. ??

 

[Don Clark]

B) Karl,

You write it, I'll sign it.

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

If they really want to find and end most of the mortgage fraud, the funding lenders would actually have a real working Quality Control Department that is mandated. That QC dept would be the ONLY place an appraisal can be ordered from and NO appraisal orders would ever be allowed to have a value on them.

The FBI would set up a 'sting' operation. They would call appraisers for comp checks wanting inflated values. All appraisers that gave a value would then have a FBI agent knocking on their door to take a good look at the work file. No USPAP compliant work file - the appraisal license would be automatically confiscated and revoked along with the other files in that office being reviewed and the MBs and lenders using that appraiser would have follow up investigations.

Wouldn't take very long and the whole mortgage fraud mess would be cleaned up - like in a few weeks.

 

[Pamela Crowley (Florida)]

Link trouble?

Try this one:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2005Mar10.html

 

[Claude From NY]

Originally posted by Pamela Crowley (Florida)@Mar 11 2005, 07:24 PM
The FBI would set up a 'sting' operation. They would call appraisers for comp checks wanting inflated values.

FBI sting? Interesting. But don't set the hook too fast with just a comp check. Given probable cause, let them complete the "sting" assignment and then do a full compliance investigation. Just the threat alone may prove to be effective.

 

[Ray Miller]

Got to like this line of thinking.

 

[Rudy Canoza]

Originally posted by Dee Dee@Mar 11 2005, 11:35 AM

These MB's will NOT snitch on themselves...

Sure they will...if they can run their competition out of business, they will. This will just be another way to do it...

/They would turn their own mother in to the police for the reward money...

 

[Dee Dee]

Okay, I'll concede, but just a little.
Maybe some of the MB's will snitch, but only if they feel their own house is clean enough that the tables can't be turned on them.
That alone will keep most of their mouths shut.