Headline News

Mortgage fraud still rampant, still being done primarily by industry professionals

Posted Tue, 08/16/2011 - 10:18 by Headliner

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(Following excerpt from News articles and FBI reports.)

EXCERPT

Fraud also is occurring when parties are engaged in property flipping, loan modifications, equity skimming, builder bailouts, reverse mortgages, and title and escrow deals.

The FBI said professionals working in the mortgage industry were involved in many of the cases, with organized crime playing a significant role.

STICKY: As Wall St. Polices Itself, Prosecutors Use Softer Approach: In deferred prosecutions, cloaked process, increased coziness between government and companies

Posted Tue, 07/12/2011 - 14:13 by Headliner

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UPDATE on more lax investigations into corporate wrongdoing, including Beazer mortgage fraud which ended in settlement with the government.
Investigators found that Beazer had been offering a lower mortgage rate if buyers paid an extra fee, but then not giving them the lower rate. And it was enticing homeowners by offering down payment assistance, but not disclosing that it then raised the price of the house by the same amount.

STICKY: Home Inspection forum

Posted Sun, 04/17/2011 - 17:35 by Headliner

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Home inspectors discuss aspects of proper and improper construction, including in new houses which are not always built right or even to code. MORE: http://www.your-leaking-house.com/sites/your-leaking-house.com/forum/ind...

STICKY: Related housing news; updated 25 May 2011

Posted Tue, 04/12/2011 - 12:06 by Headliner

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RELATED NEWS: ffollow frequent new articles from Mortgage Fraud Blog, Housing Crash News, Builder Implode, and more on our Feed Aggregator page.

UPDATE: Housing Crash News link is: http://patrick.net/housing/market.html For some reason it's no longer working on our news aggragator page but the others seem to be working: http://www.hadd.com/aggregator/sources

MORE...

For any of you who remember Tom Martino's Troubleshooter, a follow up on what became of all that

Posted Fri, 09/16/2011 - 15:21 by Headliner

Tom Martino was once the embodiment of hubris -- a nationally syndicated radio host and local television personality who'd parlayed his reputation as a consumer advocate into a real-estate empire funded largely by Troubleshooter.com, which charges businesses for his recommendation. But the syndication deal went south years ago, his contract with Fox31 wasn't renewed, and his real-estate holdings have an alleged liability of $78 million, leading to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.

Transparency Takes the LEED

Posted Fri, 09/09/2011 - 10:27 by Headliner

The USGBC is seeking comment by next Wednesday, September 14, on an important new LEED credit that has been proposed "to increase the use of products and materials that disclose chemical ingredient data and reduce the concentrations of chemical contaminants that can damage air quality, human health, productivity, and the environment." The new credit, entitled "Avoidance of Chemicals of Concern in Building Materials," would reward building projects with one point toward LEED certification if 20% of all building products and materials, by cost, have a publicly available list of ingredients and do not include California Proposition 65 chemicals in their contents. ...

Fed probe includes PulteGroup

Posted Fri, 09/09/2011 - 01:45 by Headliner

Investigation of top homebuilders focuses on contractors' pay
Louis Aguilar/ The Detroit News
Sep. 9, 2011

HOA fraud cases may be merged

Posted Tue, 09/06/2011 - 17:04 by Headliner

(NV) Corruption on many levels further complicated homeowners' construction defect claims.

U.S. Is Set to Sue a Dozen Big Banks Over Mortgages

Posted Fri, 09/02/2011 - 15:46 by Headliner

The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits, which are expected to be filed in the coming days in federal court, are aimed at Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among others...
(Smell another settlement coming, without admitting wrongdoing, that has no impact on the people who orchestrated this mess? In related news, Nevada expanding lawsuit against Bank of America for mortgages.)

Update on Miller case, Kansas

Posted Thu, 09/01/2011 - 12:14 by Headliner

Appeals in sentencing of Hallie Irvin and Jeffrey Miller (builder) in mortgage fraud scheme that began over 10 years ago.