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Daily Real Estate News | July 6, 2007 |
Mortgage Fraud Boom More Than FBI Can Handle?
The Mortgage Bankers Association says the FBI simply does not have enough bodies to handle a fraud epidemic in the mortgage industry, which reportedly lost more than $4 billion in 2006 alone as a result of the problem.
Efforts by banks to get the federal agency to investigate cases of fraud are largely futile, according to MBA lobbyist Corey Carlisle, who says "you're hearing banks talk about 'marketing your cases' to law enforcement."
Some 2,500 FBI agents, many of them specializing in finance, have been reassigned to focus on terrorism, and the White House never budgeted in funding to replace those agents.
A $6.25 million funding request by MBA to pay for 30 new FBI special agents, two federal prosecutors, and 15 regional task forces has gone unfulfilled to date; but an FBI spokesman says the agency is teaming up with other agencies and with industry groups to compensate for the dearth of available agents.
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Daniel Lathrop (07/05/07)
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