LaSalle Title, 31 Others Charged in Five Chicago Fraud Cases

Forty-one defendants, including LaSalle Title Co., are facing federal charges relating to various mortgage fraud schemes in five separate cases in Chicago. In some of the schemes, the defendants face charges that they allegedly falsely inflated the values of dilapidated homes in urban areas. In other schemes, defendants are charged with deals involving million-dollar condominiums in a Chicago high-rise and homes in affluent suburbs. According to Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, 37 individuals and four businesses, including LaSalle, which closed on allegedly fraudulent loans, are facing charges relating to five mortgage fraud cases involving more than $48 million in fraudulently obtained mortgages in the Chicago area, including two in the suburbs of Wheaton and Glenview. The various lending companies suffered millions of dollars in losses after the loans went into default and the properties were foreclosed upon. No one from LaSalle could be reached for comment.