Standing Room Only Seen at Fraud Conference

Based on the overwhelming response to its first full-blown conference on loan fraud, the Mortgage Bankers Association is considering adding a second event later this year.Opening the National Fraud Issues Conference Monday in Chicago, Chairman-elect John Robbins said the MBA "expanded the room twice" and still had more than 150 people on the list waiting to get in. Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, who is in line to become chairman of the National Association of Attorneys General, said he is "urging" his counterparts in other states to follow Georgia's lead in enacting laws making mortgage fraud a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. "Most important," Mr. Baker told the meeting, "we don't have to wait until the money's taken. We can act as soon as the misrepresentation is made, and that allows us to get at the problem before (lenders) are bilked out of millions and entire neighborhoods are destroyed." The Georgia AG said more than 100 cases have either been or opened or are waiting to be opened," and "we are training prosecutors all over the state." Assistant Georgia AG David McGlaughlin said he takes great delight in being able to lock up scam artists. "Drug dealers live in fear that today is the day they are going to have their faces pushed into the concrete and handcuffed. Now mortgage fraudsters feel the same way," Mr. McGlaughlin said. "That’s the beautiful thing for me as a prosecutor."