Enforcement

The U.S. is investigating lenders for allegedly pressuring veterans and members of the military into unneeded mortgage refinances — unsavory conduct that not only leads to higher consumer costs but has consequences for one of the world’s largest bond markets.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau may face an unsteady political environment, but a new report on CFPB supervisory priorities has experts warning banks not to rest on their laurels.

A new documentary that aired Tuesday on PBS raises questions about why prosecutors targeted a small bank after the financial crisis and left bigger institutions untouched.

Zombie properties become the living dead as a result of bank foreclosures. They sit and often fall into disrepair — a situation likely to go from bad to worse.

The Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, Fla., and two homeless assistance agencies are the surprise beneficiaries of a successful lawsuit against a notorious South Florida foreclosure attorney, who was later disbarred.

Carlyle Group LP was exonerated in a lawsuit tied to the collapse of a mortgage fund from 2008, avoiding $1 billion in damages sought by the pool's liquidators.

The New York State Department of Financial Services hasn't issued a single penalty against a bank or mortgage provider for failure to maintain and secure a property more than a year after the law requiring this upkeep was signed and eight months after it went into effect.

A Collier County, Fla., man was arrested last week after he forged signatures to obtain mortgage loans totaling $180,000, state investigators said.

Laurance H. Freed, a Chicago developer, has been sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay $825,000 in fines and restitution in connection with a double-pledging scheme.

A new state law meant to combat the blight of "zombie" homes across New York lacks effective enforcement to hold banks accountable for actually maintaining the properties on Staten Island.

A Lexington, Ky., man was sentenced Monday to five months in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making false statements to a federal agency after he was paid for home appraisals he didn't do.

Zillow Group and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will attempt to negotiate a settlement to resolve an investigation into whether its co-marketing advertising for real estate and mortgage companies violates the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.

Critics of recent False Claims Act enforcement argue the Justice Department is too heavy-handed toward lenders and servicers. But in an industry reputed for shoddy processes during the crisis, perhaps stringent oversight is warranted.

Apparently, the finance department of the San Francisco Housing Authority can't balance its own checkbook.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency promoted Andre Galeano to oversee its regulation and supervision of the 11 Federal Home Loan banks.

Wells Fargo & Co. settled an 11-year-old lawsuit with the U.S. government that claimed the lender overcharged veterans under a federal mortgage-refinancing program.

Getting rundown or blighted properties renovated to meet safety codes and restored to the tax rolls is the goal of a program known as receivership, a report about which was presented to the Holyoke, Mass., City Council.

Over the past 20 years, 395 code violation cases with $4.46 million in unpaid fines have piled up at City Hall.

A Muskogee, Okla., woman charged with embezzling more than $10,000 from a local church also is a federal mortgage loan originator licensed to represent a local bank, according to national registry records.

Three California men who previously operated Star Reliable Mortgage were ordered to pay $1.1 million in restitution and are facing multiyear prison terms related to a foreclosure rescue scheme.