Three real estate investors illegally pushed down prices in Palm Beach County, Fla., foreclosure auctions, federal prosecutors say.

The HUD secretary’s comment that such use of the False Claims Act was “ridiculous” may delight the mortgage industry but does not bode well for taxpayers or the federal government’s future fraud enforcement efforts.

Connecticut was the lone state in the nation in September to see a decline in borrowers misrepresenting facts on mortgage loan applications.

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were responsible for an increase in loan application defects during September in Texas and Florida, according to First American Financial Corp.

Equifax continues work to add new security features and restore full access to The Work Number following a report highlighting potential security vulnerabilities in a browser-based portal of its employment verification service.

Recently exposed security vulnerabilities in an Equifax tool used extensively in the mortgage industry are raising new questions about the reliability and veracity of the beleaguered credit bureau's employment verification service.

A lawyer has been convicted on federal fraud charges for scheming to provide falsified documents to prevent foreclosure on a nearly $2 million parcel of land in Aurora, Ill.

A Hazleton, Pa., real estate agent who admitted bilking home buyers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars through bogus property sales was sentenced to serve more than four years in federal prison.

The president and founder of a now-defunct East Falmouth, Mass., mortgage company pleaded guilty to charges that he defrauded the federal government out of about $2.5 million.

Arlando Jacobs and Clarence Roland stole homes across Texas and two other states with the scribble of a pen, the FBI says.

The former president of a defunct Long Island, N.Y.-based national mortgage lender was sentenced in federal court in Central Islip to three years of probation and ordered to pay $20 million in restitution to taxpayers.

Borrower and mortgage eligibility problems, a sign of the shift to a purchase market, were the leading cause of critical defects found following post-closing reviews, according to Aces Risk Management.

A federal judge awarded treble damages totaling $296 million in a False Claims Act case alleging Texas lender Allied Home Mortgage defrauded the Federal Housing Administration mortgage program.

Automated data validations are integral to a seamless digital mortgage experience. But the extent of data exposed in the Equifax breach raises questions about the risk of fraudsters exploiting those technologies to further compromise consumer data.

The shift to a purchase market and an increase in wholesale mortgage originations contributed to a nearly 17% year-over-year rise in fraud risk during the second quarter, according to CoreLogic.

Three executives from Vanguard Funding are facing fraud charges related to their alleged misuse of nearly $9 million in warehouse lending funds.

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.

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.

Loan application defects were unchanged for July compared with June, the first time in eight months there has not been an increase, according to First American Financial Corp.

Kidder Matthews, the top commercial real estate firm on the West Coast, is being sued by a former employee who alleges its brokers engaged in a scheme to defraud property owners and that higher ups knew about it and did nothing.