Mortgage fraud

There was an 8% year-over-year increase in mortgage loan application defect risk in California during October and that should rise further because of the wildfires that devastated the state, First American said.

Orlando real estate broker Geo Geovanni, 49, was found guilty in federal court of one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and three counts of bank fraud, the U.S. Attorney's office announced.

The Federal Savings Bank is trying to persuade a judge to look beyond its CEO's alleged complicity in a fraud perpetrated by President Trump's former campaign chair.

Two more real estate investors have admitted conspiring to rig bids at foreclosure auctions, bringing to nine the total who say they cheated at the public auctions held at South Mississippi courthouses.

Fintech adoption among real estate and title agents is accelerating, though their optimism on the housing market has tanked, according to First American Financial Corp.

The scheme's perpetrators were based in Irvine, Calif., the FTC said in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland.

Three people who fraudulently obtained $9.3 million in mortgage loans involving homes in Modesto, Patterson and Lathrop, Calif., have received multiyear federal prison sentences.

UBS Group sold tens of billions of dollars' worth of residential mortgage-backed securities by "knowingly and repeatedly" making false and fraudulent statements to investors about the loans backing those trusts, the U.S. Justice Department said in a civil suit filed Thursday.

A former instructor at the Purvis Real Estate Training Institute in Fort Worth, Texas. was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for running a Ponzi scheme that robbed investors of more than $1.2 million.

Growing home prices plus rising interest rates are putting a damper on mortgage lending, which pushes the market to seek out less qualified borrowers and increases the risk of fraud.

A Queens, N.Y., man who helped defraud mortgage lending units at Bank of America, Chase Bank and AmTrust is now facing 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

There was a 1.3% uptick in mortgage application defects in September from the previous month, with states affected by Hurricane Florence showing preliminary spikes in activity following the storm, according to First American.

Larger mortgage companies are paying less than other creditors when fraud occurs, but the expense is still detracting enough from their revenue to cause concern.

Industry downsizing resulted in an increase in critical defects found in closed mortgages as loan packaging errors continued to rise during the first quarter, according to Aces Risk Management.

While digital expansion of the mortgage application process increases convenience, it inherently comes with the downside of heightened fraud risk.

During the foreclosure crisis, thousands of Floridians turned to Mark Stopa for help in saving their homes.

Mortgage application defect risk is down from a year ago, but Hurricane Florence will likely tear through results in affected areas in the coming months.

There are several reasons, including the fact that many prospective borrowers are finding it harder to qualify for a mortgage and obscuring the truth as a result.

A man from Hialeah, Fla., will face sentencing in November after pleading guilty to conspiracy in an $8 million mortgage and tax-refund scheme.

Future reductions in loan application defect risk are likely because of mortgage lenders' fintech investments, even as the purchase origination share grows, said First American Financial.