Mortgage fraud

Defects and misrepresentations on mortgage applications rose for the fifth consecutive month in April, with increases for both purchase and refinance loans.

The former treasurer of an Oklahoma City homeowners association has been charged with eight felony counts of embezzlement.

Wayne Francis, the lawyer and real estate speculator captured while hiding in a Connecticut hotel room over the holiday weekend, was presented in court Tuesday on a larceny charge and held on a $2 million bond.

Three former Nomura Holdings mortgage-bond traders accused of cheating their customers called no witnesses in their defense against fraud charges, betting that prosecutors’ evidence is too weak to convict them.

The Federal Trade Commission filed a civil suit against him in 2003. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended his loan originator registration in 2010.

A Tamarac, Fla., man scammed tens of thousands of dollars from three homeowners who were falling behind on their monthly payments during the mortgage crisis, investigators say.

A Newport Beach, Calif., man was arraigned on charges of impersonating an attorney and defrauding clients through debt consolidation and mortgage modification schemes, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office.

An El Paso real estate investment trust, run by some of city's most successful business people, faces new allegations of fraud in a failed housing venture just as another lawsuit against the trust has been dismissed by a federal judge.

Two Amherst, N.Y., couples, the Eisens and the Schiffs, were friends for more than 25 years.

A civic-minded judge whose inspiring rags-to-riches story helped her become the first Filipina elected to the Cook County, Ill., bench was indicted Wednesday on mortgage fraud charges.