Mortgage fraud

The average number of attempts to defraud mortgage companies each month increased by 42% this year and hit the smallest businesses hardest, according to LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

The government has used the law to bring fraud claims against Federal Housing Administration lenders, but the new steps respond to criticism that minor offenders were also getting punished.

Fewer people are lying when buying or selling a home in South Florida.

PointPredictive has rolled out IncomePASS, which uses machine learning technology to determine if the borrower's income as stated on the application is realistic.

Three people associated with Grand View Financial have been indicted for running a mortgage fraud scheme throughout California, including San Diego County.

As global warming contributes to the spread of wildfires, those fires lead to the destruction of homes, mortgage delinquencies and defects. From Texas to California, these are the 15 housing markets with the highest wildfire reconstruction costs, according to CoreLogic.

A Rochester, N.Y., developer who faces federal mortgage fraud charges connected to apartments in Buffalo and other cities has pushed back the sale of a significant part of his real estate portfolio until later this month.

The switch to a buyer's home purchase market, as well as fewer natural disasters helped drive the five-month-long decline in mortgage application fraud risk, First American said.

While the critical defect rate for closed mortgage loans fell on a quarter-to-quarter basis, there were increases in income and packaging-related deficiencies, an Aces Risk Management study found.

An indictment unsealed in a Brooklyn federal court alleged four New Yorkers and one Floridian misled mortgage companies, the government-sponsored enterprises and a government agency regarding short-sale property prices.

South Florida is the nation's capital of mortgage fraud, property data firm CoreLogic says.

Mortgage application fraud risk plummeted in the second quarter as refinance loans poured into the market, according to CoreLogic.

A West Chicago, Ill., property developer is accused by federal authorities of operating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 300 investors in 32 states of at least $41.6 million.

A Pinellas County, Fla., Realtor with a controversial past faces possible revocation of his real estate license.

Paul Manafort, the disgraced former campaign chairman for President Trump, is seeking dismissal of a mortgage fraud case against him in New York because he was already tried on similar charges in federal court.

A growing share of refinances born by lower rates is pushing down risk levels for fraud on a mortgage application, according to First American.

New York State regulators entered into a settlement with a hedge fund in a case of alleged unlicensed and predatory mortgage lending activity by Vision Property Management.

Nearly a decade after Troy Wragg's role in a $54 million Ponzi scheme involving green energy and real estate investments in Tennessee was exposed, the former Philadelphia resident was sentenced to 22 years in prison and ordered to pay $54 million in restitution.

A West Philadelphia real estate developer who bribed a city official to get an inside track on sheriff's sales was sentenced to serve one month in federal prison, followed by nine months of home confinement.

The Federal Housing Administration updated its lender certification proposal originally issued this past May, as it looks to ease industry concerns on False Claims Act enforcement.