Mortgage fraud

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.

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.

Reporting requirements for title insurers and agents have been expanded to cover more types of high-end real estate transactions, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said.