Prince George's Prosecutors Score $162.5K Grant To Set Up Real Estate Fraud Unit; Real Estate Scammers To Be Targeted

In Prince George's County, Maryland, The Gazette reports:

• For proof that Prince George's County homeowners are getting ripped off, look no further than the signs posted along roadways, said Del. Doyle L. Niemann (D-Dist. 47) of Mount Rainier. "It's a cottage industry," he said. "We even have people coming in to teach seminars to others on how to rip people off."

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• Starting this fall, Niemann, an assistant state's attorney, and other county prosecutors will make a more concerted effort to target con artists capitalizing on the real-estate market. Using a $162,500 state grant, county prosecutors announced Tuesday a new unit tasked with targeting cases of mortgage fraud in Prince George's. [...] "I was never able to give it as much attention as I should have," Niemann said. "Now we can."

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• One case that is getting a lot of attention now in federal court involves the Metropolitan Money Store, a Lanham-based business whose owner and employees have been charged with wire fraud and theft.

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• The case is currently in federal court, where eight people are charged for their alleged transactions in Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Maryland. But it started in Prince George's, where six of the defendants lived, county prosecutors say. "We were the ones who first started getting calls," said Isabel Cumming, an assistant county state's attorney who specializes in fraud cases. "But when we got to more than 100 victims, we realized it was too big for us." The new fraud unit hopes to take on similar cases using three attorneys and an investigator to concentrate solely on mortgage cases.

For the story, see New unit takes on foreclosure fraud (State grant allows county prosecutors to focus on real estate scammers).

See also, WRC-TV Channel 4: Prince George's Receives State Aid to Prosecute Predatory Lenders ("The money will be used to hire a prosecutor and investigator to crack down on people preying on homeowners facing foreclosure").