Monday, January 19, 2009

Mortgage Fraud Flood Flowing Through Fort Worth DA's Office

In Fort Worth, Texas, the Fort Worth Star Telegram reports:
  • Three years ago, it was rare for a Tarrant County prosecutor to see a case alleging mortgage-loan fraud. Now, the district attorney’s office is covered up in them. "We have been hit with a tsunami of mortgage fraud," said Joe Shannon, chief of the economic-crimes unit of the Tarrant County district attorney’s office.

  • Investigators estimate that they have identified more than $42 million in mortgage scams in Tarrant County. The district attorney’s office now has an investigator who works full time on such cases. Last week alone, seven new cases were referred to the economic-crimes unit. And the FBI doesn’t even consider Texas to have a "significant mortgage-fraud problem." That designation goes to California, Florida, Michigan, Nevada and Utah, among other states.

For more, see Mortgage-fraud cases are flooding into Tarrant County district attorney’s office.