Colorado Regulator: Local Realtor Association Thwarting Attempts To Probe Mortgage Fraud

In Colorado Springs, Colorado, The Gazette reports:

• The state's top real estate cop subpoenaed the Pikes Peak Association of Realtors for access to its Multiple Listing Service database on Wednesday, accusing the group of hindering her agency's investigations into local cases involving millions in fraudulent loans that left buyers with ruined credit and sent homes into foreclosure. Erin Toll, director of the Colorado Division of Real Estate, said her investigators were forced to use surreptitious means to get access to the MLS, and she is "furious" about it.

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• Toll wants her staff of 50 to be able to search the Pikes Peak MLS to search for signs of overappraised properties, pockets of houses going into foreclosure and other indicators of mortgage fraud. She said her investigators should not have to reveal the details of each investigation to the real estate association staff and possibly compromise their probes, and added that they have unfettered access to virtually every other MLS database in the state.

For more, see State sues realty group over access to database.