No Foreclosure Fraud Problems On Staten Island, Says Prosecutor's Office As DA Donovan Slumbers Cluelessly At The Wheel

In New York City, The New York Times reports:

• [F]or years many district attorneys viewed mortgage fraud as taking a second seat to traditional show-stoppers: homicides, counterfeiting, burglaries and even gambling. At least one New York district attorney still takes that view. “Our natural inclination is that these are civil cases,” said William Smith, spokesman for the Staten Island district attorney, Daniel M. Donovan.

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• Mr. Donovan, on Staten Island, is the only New York City district attorney who says his county has no mortgage fraud problem, although his county ranks near the top in foreclosures per capita statewide. “We don’t see many complaints,” said Mr. White, his spokesman. But lawyers with Staten Island Legal Services and State Senator Diane J. Savino, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island, say they get many reports of fraud and have walked some cases over to Mr. Donovan’s office. “We’ve gotten very little response,” Ms. Savino said.

For more, see Prosecutions Lag as N.Y. Foreclosure Frauds Surge.