Thursday, April 16, 2009

NYC Prosecutors Slow To Prosecute Foreclosure Rescue Scams? "We Gift-Wrapped These Cases" Complains Brooklyn Legal Services Attorney

In New York City, The New York Times reports:
  • Many New York City prosecutors reacted slowly and brought few indictments as foreclosure swindles and mortgage fraud swept the city during the past decade, allowing problematic operators to flourish even as the nation’s housing market rose and crashed, according to housing lawyers, prosecutors and federal reports.

***

  • [T]he lawyers who have pleaded with district attorneys, chased witnesses and pointed out the same suspected law breakers for years say that prosecutors failed to stop fraud when it was most rampant. “We gift-wrapped these cases,” said Jessica Attie, co-director of the foreclosure prevention project at South Brooklyn Legal Services. “These are crimes committed in plain sight.”

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