Staten Island DA Now Acknowledges Real Estate Fraud Problem In His County

The announcement by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York in a recent news conference that he will seek $100 million in federal money to fund real estate fraud units in local prosecutors' offices across the country to combat deed, mortgage and foreclosure fraud has apparently caused the Richmond County District Attorney's office to abandon its recently-articulated position that there is no real estate fraud problem on Staten Island, according to a story in The New York Times:

• Two weeks ago, the Staten Island district attorney, through a spokesman and a top assistant, told The New York Times that mortgage fraud was uncommon in his county. But the district attorney, Daniel M. Donovan Jr., took a different view at the news conference. "In some cases, families have fallen victim to con artists promising easy homeownership,” Mr. Donovan said. “Or even worse, some families already facing foreclosure desperately turned to scammers offering financial relief, only to wind up in a worse-off situation.”

I suspect the DA's office was going to find it tough trying to glom onto some of that anticipated federal cash without first recanting its position that they had no real estate fraud problems in the county, characterizing the reported incidents of fraud as "civil cases."

For the most recent story in The New York Times, see: Schumer Seeks Grants to Battle Mortgage Fraud.