Mortgage Fraud Part 2: Case Studies
We’re lucky to be living far, far away from the mortgage fraud happening in other parts of the United States, right? Not so fast. In part two of this three part series, we’ll take a look at some mortgage fraud cases in Washington State.
Case Study: Century Mortgage; How to succeed in a down market and earn six figures your first year with no experience.
This case involved a mortgage broker, loan originators, a Realtor, an escrow closer, and an appraiser. Homes in a Spokane neighborhood had been on the market for many months with no sale. The mortgage broker talked the Realtor into taking the homes off the market and then relisting them with an increased price. Straw buyers were found; people who could not otherwise qualify to purchase a home but wanted to become homeowners. The terms were as follows: 80% first mortgage loan and a 20% second mortgage carried back by the seller. The mortgage lender was very happy with the 80% LTV loan. At closing the seller’s second mortgage was discounted to $1.00 and paid off. So the lender believes they are making an 80% LTV loan when they are really making a 100% LTV loan. Of course the home must appraise for the higher amount so the appraiser made some extra cash off of each on of these deals as did the Realtor and escrow closer, for knowingly hiding the facts from the lender. The Century Mortgage scheme (no relation to defunct subprime lender New Century) was played out in many neighborhoods in the Spokane area. The mortgage broker, loan originators, Realtor, closer, and appraiser all lost their license, and banned from the industry for life or for a specified number of years, and some were sentenced to do jail time in the federal pen. What concerns me about this case is that this could likely happen again because this scheme needs one important element: desperate sellers.
Case Study: Property Flipping; How to get rich quick and then go directly to jail
Ekram Almussa and Josh Kebede bought homes in Seattle and on the Eastside, and sold the homes in a matter of days and sometimes hours later, for thousands more. Here’s an example of how it went down: They would purchase a home for, say, $315,000 and hire an appraiser, the same one each time who magically finds that the home is worth $415,000. The homes are sold to straw borrowers whose names show on title and on the new mortgage documents, but agree to make payments to Almussa and Kebede, who in return promise to pay the mortgage. All the loans were owner occupied, but none of the properties were occupied by the owner of record. All the loans were sent to the same underwriter at the now defunct subprime lender New Century, Almussa and Kebede’s lender of choice each time. Almussa and Kebede pocket the $100K, plus the mortgage payments that went into their pocket. Both Almussa and Kebede were arrested and pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges. John Gonzalez, who helped verify employment for the straw buyers, decided to testify against them.
Case Study: Church is where the sinners are
Liza Bautista was a mortgage broker with a strong client base inside her Christian church in Tukwila. After successfully closing several prime loans for folk with A-paper credit, she targeted consumers who were turned down by lenders in 2005 and 2006 (Hello? Who couldn’t get a mortgage in ’05 and ’06?) and created two sets of loan documents. She submitted the credit history and identity of her prime, A paper clients to the lender funding the loan. When it was time to sign papers, she forged her A paper client’s names on the loan documents and sent everything in for funding. For the poor credit clients, she hand carried a second set of documents to be signed and then made a special offer to personally hand carry their mortgage payment to the lender each month. (Note to consumers, don’t ever agree to this.) Of course, the payments never made it to the bank. Liza kept the money and subsequently, the lender started to foreclose on the A-paper owners, whose name appeared on title as the owners of record. When the A-paper clients were finally contacted by the lender and claimed they did not own said house, Liza started running out of places to hide. The poor credit clients who were thrilled to be homeowners were obviously upset that their name were not on the title to the home and they were evicted after foreclosure. Liza has lost her mortgage broker’s license. Rumor has it that she is still originating loans under a different name. From a quick search of the King County Court records (search by her name) you can see several court actions indicating the A-paper former clients have sued and won. The escrow company that Liza used had been operating without a license at the time.
As you can see, the most egregious cases of mortgage fraud are more than just a single person acting alone. There is usually a charismatic ringleader who recruits others. Sometimes the ringleader will target new or financially struggling loan originators, Realtors, escrow companies, and appraisers, who are all offered additional cash for participating.
The question that remains is how many defaults/foreclosures are the result of large-scale, organized mortgage fraud, and how many are the result of much smaller scale fraud that likely won’t see prosecution. There never has been nor will there ever be enough government resources to regulate every single transaction written by every single industry person out there. It is up to us to help point investigators in the right direction.
Consumers as well as those of us in the industry can report mortgage fraud tips by following this link.
On CalculatedRisk, I recently read a blog post about securities rating agency Fitch (link opens the 11-page PDF report and requires site registration, but it’s free) opening up 45 loan files inside one of the failed CDOs, and guess what they found? Mortgage fraud galore and very shoddy underwriting which I will outline in Part 3.
Part 1 Mortgage Fraud Basics
Part 2 Case Studies
Part 3 Recent Mortgage Fraud Developments, and Future Outlook
Hi Jeremy,
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Comment by Randall C Frost on 18 September 2008:
The case studies were very interesting considering the fact that it took so many parties to pull off the fraud! I guess it just shocks me to learn that all those people were shady enough to do such a crime. You would think some of them would say OH NO NOT ME!!!
Comment by Kevin Haynes on 4 November 2008:
As part of the licensing process for agents, LO’s, etc. perhaps credit reports should be run on every potential licensee to see what their scores are. The scores could indicate where potential future problems might arise?
Comment by Michael Belisle on 5 November 2008:
The amount of mortgage fraud is not huge part of the reason for how many defaults there are. I imagine it accounts for less than 5% of all defaults. The biggest reason is people took out big of payment and are not able to refinace because all the new guidelines are more stringent now. They can’t get approved any more! Also the majority of Americans have less than one payment in their saving accounts so once they skip one payment there is no way they can catch back up and most mortgage companies will not accept partial payments. Its a snowball effect. So yes mortgage fraud is bad and it is expensive and time comsuming to stop, but I do not think it will help stop foreclosures.
Comment by John Mayfield on 15 November 2008:
What really gets me, is how in the world did they think up these schemes? I must be really naive because if you would have told me this was happening, I would not have believed it.
I am glad for King 5 news and the DFI, these crooks hurt the business for those of us who are compliant to the law.
Comment by Kelly Molenda on 20 November 2008:
I also agree that I can’t believe these people came up with these ideas. I believe also that the consumer needs to be more educated to stay on top of their transaction and not be manipulated by other parties in their deal. To many people today put trust into loan officer/realtor/agents and we can no longer allow them to take care of everything for us. We must stay on top of anything to do with handling our $$$$$.
Comment by Cheryl Nopson on 23 November 2008:
Its amazing how 1 person can get other people to follow into these scemes. People put their license and career on the line to deceive the clients out of money for their personal gain.
Comment by Jeff Hilt on 24 November 2008:
These case studies just scratch the surface. They are evidence that people will go to great lengths to line their own pockets. Regulators must be supported to weed out the bad ones. Good poeple in the industry must be ever vigilant in spotting questionable practices and to help bring them to light.
Comment by Gail Burgess on 25 November 2008:
Here we are again with many different players all agreeing to deceive
for personal profit. Everyone is paying the price for a small percentage of very dishonest people.
Comment by Patti Ormiston on 25 November 2008:
As a processor for a mortgage company in the 90’s I reported fraud between a Powerfull L.O. and her real estate appraiser. For my efforts, I was laid off. Fraud has been around for decades. It’s the people at the top (Managers, VP’s etc.who also receive money from the fraud transactions, if not directly) who need to understand whats happening and put a stop to it, not punish people because money is leaving their “clean hands”
Comment by richard martin on 1 December 2008:
You see I cant believe that L Bautista is still originating loans and without a License. Its the system that lets this kind of thing continue and it needs to be severely overhauled or managed better.
Century Mortgage in Spokane obviously had an well organized well schooled team effort slick operation and did very well with their scam every body seemed to profit and they were able to run their real estate scam for some time But finally their bubble burst, Wonder if they can still pull any of their stunts from jail its not unheard of.
Ekram and Josh dont appear to be associated with any Mortgage Co. were doing their own little scam for big bucks and seemed to be doing well with their faily straight forward operation ripping people off. they got what they deserved and with the help of one of their own accomplices. Lets inform the public more about this kind of Real Estate – Mortgage scam so they become much more aware of this dangrous and costly activity.
Comment by James A. Nelson on 9 December 2008:
Hooray for DFI and all the other Law Enforcement folks involved
in catching these theives. Honesty really is the best policy, always. Thanks to the media for publicizing these scams and crooks.
Comment by jeremy hickling on 9 December 2008:
I love the sinner in the church story – thats pathological especially if she is still out there running and gunning. (orginating illegaly.) I feel a bit naive having never really run into this these types of practicies personaly but I know it’s occured in our backyard – A+ comes to mind – I recall interviewing there when I was a newbie in around 2000. I left not looking back with a sense of having just escaped a shark tank.
And I am again struck at how typical it is that a few create a bad situation for the many – and thats why we get laws.
Comment by Teresa Gallaher on 10 December 2008:
I am glad that these folks were exposed, but it is frightening to think how many have gone undetected. We will continue to see stories like this I am afraid.
Comment by Laura Shields on 10 December 2008:
I have read about most of these stories or saw them on the news. It amazes me how a group of people can be so crooked. Birds of a feather flock together. Maybe there should be some reward system out there to turn people in for a cash reward?
It just takes time and people get caught but how do they sleep at night?
The mortgage industry is big, but the people just circle around.
There is always a lookout list of scammers, just ask some of your biggest lenders or reps for a referal base reference.
I believe the biggest scammers are scammers working on making their next scam. I don’t believe these people will go away until they are proven guilty and behind bars.
Look at the Governer of Illinois…..unbelievable!
Comment by David Bietz on 11 December 2008:
These schemes just go to show that most people still want to trust people, which is a good thing. The only problem is that the crooks
know this to. Like they say, money is the root of all evil, if it weren’t for the money they wouldn’t do these schemes. Regarding Lisa Burtista I wouldn’t want to be her on judgment day. How could you live with yourself after what she did.
Comment by Marty Boswell on 14 December 2008:
This story is unbeleivable. How can all these mortgage professionals ever think they would get away with something like this. How can they all get together to construct this from beginning to end. I sure hope their career and embarassement was worth being nothing better than a crook.
Comment by Vance Won on 15 December 2008:
I guess for some people the American Dream of owing a home is so powerful they are willing to cheat to do it. They are certainly to blame but I think the mortgage professionals who aid in this should take the brunt of the punishment because they are only driven by greed.
Comment by Branda Luke on 18 December 2008:
Wow. That’s all I could really say for these case studies. I’ve heard of some brazen schemes but these are pretty far out there. I think the one thing that struck a chord with me is the statement that in most cases, it is more than one entity performing the fraud. It is very difficult to pull off fraud cases without at least a trace of it to where other parties should be able to pick up on it (that is if they weren’t already involved). I also think that for the victims, there must be cases where clients were also in the loop or perhaps so blinded by the prospect of home ownership that selective ignorance comes into play.
Comment by Pedro Riojas on 18 December 2008:
The content of these studies is vital for people with little or no experience with such unethical practices .This is especially beneficial for all involve in the mortatage industry in gaining knowldge of potentcial fraud.
Even though I believe that mortatage fraud is the exception and not the rule, when one takes into account the thousands of transactions occurring each year ,it stands to reason that a geat number of fraud cases take place . All involve in the various industries related the mortatage transactios benefit from these case studies as well. What an eye opener !
In reviewing the Century court documents I realized the magnitude of the case. Several people were involved and the wrong doing was extensive
The various state and federal agencies that police the mortatage trasactions play a vital role in idetifying and punishing those involved in these unethical practices . More and better laws are needed to be more succesful
Comment by Pedro Riojas on 18 December 2008:
AS it pertains to this case study we can learn that fraud is rampant
all over.We may think that this type unlawfull activity happens in
other places but not in our community or in our state.Think again, this study involves century mortgage a Spokane WA mortgage co. The study shows that many of the companys staff as well as others were
involved in doing the loan. It mentions the broker , Lo’s realtor’s and appraisers.Many or all people involved are now doing time for their actions . Serves them well.
It is interesting to read John Mayfield comment , I can’t believe that these people thaught they would not get caught ! Well they didn’t . and with the new laws and new watch dog agencies it will be even harder.
Comment by Susan Lohse on 19 December 2008:
Hopefully with this information out there and LO’s being required to take these classes, we will all be a little more educated on the fraud issue. LO’s are willing to risk their licenses because the benefit of all that extra money, far outweighs the slim chance they will be caught. They’re money hungry greety people and it’s like a drug to them; if they get away with it once, their craving to do it again and again gets stronger and stronger. It then becomes an addiction. It seems like with the very strict underwriting guidlines now that it’s getting tougher and tougher to get fraudulent documents by through.
Comment by Luis Diaz on 19 December 2008:
Well, how many forclosures may be a result of fraud?, we may need to do some demographics from previous years to compare House selling and Loans granted to consumers. Altough, the figure may still be out of reallity, due to the fact that based on the FBI search and results, this shemes and frauds have been in the industry for long time. Unfortunatly, this shemes and frauds were more pronounced in the period of the “bubble market”. I belive that we as professionals will need to take a serious position and to take action on reporting those rats instead than just stay our of their way allowing them to hurt future consumers.
Comment by Toby on 20 December 2008:
It would be interesting to see an unbiased study that differentiated the cause of each foreclosure. Not only what portion is the result of fraud, but specifically what sort of fraud.
I understand that fraud is rampant, but I also know that MANY people are facing foreclosure due to loss of employment, illness, divorce etc.
I think the one guideline that needed to be adhered too in all mortgages was that people had reserves. In the years I have been doing mortgages I can count on my fingers how many clients actually had a decent amount of “rainy day” reserves. We live in a pay-check to pay-check society so when things go askew we end up in a crisis such as the one we are facing nationally today.
Comment by Alice Yu Uy on 21 December 2008:
Laura is correct, how do they sleep at night? Is there conscience. Are they not humiliated? Again greed for money is the factor.
Comment by Sean Clift on 22 December 2008:
Fraud in the cases above are very evident. I believe this “glaring” fraudulant behavior is easy to see, investigate, and prosecute. I do not however believe this is the fraud that has pushed this industry and country to the brink. I believe the greed of wallstreet,brokers, realtors, L.O.’s, etc is the gas that drives that engine. I believe that compromise by all is the seed of destruction.
I live and work in a small community and have found that those that practice bad business do not last long. The challenge I have faced is the false promise and deciet that the larger lenders have reached the average American homeowner with. Ie the “wonderful 1% loan”, the greeter at WalMart “qualifying” for a $350,000 mortgage, the bait and switch, the preying on the uneducated and elderly. This fraud is often less noticable but more prolific than the “builder, baker, and candle stick maker” getting together on a development and running straw borrowers. At least in my neck of the woods.
Comment by Carmen Ziranda on 24 December 2008:
By reading this article I realize that it will be very difficult to
eradicate people willing to commit fraud. Money is not the problem but the love of money. People are willing to put aside their conscience and forget that sooner or later they will be busted! For those of us who care, all we can do is educate people and don’t lower our moral standars.
Comment by Mark Middlebrooks on 24 December 2008:
These are all interesting case studies. The two in particular that boggle my mind are….
Ekram and Josh in their Seattle and East side based scam. I have no idea how a person can be intelligent enouogh to put a scam together and stupid enough to think they could possible get away with structuring it the way they did…..ridiculous.
Then there’s Liza Bautista. I am disgusted that this woman is not in prison.
Comment by R Scott Tollefsen on 28 December 2008:
I do think licensing of loan officers is a big step in weeding out some of the bad people. But I also feel that mortgage fraud is not just a because of a bad broker or loan officer. During the boom years in lending you had homeowners who would do anything to get a loan for a home they could not afford, You had realtors pushing those people to lenders who would qualify them for more house than they could afford by suggesting option arms or interest only loans and even stated income, Then you had loan officers who just wanted the commision and reps who wanted every deal they could get and the companies selling these to Wall Street wanted more so they came up with new programs and the list goes on and on. So to say that mortgage fraud is only because of bad brokers is wrong… However if every loan officer would just say no to people who can not afford a home and explain why then maybe we would not be in the mess we are in today.
Comment by Bartholomew Henning on 29 December 2008:
Great schemes! I really hope everyone enjoyed their money while they had it. The Federal Penitentary doesn’t have any well-known LO gangs to be a part of. Have fun!
Comment by Angela on 29 December 2008:
I have worked for lenders in the past and we always kept UTD licenses for brokers. We would even hold fundings for current licenses if we had to. How was Liza able to get loans funded not being licensed?? That’s strange to me. And preying on people at her church… unbelievable!
Comment by William Schornack on 29 December 2008:
I find it’s a good business practice to deal with professionals whio have good ethics. They’ll tell you what’s going on in their respective industry and give you guidance on how to avoid problems. Sometimes we have to make the right decision and tell the customer we can’t help them at this time and give them guidance so we can help them in the future.
Comment by Jim LaLone on 30 December 2008:
Not surprising little old WA state has it’s problems, we’ve been in a hot market, and we attract our share of theives. “as soon as you think it’s foolproof someone invents a better fool” The Ethically Impaired are every where. I guess after ‘THE CLINTONS’ a lot of people were willing to lower their standards and parse the truth for personal gain. Lots of laws, no standards. Now most of them are back, lets see how it goes this time around. Regulation and laws are fine, but they don’t prevent fraud, they tend to punish only after the fact. If you are good at it, maybe no punishment at all….It depends upon what IS,,IS….
Comment by Jim Haechler on 30 December 2008:
I’m sorry, how to people come up with this stuff. Do they really think there going to get away with this. If this is how they think, they need to be fined and punished to the max. Its a shame what people will do for money.
Comment by shelley safronek on 30 December 2008:
These schemes appear to be very complicated and time consuming. Why these same inventive people do not channel their energy in to good old fashioned clean business practices is beyond me. This is not an easy or glamorous business, but if done with integrity ….over the years when that young family that you helped place in their home (legitimately) comes back to you for the move up home, it is very rewarding to see the loyalty. That is not a given….it is earned!
Comment by Brian Paine on 30 December 2008:
This follows suit with one of my latter comments…there’s fraud happening right now here in the state of Washington and it’ll have a new twist. Jillayne, as you stated in one of your blog comments, we’re in a era of desperation on behalf of everyone associated with this industry and predators will prey on the uninformed, the uneducated, and the weak, and we’re all a little weak. It’ll be ultimately interesting to see the positive changes coming down the pike and how they’ll influence the industry.
Here’s a question: How do you, in an email or a phone call with a potential customer, relay the honesty and integrity of the service you provide?
Thanks
Comment by Dennis Tyler on 30 December 2008:
Unfortunately, some of the investment seminars prime the pump for this kind of dishonest activity. Individuals, with few morals, can’t imagine how they are hurting anybody, especially if it is the bank that will foreclose. After all, the banks/lenders have deep pockets and it won’t hurt them for someone to “stretch” the truth a little.
Sadly enough, in economic times like we are currently experiencing, there will be more schemes originated to steal from other people. Hopefully we all will be more aware and vigilant, each helping to police these situations.
Comment by Joe Hrebik on 31 December 2008:
The property flipping case study is very surprising… it should have been easy to spot and prevent. A property increase of $100K in a short period of time? Why can’t Automated Underwriting software be revised to catch this type of trend?
Software can be written to detect a lot of complex things these days, after all it is almost 2009…. seems like the current underwriting software is too high level and basic!
Comment by John Sarausad on 31 December 2008:
I feel that fraud is something we have to all work together on in preventing. To read stories in our local area about mortgage fraud is quite surprising, especially after what has been going on over the last year and a half. I don’t think we could ever permanently delete fraud because there will always be criminals trying to make a quick buck and criminals can also be smart and intelligent in such a evil way.
Comment by Cheryl J Barr, 510-LO-38949 on 31 December 2008:
The case of the 80/20 mortgage fraud in Spokane seems like the most likely to lur people in. But in a time when lending was so easy it seems amazing to me that realtors, apprasiers, LO got together to commit these acts. As for the flips of properties and gving your monthly payment to someone who will take it to the bank for you…who comes up with these ideas and furthermore, who in their right minds acts on these. I know fraud was committed and it was wrong and should be punishable but there needs to be some personal responsiblity on the consumers part. We are head to much more stringent regulations.
Comment by Mary Schimmelbusch on 31 December 2008:
How do you get so many (un)professionals to participate in this fraud? You would think that one would have the sense to realize this is a criminal act. Then you find yourself in jail and out of the mortgage buisness for life! Unless, that is, you commit more fraud under a different identity as in the case of Bautista. I am truly amazed at what people will do for money.
Comment by Carla on 14 January 2009:
Individual responsibilty? Don’t see much of it in these case studies. Integrity? Doesn’t seem to exist here.
What is needed by all is a higher set of moral standards.
Comment by Scott on 27 January 2009:
These case studies are not surprising considering it is all centered on greed, when you have sellers that premium price there homes and after many months and something years they receive an offer that nets them the inflated dollar amount the temptation is overwhelming. It’s unfortunate that straw buyers, lenders and appraisers will prey on desperate sellers. Keep in mind there are desperate sellers in hot and cold markets. These stories are sad and hopefully the filters in place will help eliminate them.
Comment by Robert Paterson on 9 February 2009:
These people must truly believe that they are above the law and better than every one else. I was glad to read that these “professionals” either lost their licenses or ended up in jail for the most part. These people give everybody in the whole mortgage process a black eye. I guess where you have cash and desperate people you will have fraud.
Comment by Teresa Tait on 10 February 2009:
I actually heard about these cases when they first came out in the media and was embarrased by the negative publicity that our profession was getting. It is sad that these are the stories that hit the news rather than the positive ones telling about how we help people purchase homes, refi to pay off debts/purchase 2nd homes,investment properties etc.We can only hope that because of this huge mortgage implosion that we will all end up in a much more professional field where the amount of fraud taking place will be so minimal that it wont even hit the papers.
Comment by Sharon Eva on 11 February 2009:
Wow. I am amazed at how easily fraud can occur. In the case of Liza Bautista, has she not gone to jail for her crime? I feel that there are too many hands that go into the loan process. Maybe the government should require a case manager (3rd party) to over see loan documents, escrow, title, etc. to verify all information is accurate. I believe that laws should be harsh on consumers for fraudulent activities. The fact that average citizens are able to get away with fraud makes it more appealing since there is little to no punishment. This might prevent future fraud from occuring.
Comment by Chris Madden on 28 February 2009:
Once again complex schemes, several different career minded participants. They only way to really stop people from risking everything, is tougher sentences for those that hurt the indusrty integrity. In the example of the LO, from tukwila, this women ruined several consumers credit, and pockets several dollars(felony)and she’s not in prison somewhere?
Comment by Mary McGraw on 21 April 2009:
I just cant believe that people could have the heart to do those things to people and feel good about themselves.And it really hurts the industry from those who are trying to do the right thing.
Comment by Mary McGraw on 22 April 2009:
It just bothers me that people can go out there to the consumer and say and do the things to them just to feel good about themselves. How can they” wheres the heart. Because there are people out there that do have a heart and really want to help others.
Comment by Raylene Ramos on 23 April 2009:
This is about greed and nothing short of it! What comes around goes around and that’s why they were caught and slapped with some serious penalties. These are cases of a team of fraudsters working together and someone is going to get burned! The industry has fallen so hard so fast and now decent consumers are the ones getting burned. And decent LO’s are getting a bad reputation and making it harder to do business and therefore they are getting burned as well!
Comment by Yvette on 18 December 2009:
I have been in the industry for a lot of years, and in this industry I seem to run into the same people all of the time. Those are the honest ones who still remain. All of the names in all of the schemes are people I have never heard of and most probably came in the industry to gain a quick buck because of their greed. If they have gotten away with it with all of the new regulations are probably not doing it anymore or have moved to other states where the licensing requirements are not as stringent. They will still do fraud, but hopefully we are starting to weed them out of our State.
It is nice to know the names of the people that are committing fraud so that if we do cross their paths, we can report them to DFI.
Comment by Chris Yanke on 30 December 2009:
As you can see regardless of background, profession, and/or idealology Greed can unify us all. These studies all have on thing in common, they required multiple parties on several levels to complete this transaction. No one party could have been able to succeed without the cooperation of the other parties involved. Granted it’s also hard considering that the bank that funded these loans is also out of the business so the next question is, what happened to the investors who put the money into this and why haven’t we considered the bank’s underwriting?
Comment by Alison Clark on 23 February 2010:
It seems to me in all of the case studies something should have been seen by someone with a Conscience or at least empathy for the people being hurt. This deeply disturbs me as I was unaware that so many people could hurt so many others. I guess the numbers are all there and brings me to my point again that the innocent. I would like to know the AKA’ of these bad people and I think they should be posted if the are not already on our limited denial of participation and excluded parties list. I know as I have worked as a processor for the last 5 years that it makes me more aware of what I should be looking for as making sure the files that LO’s (especially new ones) give me are in compliance and nothing is suspicious is the most important part of it.
Comment by Jillayne Schlicke on 23 February 2010:
Hi Alison,
Our state regulators maintain a list of consent orders as part of the public records system.
For WA State, here is the link.
http://www.dfi.wa.gov/cs/adminactions.htm
Comment by Daniel Mulvehill on 27 February 2010:
It is obvious there will be these type of people who try and beat the system, but get busted? It is a very benefical to put these people out of business, what is there fear factor or ethics, none they beleive they are above the law and if they get caught it will take years to be convicted and fined. So what is the fastest way to antimidate these low class people, set the bar that if you participate in this kind of fraud you will be sent to jail and kept there for a period of time until your case is quickly reviewed seize all of there assests that isn’t there’s to begin with demote them to a low level and through away the key.
Comment by Angie Williams on 27 May 2010:
With this article being written in 2008, it highlights the schemes and brings about their awareness. It only makes me understand and appreciate the rules which have been set forth thus far. Including the licensing requirements, background checks, continueing education. Even the 2010 gfe.
The other good part about bringing the statistics to the forefront is those who thought something as little as marking an application as owner occupied on a transaction which was really meant for investment could spell out big default when one walks from mortgage because there was less of a down payment on the owner occupied transaction. It’s not just the big fraud.. it’s all fraud that played a role.