Fremont To Dump $4 Billion In Subprime Mortgage Loans
To get a view of the current climate in the mortgage lending business from the perspective of a loan originator, see the blog, Blown Mortgage.
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Welcome to The Home Equity Theft Reporter, a blog dedicated to informing the consumer public and the legal profession about Home Equity Theft issues. This blog will consist of information describing the various forms of Home Equity Theft and links to news reports & other informational sources from throughout the country about the victims of Home Equity Theft and what government authorities and others are doing about it.
Argent Mortgage Co. has announced the close of its local shop in White Plains, New York and has resulted in layoffs estimated at between 400 and 600 of its employees, who reportedly learned of their fate via e-mail. Shortly after the announcement, the workers were asked to leave the premises, with extra security looking on. To read more, see When mortgage workers are axed; watch your back (The Journal News).
Editor's Note: articles no longer available online.
The government alleges Reagan disbursed loan proceeds in a manner inconsistent with the closing statements (HUD-1) she prepared and also is alleged to have prepared multiple closing statements (double HUD-1 scam). She allegedly received $40,000 in kickbacks.
According to one news report, "Reagan is among a growing number of real estate lawyers being federally prosecuted in Atlanta for closing real estate loans that were found to be fraudulent." In 2005, former Stone Mountain lawyer Chalana W. McFarland got a 30 year prison sentence for her role in a mortgage fraud scheme.
Two other lawyers, Andrew E. Wolf, of Wolf & Associates, and Cumming attorney J. Christopher Halcomb, await sentencing for their roles in another mortgage fraud case.
To read more, see:
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Sharel L. Payne, a third attorney who was indicted along with Brochstein and Hippe, remains under indictment. The government has certified her case as ready for trial along with five other co-defendants, including accused ringleader Nathan Parker. The case involves a now seemingly standard alleged straw buyer, flipping scam (ie. "recruited middlemen [used] to masquerade as fictional, or “straw,” buyers and sellers using fictitious or misappropriated identities, use of faulty appraisals and fictional, quick sales to inflate artificially the value and prices of Atlanta real estate").
To read more, see Charges against two attorneys dismissed (A third attorney who voluntarily surrendered her law license still is under federal indictment in the bank fraud case)
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This civil lawsuit, filed by the Santa Barbara law firm of Hollister & Brace, claims the money was stolen in a scheme involving "1031" or "tax-free" exchanges of real estate. "1031" is a reference to a provision in the Federal tax law (Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code) that essentially says that, if you structure your transaction correctly, you can sell your investment real estate, take the proceeds and reinvest it in, what the tax law refers to as, property of a "like kind" without having to pay immediate capital gains taxes; the tax liability is deferred indefinitely. Part of structuring your transaction correctly involves the use of an independent third party intermediary to hold the sale proceeds from the sale of one property in trust until the reinvestment property is purchased.
Click here for other posts on State of Washington foreclosure rescue settlement.
(corrected 3-22-07)
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Click here for prior posts on the Phillip Hill case.
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