Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Mortgage Fraud Crisis

Senator Levin railed last month about the speculators on Wall Street who were playing the market on oil and causing the price to go up. This month apparently, speculation, even illegal speculation is OK with Mr. Levin. He was hailing the new "HOPE for Homeowners" $300 Billion (with a "B") taxpayer funded bailout of home purchasers who went too far out on the limb and found themselves upside down on their mortgage. What Mr. Levin fails to say is that many of those borrowers did so out of speculation on the real estate market. They even did so fraudulently, misrepresenting their income or debt load to get the loan.

This problem is so bad that the FBI has set up an investigation called "Operation Quick Flip" to investigate this growing problem of mortgage fraud. You can read more about this issue in my latest newsletter. Sign up for it on the right of the screen.


No comments: