The federal government recently announced the results of a concentrated effort to arrest, prosecute and seek financial penalties from people across the country for financial crimes, including a specific emphasis on mortgage fraud cases. As we have stated several times on our criminal defense lawyer blog, the federal government (and the local state attorney’s office to a lesser extent) has significantly increased its focus on mortgage fraud and other financial crimes cases in light of the drastic decline in the value of real estate and the bailouts of financial companies. According to the government’s press release, the government’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force (which is responsible for criminal investigations and civil enforcement of mortgage fraud and other financial crimes cases) has made 485 arrests over the last few months that relate to more than $2.85 billion in losses.
Based on comments by the Obama administration and the fact that mortgage fraud, real estate issues and bank problems continue to be hot topics in the news, we can expect the government to continue to focus its efforts and resources on mortgage fraud and other financial crime cases.