News

Thirteen defendants were indicted on mortgage fraud offenses involving nearly $13 million in fraudulent loans in Ohio, according to a statement from county prosecutor Bill Mason and the Cuyahoga County Mortgage Fraud Task Force. Defendants included a supervisor, account managers, and appraisers formerly working for Argent Mortgage Company. Argent was one of the largest home loan originators in Cuyahoga County from 2003 to 2005.

Seriously past-due home mortgages continue to decline for the nation's largest mortgage company, continuing a 15-month path of descent. Fannie Mae says the share of single-family loans it holds that are 90 or more days past due or in foreclosure fell 8 basis points to 4.19 percent in April, and then dropped another 5 basis points to 4.14 percent in May. Fannie Mae says servicers completed modifications on 16,419 of its loans in May. For the first five months of the year, loan modifications total 84,133.

Treasury has released new numbers for the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). New this month is data on the program's Principal Reduction Alternative (PRA). Servicers have cut principal balances on 4,938 permanent HAMP modifications under the PRA initiative. In addition, there are currently 16,017 HAMP trials in force that have also received principal write-downs. The median amount of principal reduced for active permanent modifications exceeds $69,000.

Timothy Massad has been confirmed by the Senate as Treasury's assistant secretary for financial stability, responsible for overseeing the implementation and wind down of the Troubled Asset Relief Program including initiatives to address the housing and foreclosure crisis. While Treasury has won several Senate confirmations in recent days, the Department is at risk of losing its topmost officer. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has notified President Obama that he will resign if lawmakers don't raise the debt ceiling by the early August deadline.

HUD announced a revised Notice of Disclosure form that emphasizes the rights of active duty military and their dependents who are protected under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). Under the SCRA, military personnel on active duty are entitled to mortgage relief, including a lower interest rate on their mortgages and foreclosure protection. HUD says it is the lender's responsibility to determine military status in connection with a foreclosure.

According to the Warren Group, a Boston-based real estate data firm, foreclosure activity in Massachusetts dropped year-over-year in May, which marked the fewest number of deeds recorded in any month so far this year. Foreclosure deeds, which represent completed foreclosures, decreased almost 65 percent from a year earlier. Foreclosure petitions, which mark the first step in the foreclosure process, dropped almost 67 percent.

Freddie Mac has issued a bulletin to servicers announcing changes to the company's default management requirements. The move is part of the Servicing Alignment Initiative announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in late April to bring both Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's procedures for handling past-due mortgages in line with one another. Freddie also alerted servicers that it plans to roll out a new modification solution for borrowers who defaulted on previous modifications and who are ineligible for HAMP.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has laid out its expectations for national banks' handling of mortgage foreclosures. The federal agency says all servicers under OCC supervision must observe the same stipulations handed down to a handful of servicers in April as part of the regulatory settlement for robo-signing infractions. National banks are directed to conduct a self-assessment of their foreclosure management practices by September 30, and take immediate action to correct any deficiencies.

Wells Fargo and Bank of America recently joined Fannie Mae, HUD, and JP Morgan Chase as revitalization and demolition partners to the Cleveland-based Cuyahoga Land Bank, which works to alleviate foreclosure and home abandonment in Cuyahoga County. Both lenders plan to donate vacant and foreclosed low-asset properties to the land bank with monetary contributions for demolition costs to help eliminate neighborhood blight and increase local property values.

The man charged with orchestrating possibly one of the most notorious mortgage fraud schemes in U.S. history has been handed a 30-year prison sentence. Lee Farkas, CEO of Taylor Bean & Whitaker, was told Thursday by a U.S. district judge in Virginia that his crimes merit three decades behind bars. Judge Brinkema said she did not detect ""one bit of actual remorse"" in Farkas. From 2002 through 2009, Farkas and his co-conspirators manufactured fraudulent mortgages and securities in a scheme that led to the collapse of Colonial Bank.