Tag Archives: Justice Department

California attorney general Kamala Harris announced Wednesday that the state Assembly and Senate each passed components of the California Homeowner Bill of Rights designed to protect homeowners from scams. One of the passed bills, AB 1763/SB 1474, allows the use of special grand juries to prosecute financial crimes that occur across multiple jurisdictions. Under current California law, crimes involving fraud victims across the state require separate grand juries and separate charges filed in each county where the crime was committed.

Connecticut attorney general George Jepsen announced Friday that programs of benefits resulting from a $25 billion mortgage foreclosure servicing settlement are moving forward in the state. Out of Connecticut's $190 million share of the settlement funds, an estimated $119 million is going into loan modifications. The banks have also agreed to provide $36 million in refinancing to Connecticut borrowers whose homes are worth less than their mortgages. Furthermore, they agreed to provide cash payments of about $1,500 to an estimated 7,500 borrowers in the state who experienced loan servicing abuses and lost their homes to foreclosure between the start of 2008 and the end of 2011.

An Alabama real estate investor agreed to plead guilty and serve prison time for his role in rigging bids and mail fraud at real estate foreclosure auctions, the Department of Justice announced Friday. To date, three individuals and one company have pleaded guilty in the investigation into fraud and bid rigging in southern Alabama.

Through an ongoing investigation into bid rigging, a former executive of a New York tax liens company pleaded guilty Tuesday for his role in rigging bids for tax liens auctioned by municipalities through out the state, according to statement issued by the Department of Justice. Stephen E. Hruby, who supervised the purchasing of municipal tax liens at auctions in New Jersey, was the seventh to plead guilty from the ongoing bid rigging investigation. A felony charge was filed against him in the U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey.

A lawsuit was filed against GFI Mortgage Bankers alleging it charged African American and Hispanic borrowers higher interest rates and fees on mortgage loans because of their race rather than their creditworthiness, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. At a time when so many American homeowners - of all races - are struggling to make their mortgage payments, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York says it is unacceptable that GFI's practices resulted in higher fees and rates for minority customers.

After filing false liens against four federal government officials, a Washington state man was sentences to 41 months in prison Monday, the Justice Department and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) announced. Ronald James Davenport of Chewelah, Washington filed more than $20 billion in false liens on properties of a U.S. attorney and the court clerk of the Eastern District of Washington, an assistant attorney, and an IRS revenue officer, according to the evidence presented at trial in December 2009.

A former chief financial officer of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage (TBW) pleaded guilty Tuesday to making false statements and conspiring to commit bank and wire fraud for his role in a $2.9 billion scheme that contributed to the failures of TBW and Colonial Bank. Delton de Armas of Carrollton, Texas, faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 15, 2012. He admitted in court that from 2005 through August 2009, he and others schemed to defraud financial institutions that had invested in Ocala Funding.

The Department of Justice reached a settlement today with Empirian Property Management Inc. regarding allegations that the management company refused to terminate leases for military members after the members received permanent change of station orders, the Justice Department announced today. The military members involved were on active duty in the Air Force and were assigned to Offutt Air Force Base in Sarpy County, Nebraska.

The special mortgage investigation unit announced by President Obama during his State of the Union address Tuesday night has taken shape. The new Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) Working Group will operate within the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force and will consists of at least 55 Department of Justice attorneys and investigators, as well as state attorneys general. The president has tasked the group with uncovering those responsible for pooling and selling mortgage bonds that contributed to the financial crisis.

The U.S. Department of Justice released a 69-page report Tuesday on a foreclosure intervention method that is becoming increasingly popular across the country - mediation. The paper draws from an earlier workshop which was attended by dozens of mediation program stakeholders and researchers. A key finding that emerged, according to DOJ officials, is that the federal government should take an active role, both in helping to develop program and evaluation guidelines and in providing resources for mediation programs and research.