Florida ranked #1 for Mortgage Fraud in 2009

[Lunican]

The 12th Periodic Mortgage Fraud Case Report examines the current state of residential mortgage fraud and misrepresentation in the U.S. committed by professionals, based on data submitted by LexisNexis® Mortgage Asset Research Institute subscribers.

Florida, ranked number one in 2006 and 2007, has moved back into first place in the country for mortgage fraud and misrepresentation after being displaced in 2008 by Rhode Island.  Florida also has close to three times the expected amount of reported mortgage fraud and misrepresentation for its origination volume.  Rhode Island is not ranked on the Top-Ten list for 2009 because the state's sample size did not meet the minimum requirements set for the survey.

New York moved into second place, followed by California, Arizona, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, and Virginia. This is the first appearance on the LexisNexis Mortgage Asset Research Institute Report Top-Ten list for New Jersey and Virginia.

The detailed report was released at the MBA's annual National Fraud Issues Conference in Chicago. The full report, as well as previous year's reports, is available on the LexisNexis Mortgage Asset Research Institute Web site at: http://www.lexisnexis.com/risk/fraudreport

http://www.lexisnexis.com/risk/newsevents/press-release.aspx?id=1272033698698305

[JC]

In this 2009 New Yorker article http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/02/09/090209fa_fact_packer Florida is dubbed the "Ponzi State" check it out, its also a good read.

[fieldafm]

The interesting thing to note is that the FBI really only goes after mortgage fraud cases of 1mm or more. 

The local FBI office here is however aggressively going after mortgage fraud and are doing a very good job.  This aggresiveness is sorely needed.

As this is my business(banking), I can say some of the fraud cases I've seen lately are quite fascinating.  Unfortunately there are very bad people on both sides of the coin that have hurt quite a lot of people.  Former Jacksonville Jaguar Natrone Means was once the victim of mortgage fraud.