Mortgage Fraud
Mortgage fraud is said to occur when fabrication or omission of important facts on the part of prospective homebuyers, lenders or sellers results in the approval of mortgage loans or terms applicants would usually not be entitled to enjoy. Mortgage fraud constitutes a major transgression, potentially prosecutable and resulting in incarceration for those found guilty. According to American state and federal regulations, mortgage fraud may cause an individual to end up paying as much as a million dollars in penalty, and as many as thirty years as a federal prison inmate (Robbins, 2005).
Mortgage fraud can take place outside as well as inside financial organizations, apparently only limited by criminals’ inventiveness and cunning. Third parties like real-estate brokers, agents, settlement agents, appraisers and others involved in mortgage origination largely contribute to mortgage fraud. Further, mortgage frauds are aided by insiders seeking benefits from diverse mortgage scams. Thus, mortgage fraud may manifest in multiple forms (Reich, 2006).
Of the mortgage-fraud practices…...
mlaReferences
Berg, B. (2017, August 15). Want to Prevent Future Mortgage Fraud? Then Look Backwards. Retrieved December 6, 2018, from CoreLogic. (2018). 2018 Mortgage Fraud Report. CoreLogic Mortgage Fraud Report,2-10. Retrieved December 5, 2018, from https://www.corelogic.com/downloadable-docs/mortgage-fraud-report-sept-2018-screen-091118.pdf.John Reich, Director, Office of,Thrift Supervision. (2006). Open forum: Fraud threatens lenders ; mr. reich\\\\'s remarks to the recent joint conference of the ohio bankers league and illinois league of financial institutions in colorado springs, colo., are presented as our open forum. National Mortgage News, 31(5), 4. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/198354589?accountid=30552O\\\\'Connell, B. (2018, April 17). Here\\\\'s Everything You Need to Know About the Risks of Mortgage Fraud. Retrieved December 5, 2018, from https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-risks-of-mortgage-fraud/Robbins, John M. Jr. (2005). Fighting mortgage fraud. Mortgage Banking, 66(2), 20-20,22. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/234919463?accountid=30552http://www.mortgagecompliancemagazine.com/legal/want-prevent-future-mortgage-fraud-look-backwards/
This is one of the biggest causes that contributed to the financial crisis. Where, the lack of ethical standards within the industry, helped to cause a number of executives from: loan officers to real estate appraisers, to engage in predatory and illegal lending tactics. Where, many would falsify the income, credit histories or out right lie to borrows about the mortgages they were receiving, along with the terms. This perpetuated the crisis as millions of bad loans were given to borrowers who did not qualify or could not afford the mortgage, if there was a change in interest rates or the economic landscape. ("Financial Reform") to prevent this situation in the future, the regulation of the entire real estate industry should fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Where, the SEC or the Federal Reserve could oversea the proper training standards in the industry. Under this kind of…...
mlaBibliography
"Financial Reform."New York Times. 2010. Web. 21 May 2010.
"Record Number of Foreclosures in 2009." International Business Times. 2010. Web. 21 May 2010.
Finney, Denise. "Mortgage Fraud." SF Gate. 2010. Web. 21 May 2010.
Phillips, Matthew. "The Monster that Ate Wall Street." Newsweek. 2008. Web. 21 May 2010.
My student loan payments of $609.07 are scheduled to begin May 1, 2009. I do not have the resources to make these payments and Chapter 7 Bankruptcy does not affect student loans.
Since I have been stretched beyond my financial capacity, I am now consistently behind in my mortgage payments and am not in a situation to rectify this problem. I am paid on the 15th and 30th of each month and because I am so overextended, I can only make my payment on the 30th of each month. Due to my now chronically late payments, I am now subject to $136.44 in late fees every month, which I can ill afford. I am facing eminent foreclosure if I am unable to change the terms of my mortgage.
I believe my circumstances make me an excellent candidate for the Hope for Homeowners Act. The Affordabilty vs. Value portion of this program…...
mlaREFERENCES
http://fha-refinance-program.com/hope-for-homeowners.html
http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page?_pageid=73,7601299&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTALhttp://www.hud.gov/fha/home080730.cfm
Fraud and the Elderly
Elderly Fraud Victimization
Prevalence and Predictors of Fraud Victimization among the Elderly
Prevalence and Predictors of Fraud Victimization among the Elderly
Applied esearch and Consulting (AC, 2013) conducted a recent national online survey for the FINA Investor Education Foundation, with the goal of quantifying the prevalence of fraud victimization among the American adult population. Any American over the age of 40 was invited to participate, but for the purposes of meeting the 2010 Census distribution for age, ethnicity, and geographic location the sample was limited to 2,364. The primary focus of the study was financial fraud, including red flag persuasion tactics, cold calls, free lunch seminars, oil and gas scams, promissory note scams, pump and dump, pre-IPO scams, multi-level marketing, digital currency, lottery scams, and affinity (relatives) fraud. On a scale of one to ten, with one representing the most risk averse, persons over the age of 65 averaged 3.72…...
mlaReferences
ARC. (2013). Financial Fraud and Fraud Susceptibility in the United States: Research Report from a 2012 National Survey. Retrieved from http://www.finra.org/web/groups/sai/@sai/documents/sai_original_content/p337731.pdf
Forum on Global Violence Prevention; Board on Global Health; Institute of Medicine; National Research Council. (2014). Elder Abuse and Its Prevention: Workshop Summary. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press.
Holtfreter, K., Reisig, M.D., Mears, D.P., & Wolfe, S.E. (2014). Financial Exploitation of the Elderly in a Consumer Context. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/245388.pdf .
ite Aid Fraud
Over the years, there have been numerous cases of financial fraud perpetuated within the organizational mainstream of major companies. Financial fraud is often a well-coordinated sort of white-collar crime that often -- but not always - requires complicity and collusion amongst financial accountants, top management and auditors. ite Aid came to the limelight after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it would be filing accounting fraud charges against the company in 2002
Meanwhile, the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania leveled similar criminal charges accusing former CFO Frank Bergonzi, former CEO Martin Grass and former Vice Chairman Franklin Brown of perpetuating an immense accounting fraud scheme
. Compounding the crisis, according to former ite Aid COO, Timothy Noonan, were years of legal coaching amongst staff and mid-level employees. As investigations ensued, evidence of fraudulent manipulation of accounts, corporate malfeasance, and financial overstatement emerged. What was…...
mlaReference List
Carlin, Wayne M. & Pennington, Nelson "SEC Announces Fraud Charges Against Former Rite Aid Senior Management" Security and Exchange Commission 2002
Federwisch, Anne Exploring Ethical Lapses during the Rite Aid Crisis Santa Clara University: Center for Allied Ethics, 2002
Jennings, Marianne Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse: How to Spot Moral Meltdowns Before it's Too Late Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business, 2007
Carlin, Wayne M. & Pennington, Nelson "SEC Announces Fraud Charges Against Former Rite Aid Senior Management" Security and Exchange Commission 2002
IT Fraud
Evaluate the factors that add to corporate fraud
The business fraud can be credited to conditions emerging from deceptive monetary reporting and misappropriation of possessions. These conditions are 3 and all 3 features of the fraud triangle have to exist for fraud to take place. Management or staff members have to have the reward or pressure to dedicate fraud, see the opportunity emerge and have the ability to justify the occasion.
Incentive/Pressure
Management or perhaps others in the workforce will have benefits or conditions of pressure to carry out fraud. If the choice is made by management to publish illegal monetary statements, the most typical reason for this will be threat by financial, market or entity operating conditions to the monetary security and productivity of the business. Extreme pressure is put on management to satisfy the projection made by industry experts, internal company projections or to pay back loans (Fox School of…...
mlaReferences
ISACA, 2011. COBIT Framework for IT Governance and Control. Retrieved from http://www.isaca.org/Knowledge-Center/COBIT/Pages/Overview.aspx
Louwers, T., Ramsay, R., Sinason, D., & Strawser, J. (2007). Auditing & Assurance Services: A Look Beneath the Surface. (2nd ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Temple University. "Auditing ACCT 3596." Fox School of Business. 13th Ed. United States of America: Pearson, 2009. Print.
Wells, Joseph T. Corporate Fraud Handbook: Prevention and Detection. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2007. Print.
The term "adjustable-rate mortgage" describes any mortgage with an interest rate and payments that adjust according to some formula agreed upon by the borrower and lender. ARMs have been generally available to borrowers for about three decades on prime mortgages, but variants have been common to subprime mortgages over the past 10 years. The traditional ARM linked the mortgage's interest rate to the LIOR plus several percentage points." (Utt,2008)
Alt -- a Mortgages. Sometimes referred to as a "low-doc" mortgage, an Alt -- a mortgage is structured like the other mortgages described in this section but is made available only to prime borrowers or those with FICO scores above 660. However, these prime borrowers were required to offer only limited documentation on their qualifications, so many may not have been as "prime" as they represented themselves to be, as subsequent default rates indicate." (Utt, 2008)
Extremely Low- or No-Down-Payment Mortgages. As…...
mlaBibliography
Utt, Ronald D. (2008) the Subprime Mortgage Market Collapse: A Primer on the Causes and Possible Solutions. Backgrounder 2127 the Heritage Foundation. Online available at http://www.heritage.org/research/economy/bg2127.cfm
The Subprime Mortgage Market (2008) National and Twelfth District Developments. Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Online available at http://www.frbsf.org/publications/federalreserve/annual/2007/subprime.pdf
Chomsisengphet, S. And Pennington-Cross, a. (2006) the Evolution of the Subprime Mortgage Market. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (2001) Online available at> http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/06/01/ChomPennCross.pdf
ethical and legal issues regarding sub-prime mortgage lenders. Unfortunately, the focus has been inordinately upon the poor individuals who were exploited by accepting these predatory and exploitive loans o highlight & copy (Goolsbee, 2007) . Simplistically, they have been blamed for the recent U.S. financial meltdown. The emphasis needs to be focused upon the mortgage lenders themselves. hile exploitation of such individuals is bad enough, to make matters worse, they are having the entire economic collapse based upon them. This is not only unfair, but inaccurate. The holders of subprime loans did not come up with the system of bundling whereby their loans were wrapped with other regular loans and with risky no-mortgage products. Needless to say, the regular mortgage loans camouflaged the risky assets. However, worst of all, the victims of subprime loan exploitation who lost their homes and their jobs will now have their government benefits taken…...
mlaWorks Cited
Gad, S. (2007, July 10). The skinny on subprime. Retrieved from http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2007/07/10/the-skinny-on-subprime.aspx .
Eichler, A. (2011, July 11). Private investment firms lending to subprime borrowers again . Retrieved f rom http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/12/subprime-lending_n_896229.html .
Goolsbee, A. (2007, March 29). 'irresponsible' mortgages have opened doors to many of the excluded .
Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03 .
Worldcom financial disaster provided many substantial learning points while helping expose the importance of accuracy and integrity in accounting procedures and standards. Eight years ago, when the true nature of the rise and fall of this telecommunications giant became public, many in the financial sectors of the world demonstrated shock and disbelief at the remarkable scope of corruption seemingly stemming from this agency. The purpose of this essay is to highlight worthwhile lessons of the Worldcom accounting scandal occurring at the early part of this century in an attempt to gain understanding of the temptations, consequences and regulations of the ever changing world of finance and its accounting procedures.
Understanding and defining fraud is helpful in understanding the events of the Worldcom situation. My personal definition of fraud states that fraud is an intentional act to deceive another in order to gain a competitive advantage over that targeted person or group…...
Bailing out the American economy: Banks vs. mortgage-Holders
In 2008, the United States teetered on the brink of an economic crisis. If the United States were to suffer a financial meltdown, the global economy could spiral downward in a manner unprecedented since the Great Depression. The crisis had begun in the U.S. subprime mortgage market but had rapidly spread to other sectors of the economy. The remedy of the U.S. government was the creation of the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Fund) ("Troubled Asset Relief," Investopedia, 2012). Almost every major banking institution, deemed in the infamous phrase 'too big to fail' was given some form of relief. However, homeowners who were behind on their mortgages were angry that they received relatively little support from the government even though they perceived themselves as far less culpable than the banks. Even the plan proposed by Jeffrey Fuhrer (Foote et al. 2009) on the Federal…...
mlaWorks Cited
Calmes, Jackie. "Audit finds TARP program effective." New York Times. 20 Dec 2009.
[17 Oct 2012].
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/business/economy/10audit.html?dbk&_r=0
Carter, Adrienne. "Big Banks Pay Back TARP Funds -- But Still Get Government Aid."
Fannie Mae Scandal
Fannie Mae is the second largest government sponsored U.S. financial institution engaged in mortgage finance after Citigroup Inc. An investigation lasting for eight long months by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight or OFHEO revealed massive manipulation of earnings that have been engineered to fulfill Wall Street expectations and smooth volatility in earnings from one quarter to next quarter. The revelations deserve quick corrective action announced by the Director of the Agency in a letter to the Board members of Fannie Mae. The Securities and Exchange Commission is also inspecting the books of accounts of Fannie Mae. However, a statement issued by Fannie Mae states that the company has modified its employment contracts with the three top ranking executives i.e. The Chairman and Chief Executive, Franklin aines, Chief Operating Officer Daniel Mudd and Chief Financial Officer, Timothy Howard to make sure that in the event their services…...
mlaReferences
Buchanan, Ian. "Christian Ethics in Business -- Asset or Liability." Retrieved from http://www.christianity.ca/faith/christian-living/2003/06.001.html
Accessed on 14 June, 2005
"Commentary on ECFA Standard 1" Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
Retrieved from http://www.ecfa.org/ContentEngine.aspx?Page=Comment1
Public Programs
Over the last several years, the total amounts of spending for the federal government has been continually brought to the forefront. This is because of the high trade deficits and national debt is having an impact on how various services are delivered. In the case of Justice Department, they have been facing drastic cuts. The reason why is from officials using the funds they are receiving to provide generous benefits for employees. ("Budget Cuts Should Start with DOJ," 2011)
A good example of this can be seen by looking no further than a DOJ Inspector General's report. They found that there is rampant waste inside the agency (with them spending $16 per muffin for a breakfast gathering and $600 thousand for event planning services). ("Budget Cuts Should Start with DOJ," 2011) These elements are illustrating how these kinds of reports are leading to a reduction in spending and greater…...
mlaReferences
Budget Cuts Should Start with DOJ. (2011). TPM Muckraker. Retrieved from: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/grassley_budget_cuts_should_start_with_dojs_16_muffins.php
Cost Control. (2012). Reference for Business. Retrieved from: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Cos-Des/Cost-Control.html
Department of Justice FY 2013 Budget. (2012). DOJ. Retrieved from: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/February/12-ag-205.html
DOJ Cuts Will Impact Public Safety. (2011). 10 News. Retrieved from: http://www.10news.com/news/29881532/detail.html
Clearly the Secret Service is expanding it's investigative arm; in 2010 the Service established it's second overseas Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF), this one in London (in 2009 the Service established an ECTF in Rome, Italy). The point of the ECTF is to provide an avenue through which European and American law enforcement agencies -- along with private sector and academia -- can work together to investigate, suppress and prevent computer-related criminal activity (USSS).
Again and again in the 72-page Fiscal Year 2010 Report readers are reminded of one of the main missions of the Secret Service -- to hunt down and arrest counterfeiters. In 2010 the Secret Service -- along with local authorities -- arrested four Colombian counterfeiters (in Bogota Colombia) that had been printing U.S. currency and distributing it in the United States. Columbia is one of the most prolific producers of counterfeit American money, the report explains, and…...
mlaWorks Cited
Ambinder, Marc. (2011). Inside the Secret Service. The Atlantic. Retrieved August 11, 2011,
from http://www.theatlantic.com .
Department of Homeland Security. (2011). Total Budget Authority by Organization. Retrieved August 10, 2011, from http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/budget_bib_fy2011.pdf.
Kessler, Ronald. (2010). In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect. New York: Random House Digital, Inc.
Marketing Plan for a KW Service Designed to Generate New Clients
Product Idea
The product idea for this marketing plan is a service that Keller Williams could provide to potential home buyers/investors that no other competitor is currently offering: that is, free educational classes for the public about the process of buying, investing, owning, keeping up or rehabbing houses. The purpose of this service would be that it draws potential clients into the office and generates leads for agents working within the office.
Keller Williams is a national real estate brokerage with offices in districts around the U.S. The office branch of Keller Williams for this marketing plan is located in Houston, Texas, which is the "home" of Keller Williams -- the place where the brokerage began.
The problem that this service would target is the problem that a lot of new home buyers often experience, which is that they do not understand the…...
mlaReferences
Abram, C., Pearlman, L. (2012). Facebook for Dummies. NJ: Wiley and Sons.
Baloun, K. (2006). Inside Facebook. CT: Baloun Publications.
Collis, D., Rukstad, M. (2008). Can you say what your strategy is? Harvard Business
Review (April): 82-90.
There is little information with respect to the fees that the buyer might face.
The Fannie Mae site also offers very little advice with respect to when to buy a home. From this, one can interpret that Fannie Mae's constituents do not view home ownership as an investment. The financial ramifications of home ownership, therefore, are less a concern since the home will be owned long-term. The underlying assumption appears to be that everybody should own a home, since no effort is taken to discuss the issue of when to buy.
The Freddie Mac site, in contrast, provides good advice to the house hunter. It begins with the assumption that you have spoken to a banker and know how much you can spend. Freddie Mac advises caution at that point. While the temptation is to go out and spend the money right away, this is not the right move. Instead, Freddie…...
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