11-5 mtg fraud conf
Rachel Dollar is holding her MortgageFraudBlog
Conference here prior to NAR.
I figured that at least a few Realtors might take the
opportunity to
come down a couple days early and bone up on the latest in fraudulent
activities. I was wrong. Out of a couple hundred attendees, I am the
only Realtor here surrounded by a number of appraisers, a whole bunch
of lenders and a virtual plethora of law enforcement types. We have
attendees from the Secret
Service,
the Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorneys Office, the
Department
of Treasury, the Bureau of Financial Investigations and the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement. And one lonely little real
estate guy. For a peek at the full schedule visit: MFB
Conference Schedule
Day
One was pretty well packed. The conference is well done and nicely
presented, not too slick but with a lot of good information. Seminars
today
included 'What
Goes Down Must Come Up: Lessons for the Coming Boom.'
I like that. A good positive message to interject a note of optimism in
these glum times. A central point to this presentation reminded us that
real estate is cyclical - since
1795 real estate has operated on
roughly 18 1/3 year cycles. Regardless of which party is
in power, what
fiscal policy is, who the Fed Chairman is and amazingly enough, even
prior to George W Bush's Presidency, there has been a cyclical ebb
& flow to the economy. This one is right on schedule.
The second seminar was entitled 'Regulators,
Guns & Money'
and was paneled by a regulator, Robert Russell a counselor from the
Office of Thrift Supervision; a gun, John Arteberry executive deputy
chief for the DOJ; and money, played by John Davidovich,
supervisory
counsel to the FDIC. Some of their observations: a definition of FRAUD
as 'the creation of
trust followed by the betrayal of that trust
- a parable for the problems in todays financial markets now that trust
has been betrayed amongst financial institutions and with the
public. A
further observation that todays financial problems spread so quickly
and so unpredictably that the response from the government and
financial institutions was like watching a game of 'Whack-a-Mole'. Also
that while the FDIC has seized far fewer banks than it did back in the
90's (only 17 so far this year), the seized banks have been far
larger, the assets are riddled with fraudulent mortgage paper
and
several seizures have been of atypical on-line banks, no brick or
mortar assets except for some computers.
Session three was 'The
Collaborative Process: Working Together to Stop the Tide'.
This section was paneled by an attorney, an appraiser, a risk manager
and a special investigator and focused on pulling together diverse
industries and factions to address the fraud problem. The issue is
bigger than any one industry and will require a concerted and
collaborative effort to control it. 'Operation
Malicious Mortgage',
an ongoing and thus far successful nationwide effort headed up by the
FBI was held up as a model for interagency cooperation. Between March
and June of this year there were
287 arrests nationwide as a result of this program
resulting in 406
defendants being charged with 173 convictions to date.
Also noted is the fact that sentences
are getting longer - averaging a little over 20 years now
compared to a few months to a few years average just 2 years ago.
Todays final session 'Battle of
the Experts: Is that a Predatory Lender or a Predatory Borrower?'
featured a prosecutor from the US District Attorneys Office, the senior
litigation counsel for the Federal Defenders Office and a mediating
attorney discussing the pro's and con's of several case studies. It was
noted that we cannot litigate ourselves out of this mess - although
aggressive litigation is certainly a much needed component of the
battle. We must also focus on prevention through education of the
industries involved as well as members of the general public. One
panelist noted that people who may have previously turned a blind eye
to these shenanigans have now been awakened by the 'Magic of
13 zero's'.
That means, people weren't too concerned when only a few hundred people
were doing it and a few thousand fraudulent loans went bad and a few
million dollars were lost - but once it hit that magic 13 - a TRILLION
dollars, everybody seemed to sit up and take notice.
I'll
be back tomorrow with the final day's sessions, lessons learned and
cautions offered. Then I'm off to Orlando for the ActiveRain gathering,
oh, and to attend some NAR committees and seminars too. See you there.
Gene
Wunderlich - Selling Southwest California Homes including
Temecula, Murrieta & The Southern California Wine Country
Remember, Don't wait to buy real
estate - Buy real estate and wait.
' Day 1 - MortgageFraudBlog
Conference'
THE
OPINIONS IN THIS
COMMENTARY ARE STRICTLY GENE WUNDERLICH's PERSONAL OPINION. WHILE ANY
REASONABLE &/or RATIONAL PERSON SHOULD AGREE, THESE VIEWS MAY
NOT
REFLECT THOSE OF ACTIVERAIN, COLDWELL BANKER RESIDENTIAL BROKERAGE OR
ANY LOCAL, STATE OR NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS.
;)
;)
Great information Gene, thanks for the notice.