Expert Witness Blog
Mortgages expert witnesses may consult on mortgage loans, variable rate mortgages, reverse mortgages, conventional mortgages, and mortgage fraud, among other topics. In Is Mortgage Fraud Really Decreasing?, attorney and editor of Mortgage Fraud Blog Rachel Dollar comments on The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network analysis of Mortgage Fraud SAR Filings in 2012. While data shows 25% decine, Ms. Dollar notes that “suspicious activity is often only recognized and reported years after loan origination.” FinCEN news release August 20, 2013:
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today released an analysis of Mortgage Fraud SAR Filings in Calendar Year 2012. FinCEN’s data on suspected mortgage fraud shows that reports declined 25 percent in 2012 (from 92,561 to 69,277) as compared to the previous year. The past three years of suspected mortgage fraud suspicious activity reports (SARs), if counted by the date they were received by FinCEN, accounted for approximately 46 percent of the past decade’s mortgage fraud SARs. However, suspicious activity is often only recognized and reported years after loan origination, after a review of origination documents is prompted by a loan default, repurchase demand, or other factors. As a result, many mortgage fraud SARs are filed much later than the date that the suspicious activity actually began. Thus in 2012, 57 percent of SARs received reported mortgage loan fraud (MLF) activities that started more than 5 years before the SAR was filed.
Rachel Dollar, the editor of Mortgage Fraud Blog is an attorney and Certified Mortgage Banker who handles litigation for lending institutions and secondary market investors.