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Dayton Business Journal...
Report: Ohio ranks
high for mortgage fraud
by Adrian Burns, DBJ Contributor
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Ohio was one of the 10 worst states for mortgage fraud in 2010,
according to a new LexisNexis report.
Ohio ranked eighth in the nation for reports of mortgage fraud last
year, up from 24th in 2009, according to a new report.
While still a long way from reaching fraud report levels seen in
Florida and California, the Buckeye State was 12 percent above the
average last year for mortgage fraud reports. That compares with being
22 percent below average in 2009 and 63 percent below average in 2008,
according to LexisNexis Mortgage Asset Research Institute’s Mortgage
Fraud Case Report.
Mortgage fraud can include misrepresentation on loan applications and
verifications of deposit, along with appraisal and valuation issues.
Florida was the worst state for reported incidents of fraud. Other top
states included California, Michigan and Illinois.
Nationally, 2010 was not a good year, either.
Reports of suspicions of mortgage fraud from banks numbered 70,472 in
2010, up nearly five percent from 2009.
The US Treasury’s antifraud body, which gathers the reports, estimates
that mortgage fraud losses totaled $1.5 billion nationally in 2010.
Mortgage fraud has played a role in the rising number of U.S.
foreclosures.
Five of the country’s biggest banks offered this week to settle state
and federal investigations into their foreclosure practices for $5
billion, according to a new report by Bloomberg.
The top U.S. mortgage servicers involved in the proposed settlement
include Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase &
Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and Ally Financial, according to Bloomberg,
citing people familiar with the matter.
Read it at the Dayton Business Journal
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