We knew mortgage fraud in this country had spun out of control and we certainly remember Enron. But Bernie Madoff was a signal that fraud in this nation was so pervasive that more needed to be done. The public is demanding it and it looks like the fed and state prosecutors are starting to respond.
By DAVID SEGAL
New York Times
NEW YORK — Spurred by rising public anger, federal and state investigators are preparing for a surge of prosecutions of financial fraud.
Across the country, attorneys general have already begun indicting dozens of loan processors, mortgage brokers and bank officers. Last week alone, there were guilty pleas in Minnesota, Delaware, North Carolina and Connecticut and sentences in Florida and Vermont – all stemming from home loan scams.
With the Obama administration focused on stabilizing the banks and restoring confidence in the stock market, it has said little about federal civil or criminal charges. But its proposed budget contains hints that it will add to this weight of litigation, including money for more F.B.I. agents to investigate mortgage fraud and white-collar crime, and a 13 percent raise for the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Officials at the Justice Department have not said much in public about their plans. But people who have met with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. say he is weighing a range of strategies.
