Mortgage Fraud Strike Force

The LA Times reports California Attorney General Kamala Harris is creating a 25-person task force to target  mortgage fraud from small operations to corporations.

Harris said in an interview with the Times, the team of 17 lawyers and eight special agents from the state Department of Justice, will pursue three major areas :

1. Corporate fraud, including bundled mortgages sold as securities to the state or its pension funds under false pretenses. Harris said her office plans to prosecute some cases under California's False Claims Act.

2. Scams, including consultants, lawyers and others took fees from people in foreclosure, saying they would help the homeowners get loan modifications or other remedies, but delivered nothing.

3. Fraudulent lending practices, including deceptive marketing, failure to fully disclose loan terms and qualifying people for loans who couldn't afford the terms.

Creation of the state's Mortgage Fraud Strike Force, which Harris will announce at a news conference today in Los Angeles with LA Mayor Villaraigosa comes as states turn up the heat on the lending industry.

One of the challenging areas of any fraud case is determining loss. Loss can be the actual or the intended loss. Loss is not calculated the same for criminal liability as it is for restitution purposes. Criminal defense attorneys should scrutinize the government's case to clarify the client's role in the alleged offense. This process avoids the client from being lumped into the general category of "bad guys" and helps to highlight the minor or minimal role the client may have played, or any offense characteristics showing why your client deserves a lesser punishment.

If you have been accused of a fraud case at the state or federal level, contact the LA Law Firm with over 80 years of combined experience - Gold, Leftwich & Wagner, today.