Mortgage Fraud - A Prevalent Crime

Sixty-seven people were charged with mortgage fraud activities in Chicago. As the economy goes further south and the mortgage industry is feeling the pain, someone has to be blamed so federal investigators are digging. And they are finding a mess.

In the cases for the 67, they are not necessarily all related. The dollar amounts here are $170 million. Nationwide there may be $1 billion in mortgage fraud coming to light. Some of these cases are not "recent" as in they are loans from last month or even last year. Some of these transactions were happening several years ago.

These cases are not isolated and bankers should consider reviewing their non-performing loans to ensure there isn't fraud there as well.

For more on this, including a news video, look at CBS2. The FBI has more on Operation Malicious Mortgage.

You can also read the FBI 2007 Mortgage Fraud Report and see the photos of properties you know were never inspected.

MSNBC has a broader story where they discuss hundreds of indictments.