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Suspicious Activity Reports Pointing to Possible Mortgage Fraud Jump 42 Percent
By Matt Squire
printSuspected cases of mortgage loan fraud reported by financial institutions jumped 42 percent in 2007, marking the fourth consecutive year of double digit increases, the U.S. Treasury Department said. Last year, financial institutions filed a record 52,868 suspicious activity reports (SARs) citing possible mortgage loan fraud compared with 37,313 filed a year earlier, the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said in a report issued Thursday. The growth in mortgage fraud has been driven in part by the explosion over the past five years in sales of stated-income and no-document loans and other nontraditional mortgage products, said Linda Finley, an...
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