What Is Mortgage Fraud?

The explosion of white-collar crime occurred in the late 2000s when the economy took a nose dive. As such, people lost money -- lots of money. The real estate market was devastated by the economic collapse, but it also fueled it in 2009. There were a substantial number of mortgage deliquencies and foreclosures.

According to the FBI, mortgage fraud schemes generally use a misstatement, ommission, or misrepresentation that relates to the property. In some form or manner, there will be inflated appraisals, false loan applications, supporting documents to the loan that are fraudulent.

Homeowners will obtain loans based on falsifying their qualifications, the value of the collateral. Many times, the mortgage fraud was commited by people that work within the industry and use their insider knowledge to perpetuate the fraud. There are a wide variety of mortgage fraud schemes.

If you have been charged with mortgage fraud, the punishment can be severe. Contact a Plano criminal defense lawyer today.