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More FBI agents will investigate mortgage fraud

Here’s something I hear all the time:

“Those lenders who made all those bad loans just to line their own pockets ought to be in jail.  Why haven’t those people been prosecuted for fraud?”

Well, thanks to the U.S. Congress, you may finally get your wish.

Congress has provided the funding to double the number of mortgage fraud task forces from 26 to 50 and perhaps more. The bill contains $75 million to hire almost 200 special agents as well as another 200 forensic analysts and support staffers.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office received another $90 million to pay for the prosecutions of those that the FBI arrests.

The bill contains new language that extends the law to cover mortgage lenders who are not directly regulated by the federal government. Those lenders were responsible for nearly half the residential mortgage market before the economy collapsed.

The bill is also designed to protect the economic stimulus package as well as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) from fraudulent schemes.

The funding provided by Congress also will fund a new 10-member Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which will examine the current economic crisis and provide Congress with advice as to how it may come up with additional reforms.

Tags: FBI, mortgage fraud