Mortgage Fraud Investigations
New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram is set to announce mortgage fraud indictments Tuesday as the industry grapples with fallout from the housing market collapse.
Milgram’s office has already filed three civil lawsuits against companies and people it claims were cashing in on the ongoing mortgage crisis. Read more about mortgage fraud indictments…
Tim Geithner was asked whether credit default swaps should be abolished altogether.
Remember, the Nobel economist who helped create the pricing formulas for CDS said the CDS are so dangerous that existing over-the-counter contracts should be voided:
The “solution is really to blow up or burn the OTC market, the CDSs and swaps and structured products, and let us start over,” he said, referring to credit-default swaps and other complex securities that are traded off exchanges. “One way to do that, through the auspices of regulators or the banking commissioners, is to try to close all contracts at mid-market prices.”
Many other economists agree. Read more about credit default swaps…
In a rebuke of the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that a federal bank regulator erred in quashing efforts by New York state to combat the kind of predatory mortgage lending that triggered the nation’s financial crisis.
The 5-4 ruling by the high court was unusual. Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the most conservative jurist, wrote the majority’s opinion and was joined by the court’s four liberal judges. Read more about bank regulation…
A 65-year-old Massachusetts investment manager pleaded guilty to securities fraud for running a Ponzi scheme that cost 70 investors, many from Massachusetts, about $9 million.
The manager, Michael C. Regan, faces up to 20 years in jail and $5 million in penalties after settling the criminal charges with federal officials in New York. He also settled similar civil charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission, agreeing to repay more than $8.7 million.
“Regan lured investors, including family and friends, by touting his investment prowess,” James Clarkson, acting director of the S.E.C.’s New York regional office, said in a statement. “He routinely fabricated investment returns” while he “was stealing investor money to pay his own expenses.” Read more about securities fraud…
