New York City Federal Mortgage Fraud Defense Attorney|Federal Mortgage Fraud Lawyer in NYC
The New York City Mortgage Fraud Defense Attorneys of Joseph Potashnik and Associates PLLC represent clients throughout the New York City Metropolitan Area who are investigated for, or charged with, federal mortgage fraud.
Mortgage fraud is a broad term that essentially rests on making material misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission in a mortgage loan application. Mortgage fraud is complete when the application is submitted to and relied on by an underwriter or lender in their decision making to fund, purchase or insure a loan.
Although state authorities may be involved, many mortgage fraud cases are aggressively investigated and prosecuted by federal authorities, in particular by the Financial Institution Fraud Unit of the FBI. According to the FBI, two areas of mortgage fraud are subject to special targeting: fraud for profit and fraud for housing.
Fraud for profit includes schemes that involve revolving equity, falsely inflating the value of the property, or issuing loans based on fictitious properties. Most such schemes are perpetrated by the mortgage industry insiders. The FBI specifically targets fraud for profit schemes.
If you are subject to a criminal mortgage fraud investigation, call our New York City mortgage fraud lawyers as soon as possible to discuss your case!
TYPES OF MORTGAGE FRAUD
Criminal defense of a federal mortgage fraud case requires understanding of how the scheme operates. Defending complex mortgage fraud cases is a difficult task that requires experience and resources. You must be represented by a defense team that has defended clients charged with mortgage fraud. When you are targeted by the federal prosecutors for mortgage fraud, our New York City federal mortgage fraud federal attorneys will assist you no matter how complex the case is.
Most mortgage fraud schemes are basically equity skimming, property flipping, and identity theft.
Equity skimming is taking title to a property subject to an existing mortgage that is in default. The buyer makes the seller believe that the purchase is real; the seller’s equity interest or other value in real property is converted to the buyer. The buyer then stops paying mortgage, diverts the equity, and leaves the seller with a loss.
Property flipping scheme is when a co-conspirator appraiser artificially inflates real property’s value. The buyer then obtains a mortgage to purchase the property at the inflated price. This may be repeated several times. After several "repurchases", the "borrower" receives a substantial amount of money from the lender to "purchase" the property, then defaults and the property is foreclosed by the lender which then learns that the property’s real value is substantially lower than the amount of the loan.
Fraud for housing is gaining and maintaining ownership of a property under false pretenses. a simple example of this type of fraud is a potential borrower who misrepresents his income or employment history in order to qualify for a loan.
Silent Second scheme involves borrowing the down payment money from the seller by taking out a non-disclosed and non-recorded second mortgage while the primary lender is led to believe that the borrower invests his own money in the down payment. This is fraud because the the primary lender provides funding on the assumption that in case of depreciation there will be equity of the amount of the down payment, which will serve to protect the loan. There could, however, be much less or no equity at all if depreciation occurs.
Nominee Loans/Straw Buyers mortgage fraud scheme is when the borrower is using someone else’s name and credit history to apply for mortgage, sometimes using a a fictitious or stolen identity on the mortgage application.
If you are under criminal investigation related to mortgage fraud, contact our experienced New York City Mortgage Fraud Criminal Defense Lawyers to discuss your case. The earlier you contact an attorney the better chance your defense case has.
We serve clients accused of mortgage fraud in state and federal courts in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, Staten Island and Long Island.
