Originialy By Mary Kane: Brokers Pushed Borrowers to Lie, Lenders Misled and Ratings Agencies Looked the Other Way The debate over what caused the mortgage mess and how best to fix it is now taking a sharp turn, as new problems surrounding liar’s loans and payment-option mortgages reveal the pervasive...

Originaly by Mark Gimein: How the mortgage industry nurtured deceit. Here’s the narrative we’ve heard about the mortgage meltdown: miscalculation and unfounded optimism, clueless investors, cash-strapped home buyers clobbered by rate resets. But there’s one piece of the mortgage-meltdown...

Representative Miller speaks in support of HR1728, Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Bill which passed the House today.

Option ARMs and Alt-A loans this will be worse than the sub prime mortgage crisis. Ordinary ARM loans, which are riskier than fixed-rate loans, apparently aren’t risky enough for many borrowers. The MBA says that their market share fell from 46% in the second half of 2004 to 36% in the first half of...

Originaly by MFR: In the following press release California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. announced today that prosecutors from his office have filed grand theft, embezzlement and burglary charges against Maria Elna Flora, 59, of Sacramento, after she “fleeced” retirees out of almost $350,000...

Originaly by Mathew Padilla: Bank of America, Citigroup and EMC Mortgage Corp. are among seven companies that have received permanent exemptions to California’s 90-day foreclosure moratorium, which began last week. More than 20 other lenders and loan servicers, including Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase,...

Originaly by John R. Emshwiller and Kara Scannell: Lawmakers on a congressional oversight panel are struggling with whether to ramp up a probe into a controversial home-loan program at Countrywide Financial Corp. that involved former Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo.Rep. Darrell Issa, a Southern California...

Originaly by Larry Zilliox: California investigators arrest two financial advisors and a real estate investor on charges of alleged investment fraud earlier this week. Investors said the company run by Armitage and Guidi, AGA Financial, was nothing more than a big Ponzi Scheme targeting elderly clients. The...

Originaly by Melanie Cleveland: Cuesta Title and Heritage Oaks Bank are accused of helping lender in Ponzi scheme Cuesta Title, based in San Luis Obispo, and Stewart Title — its Houston parent company — have been accused by more than 400 Hurst Financial investors of helping the North County lender...