Health and Mortgage Fraud Concern Warns FBI

The Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Robert Mueller stated on September 16 that there has been a radical increase in mortgage fraud and that health care crimes were on the climb as well. Mueller made the announcement when he addressed the Senate Judiciary Committee in regard to a follow up on how the agency was performing.

Mueller revealed what the priorities of the agency are and what the results of their current efforts have been. Some of the highlights of his address are a direct result of the National Mortgage Fraud Teams efforts.

Mueller stressed that public corruption continues to be the Federal Bureau of Investigations main priority.

The agency in the last two years one thousand six hundred federal, state, and local officials have been convicted of corruption. The agency currently has three thousand two hundred such case pending and two thousand five hundred of those involve public officials. The bureau is concentrating its efforts primarily on the Southwest border with regard to these corruption issues.

The agency has been a substantial increase in Mortgage Fraud and this type of fraud has been evolving with the shifting economy. The individuals and companies that are committing this fraud target vulnerable individuals and victimize them as they are losing their homesteads. The fiscal year of 2008 saw one thousand six hundred mortgage fraud cases and as of July 2009 the agency currently has over two thousand six hundred pending cases. The cases the agency is handling typically involve over one million dollars which is triple the amount of the same type of cases three year ago. The agency is identifying the methodical criminal enterprises involved and insiders within the industry that create mortgage fraud.

Mueller stated that the Nations health care spending of more than sixty billion dollars almost three percent is lost to fraud. The fiscal year of 2008 resulted in the federal bureau of investigation indicting over eight hundred predators and informants. The indictments in fiscal year 2008 resulted in over seven hundred convictions. The bureau has currently over two thousand four hundred pending cases and has indicted seven hundred fifty predators with over five hundred convictions to date.

The agency has assigned over hundred agents to handle the more than five hundred eighty corporate fraud investigations currently on its books. Corporate fraud has had a substantial increase over since the previous fiscal year of 2008. The bureau in 2008 obtained one hundred and sixty indictments. Currently the agency has over one hundred thirty indictments. The agency has one hundred forty convictions to show for their efforts and recaptured billions in restitutions from those convicted.

The read should note the stats represent a bust in agency efforts in these areas of crime. The Federal Bureau of Investigation over the past ten years has had its focus on terrorism and not mortgage fraud. It is only now that the agency is getting to the mortgage fraud issues. The predators are working hard to find new loop holes and create new schemes that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is yet to uncover.