In the wake of a series of mortgage fraud indictments handed up last week in federal court, the U.S. attorney's office today announced the creation of a special task force to combat the crime in Western Pennsylvania.
At a news conference this afternoon, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said the Western Pennsylvania Mortgage Fraud Task Force will target fraud in this part of the state.
The U.S. attorney also announced the establishment of a mortgage fraud hotline, 412-894-7550.
The local fraud cases had been investigated by the IRS and FBI, but later expanded to include the Secret Service. The task force now will include those agencies along with HUD, U.S. postal inspectors, the Allegheny County sheriff's office, the Pennsylvania Department of Banking, attorney general's office and other state agencies.
Within the last week, federal prosecutors have brought charges against 24 people and several companies, including Pope Financial Services and Sprouts Mortgage; Precision Mortgage; People's Home Mortgage; T&T Financial and America's Mortgage Outlet adn Single Source Mortgage.
First Published: February 4, 2008, 7:00 p.m.