THE US REPORT

Since the mortgage crisis broke, I’ve wondered if fraud figures into the losses and I’ve made a point to ask people if they know a person who lost their home. I haven’t met a single person who has, and I've talked to a broad variety of people. The FBI announced this  week the sentencing of a woman for mortgage fraud and identity theft. The case was prosecuted in the US Court for the Western District of Missouri. Kimberly M. Davis, 43, of Lee’s Summit (Mo.) was sentenced to four years in federal prison without parole. The FBI investigated and solved the case. The court also ordered Davis to pay $191,000 in restitution. Davis used stolen identities to purchase homes. Davis tied up more than $1,000,000 in mortgage loans.

On Dec. 9, 2007, Davis pleaded guilty to using the names, Social Security numbers and birth dates of three separate victims, without their permission, to purchase two homes in Lee's Summit. Davis worked as a mortgage broker at firms in Liberty and Gladstone from November 2003 through January 2005.  Between Nov. 19 and 25, 2003, Davis used a stolen identity to obtain a $317,894 loan from Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., for the purchase of a Lee's Summit residence at 704 S.W. Winterstar Dr. Between July 2 and Sept. 17, 2004, Davis used another stolen identity to obtain a $347,438 loan from Countrywide for the purchase of another Lee's Summit residence at 2520 Wintercreek Dr. Between Dec. 31, 2004, and Jan. 7, 2005, Davis used a third stolen identity to obtain a $362,424 loan from Accredited Home Lenders, Inc., for the purchase of the second Lee's Summit residence (at 2520 Wintercreek Dr.), ostensibly by the third identity theft victim.

So I wonder how much of this “mortgage crisis” is really a crisis. Congress spent tons of time investigating allegations of steroids in baseball players, an act that really cost me nothing even if the players had used steroids. But the mortgage crisis which will definitely cost taxpayers money received little attention in the way of investigations, at least until now at a point when it's basically too late. And you wonder why this Congress has such low approval ratings.

Update on Friday, July 18, 2008 at 06:20PM by Kay B. Day

Related article: Broker convicted of immigrant loan fraud (Rocky Mountain News)

"A U.S. District Court jury found Weiss, of Englewood, guilty late Wednesday in a complicated mortgage fraud scheme that primarily targeted Hispanics. Many of the people involved were in the U.S. illegally, Eid said, and did not understand the mortgage loan process."

Has it occurred to our Congress to further investigate the impact of fraud on the mortgage crisis? Perhaps they could turn their attention away from investigating each other for political reasons long enough to do some real work.--Kay B. Day, Jul. 18, 2008