There has been a veritable explosion of prosecutions for mortgage and real estate fraud throughout the United States, but especially in Georgia. The record number of foreclosures is one of the prime motivating factors behind such criminal cases. There is no end to the type of schemes that are supposedly mortgage fraud, but the vast majority of these cases wind up in federal court. There is no single law that makes it a crime to engage in mortgage fraud, so federal prosecutors use the mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering statutes to go after people who supposedly had something to do with fraudulent real estate transactions.

Some of the more common types of mortgage fraud include "flipping" properties, "equity skimming", false down payments, double selling, and fraud during the foreclosure process. Quite often, these cases involve false documentation, fraud involving the appraisal, or even theft of another innocent person's identity. Many times, these prosecutions are brought against real estate agents, mortgage brokers, underwriters, title agents, appraisers, and even real estate attorneys.

Mortgage fraud cases are exceedingly complex and complicated. Defending such cases requires significant investigation, document review and analysis of the materials in the government's possession. Quite often, a good criminal defense attorney will want to use his or her own experts when defending against mortgage fraud allegations, specialists such as forensic accountants or appraisers. The attorney needs to understand whether his client was an innocent person used by others, or whether the client was even aware of all aspects of the transactions in question. Sentencing in such cases can become wickedly complicated, and requires an attorney who is highly familiar with the extraordinarily complex Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

Kish & Lietz regularly take on the defense for clients accused of mortgage fraud. Our attorneys are accomplished, aggressive, and prepared to handle these challenging cases. If you would like to talk with us about such a case, please feel free to call us at (404) 588-3991, or contact us online.