The Blotter

U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer announced that HSBC will pay $765 million to settle claims related to its packaging, securitization, issuance, marketing and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities between 2005 and 2007. During this period, federally-insured financial institutions and others suffered major losses from investing in RMBS issued and underwritten by HSBC. Under the settlement, HSBC will pay the $765 million as a civil penalty pursuant to the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act. Read on for more details.

A Dix Hills, N.Y., man pleaded guilty to scamming 32 homeowners in a mortgage modification scheme. Read on for more details.

Three New Jersey men – a real estate investor, a builder, and a real estate settlement attorney – were arraigned on multiple charges in connection with their alleged roles in a mortgage fraud scheme. Read on for more details.

First American Financial Corp. released its First American Loan Application Defect Index for August 2018. In the report, First American Financial Corp. Chief Economist Mark Fleming noted that defect risk levels in the Carolinas were already trending up in recent months, and one should be on the lookout for further increases in risk in the markets impacted by the recent hurricane. Read on for more details.

A New Jersey attorney admitted running a large-scale mortgage fraud scheme that involved properties in Jersey City, Clifton, Union, and elsewhere in New Jersey and caused losses of millions of dollars. Read on for more details.

A disbarred attorney from Hicksville, N.Y., was arrested from stealing $40,000 from a Hicksville couple selling their home. Read on for more details.

A New Jersey man previously convicted in federal court in Massachusetts and incarcerated for masterminding a real estate fraud scheme, pleaded guilty in federal court in Providence, R.I., to charges that he again conspired to defraud financially distressed homeowners, investors, and financial institutions of fees, rental income, mortgage payment funds, property ownership and/or proceeds from the sale of their properties. Read on for more details.

Three Massachusetts men were charged in federal court in Boston in connection with a 10-year mortgage fraud scheme involving at least two dozen fraudulent loan transactions and $4.3 million in losses to lenders. Read on for more details.

A Malibu, Calif., man was sentenced to more than seven years in prison and ordered to pay more than $3 million in restitution in restitution for his role in a fraudulent mortgage elimination scheme. Read on for more details.

A New York real estate broker and a Bergen County, N.J., homeowner were sentenced for their respective roles in a $3.5 million scheme to use false information and simultaneous loan applications at multiple banks to fraudulently obtain home equity lines of credit, a practice known as “shotgunning.” Read on for more details.