"Lawmakers Plan to Crack Down on Mortgage Fraud"
From NEWS 6 WLNS.com
July 10, 2006 03:23PM CDT
THIS IS A REPUBLISHED ARTICLE SUBMITT BY MARK MAUPIN



Lawmakers announced a plan to crack down on mortgage fraud. Michigan's one of
the top ten states for mortgage scams, according to the FBI.

The house republicans revealed a bill package to make mortgage fraud a felony, and three
million dollars can be used to investigate and enforce the crime.
Representatives say it's a first step towards stopping the growing problem.

State Representative, Rick Baxter (R) Concord: "We not only don't have a lead
agency in the state to go after these people, we also don't have any resources
by which they can prosecute. The third part really is we don't have a big
enough club to beat these people with to say, 'if you're gonna do this, we're
really going to make sure that you pay for it.'"

In Michigan, victims lost around 26 million dollars to mortgage fraud last year. Criminals
usually forge documents or make false appraisals to steal homes and make a
profit.