“We are absolutely moving forward on RESPA,” HUD assistant secretary David Stevens told MortgageWire. “Jan. 1 is the implementation date.”

The Department of Housing and Urban Department is going ahead with the implementation of a RESPA disclosure rule despite pleas by some industry groups to delay the effective date, according to a top HUD official.

Some industry groups are complaining that the new Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act rule is complex and HUD is still providing guidance on implementation issues. The RESPA rule requires lenders and mortgage brokers to disclose their fees upfront on a standardized good faith estimate. The originator’s fees cannot be increased before closing. The layout of the GFE and the revised HUD-1 settlement sheet also provides a clearer disclosure of the closing costs and how much the consumer will pay.

“I think the new disclosures are going to have a very positive impact on consumers,” Mr. Stevens said.

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According to John J. Tuchi, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona, participants in a real estate scheme recruited unqualified straw borrowers, submitted fraudulent loan applications on their behalf, obtained mortgage loans in excess of the selling price and then took the excess amount of the loans out through escrow.

Mario Bernadel, a real estate investor from Phoenix, has been convicted of running a mortgage fraud scheme involving at least 32 residential properties in the greater Phoenix area.  Bernadel is the 20th defendant to date who has been convicted. U.S. District Judge Stephen M. McNamee set sentencing for late November.

Bernadel recruited and trained mortgage brokers, straw buyers and an escrow officer in the scheme and, following the funding of the loans, received cash back.  Seven other co-conspirators were also charged and have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.

The homes purchased through the scheme have been foreclosed or sold at a loss. The scheme resulted in $20 million in loans obtained by fraud and a loss of more than $2 million.

Bernadel’s conviction is part of “Operation Cash Back,” in which 40 defendants were indicted and arrested.

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Finn Casperson, former Chief Executive Officer of Beneficial Finance, has been found dead in what authorities say is an apparent suicide.

Beneficial Finance was once one of the largest players in consumer home equity-based lending. When Finn Casperson became CEO of the firm he succeeded his father.

Casperson served as CEO from 1976 to 1998, during a time when the firm specialized in low loan-to-value ratio second liens backed by homes.

Later in 1998 Beneficial was sold to Household International for $9 billion. HSBC Holdings eventually bought Household for $14 billion. The British bank later booked huge losses on Household’s subprime business.

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According to the Newark, N.J. office of the FBI, David Findel, from Colts Neck, N.J., surrendered himself to the FBI and made his initial appearance before Judge Mark Falk, regarding a complaint that alleges Mr. Findel, obtained more than $11 million from secondary market lenders through this scheme.

David Findel, the president and CEO of Morganville, N.J.-based Worldwide Financial Resources, was released on a $1 million secured bond.  

Findel expanded Worldwide Financial Resources, originally a financial planning company, to include home mortgage origination and banking services. This allowed Worldwide Financial Resources to both originate and fund mortgages for its clients by borrowing money from a warehouse lender. To repay the lender, Findel would resell each mortgage the company originated in the secondary mortgage market.

Early in 2008 Worldwide Financial Resources began experiencing a liquidity crisis.  Findel allegedly conducted a scheme to defraud mortgage banks by reselling the same mortgages to multiple financial institutions. Once Worldwide Financial Resources sold a mortgage, Mr. Findel would allegedly create a second set of fraudulent mortgage documents and resell the same mortgage to a different secondary market lender.

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Eugene Lockhart, Jr., a former player with the Dallas Cowboys, has been charged, along with eight others, with running an alleged mortgage fraud scheme in the Dallas area from 2001 through 2005.

According to James T. Jacks, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, the indictment alleges that the defendants, who were involved with several real estate entities, ran a scheme in which they located single-family residences for sale in the Dallas area  including distressed and pre-foreclosure properties and negotiated a sales price with the seller.

The alleged scheme involved 54 fraudulent residential property loan closings resulting in the funding of $20.5 million in fraudulent loans.

In addition to Mr. Lockhart, the following defendants named in the indictment include – Lendell Beacham; Hubert Jones, III; Suzette Switzer Hinds; Patricia Ortega Suarez; William Randolph Tisdale, Jr.; Michael Anthony Caldwell; Donna Lois Kneeland; and Bryan J. Moorman.

The defendants allegedly recruited straw borrowers and caused the loan applications for each straw borrower to include false financial information. Prosecutors say they created surplus loan proceeds by inflating the sales price to an arbitrary amount more than the fair market value of the residence.

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