Money laundering suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed with FinCEN, the U.S. financial intelligence unit, show a slight increase in mortgage fraud in the U.S. According to FinCEN’s third quarter 2010 mortgage report, “Mortgage Loan Fraud SAR Filings“, 9% of all SARs filed in the 2010 third quarter indicated mortgage loan fraud as a suspected activity, an increase of 2% over the same period in 2009.
Key findings in the report:
- More than 80% of SARs indicating mortgage loan fraud involved suspicious activity amounts under US$500,000.
- Nearly all SARs indicating mortgage loan fraud with reported loss amounts indicated amounts under US$500,000.
- Reporting entities who filed SARs with FinCEN identified over 50% of SARs indicating mortgage loan fraud as borrows, not lenders.
- California and Florida had the highest number of incidents, followed by New York and Illinois. Nevada and Arizona were the third and fourth highest per capita in the U.S.