4th
Scott Hunter, the FBI’s supervisory special agent here, describes the region as “mortgage fraud ground zero.” The problem is so widespread that everyone seems to know someone affected by it. Even one of the FBI’s Las Vegas agents has a connection: Special Agent Henry Schlumpf’s wife was the real estate broker who sold the Rolling Hills Drive house last year to a straw buyer representing Mazzarella and Grimm. The problem is hardly confined to Nevada. On a national level, mortgage fraud is a pandemic that stretches from California to Rhode Island, and from Alaska to Florida. The FBI currently has 1,380 active investigations into mortgage fraud, compared with 818 for fiscal 2006. The epidemic of mortgage fraud is a reminder that wherever easy money is made, criminal activity soon follows.
“Mortgage fraud has always been here,” says Hunter, “but the level of complexity has gone up. It’s not just white-collar criminals. There are elements inside the real estate industry. You don’t just show up one day and do this. You learn to perfect the craft of mortgage fraud.”
