Fraud Watch

Welcome to the 2012 edition of Voice of the Title Agent , a special report from The Title Report that takes the pulse of our title agent readership. We want to know how business is faring and where it is headed. We want to know your thoughts on the big topics of the day and how you conduct operations. Read on for links to all of the features, charts and download information.

Last week there was an indictment handed down to an accounting manager at Ticor Title Insurance Co. in Crown Point, Ind., a prison sentence doled out to an employee from Hexagon Title, and the banishment of an agent in Pittsburgh by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The results of a recent survey from Ernst Publishing Co. and the American Land Title Association captured the feelings about fraud in the mortgage and settlement services industries, and two responses in particular seemed to surprise both Ernst and a panel of experts discussing the survey. Both involved national database solutions that could prevent fraud, but also change the title agent landscape.

We all read the stories and hear the experts discuss the state of fraud in the real estate industry and the causes and solutions and preventive measures that exist or should exist. But what does the industry itself think about the problem? That was the question asked by Ernst Publishing in a new survey that debuted at the American Land Title Association Business Strategies Conference.

A Santa Fe, N.M., judge appointed a receiver for a New Mexico title company that has been the subject of an investigation into allegedly millions of dollars in missing funds. Also, a former employee of an agent in Idaho has pleaded guilty to taking nearly $400,000 from the company.

A mortgage broker and closing agent was sentenced to 27 months in prison in connection to a scheme that involved potentially more than 200 mortgages and more than $3 million. Read on for details of the case and the sentencing.

Things are starting to come to a close in the Troese/Hughes title agency fraud case in Maryland. Co-defendant James Hughes was sentenced and received the harshest penalties thus far. Read on for the details of the sentence and the background on the scheme itself.

Interthinx has released its annual Mortgage Fraud Risk Report, which highlights some of the most significant mortgage fraud risk trends based on analysis of loan applications processed in 2011 by the Interthinx FraudGUARD system. Read on for a summary of the report, including which states are the highest in the index and what the rise in employment/income risk is attributed to.

This might be the first conference since pre-2008 where the dreaded E word — economy — didn’t permeate every discussion, which is definitely a good thing. Business is still a concern, but the attendees and the agenda at the 2012 American Land Title Association Business Strategies conference seemed to be over that topic. The focus instead rested on the two F words: fraud and forms. Read on for a conference wrap-up and a preview for features in the coming weeks.

The Title Report rounds up all of the most recent news on the homebuilder customer segment. Story snippets include homebuilder confidence, stock upgrades, the bankruptcy of a Las Vegas homebuilder and the fraud indictment of another in Maryland.