Part 1

Tamara Neiman, Supervisory Special Agent, FBI

Niema reminded the audience “had the housing market not collapsed, we would
not be in this crisis.” She remarked, “we have always, always had
lender fraud,” adding, “if the market goes up,” then complaints are limited.
“Prosecutors want to see a loss,” indicating, the larger the loss, the more
likely a prosecution.

“In the past,” she stated, that we had “conventional loans - ARMS and Fixed with
lots of qualifications, Not in sub-prime.” The qualification process for
“sub-prime (loans), was very scant.” Meaning, a FICO score and whatever was
stated on the application was all that was needed.

She mentioned that although every single case if different, (welcome to real
estate), in many cases, non-english, speaking persons were given “blank
applications.” These homeowners with loan payments that are up to
or exceed their income, are often victimized twice. After Notice of Defaults
are recorded, scam artists prey on these homeowners who often “sign-over
title,” temporarily - until everything is all worked-out. Only, the mislead
homeowner is eventually worked out of their home~literally.

Pat Kapowich,
“Negotiating Smooth Transactions Throughout The South Bay”
SiliconValleyBroker.com