Washington, DC (March 17, 2014)—Following the issuance by the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Inspector General of a report finding that the DOJ has not prioritized the investigation of mortgage fraud and has reported unreliable and inflated statistics regarding the scope of its prosecutorialefforts, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and Rep. Maxine Waters, Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee, wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting a meeting to review the Inspector General’s findings and to identify actions that will be taken to combat fraudulent mortgage practices.

“This report calls into question the Department’s commitment to investigate and prosecute crimes such as predatory lending, loan modification scams, and abusive mortgage servicing practices,” Cummings, Warren, and Waters wrote.  “We request a meeting to review the Inspector General’s findings and to understand the steps that will be taken to ensure that the Department’s efforts to identify and prosecute those responsible for fraudulent mortgage practices are equal to the harms such crimes have caused our constituents.”

Nearly $200 million was appropriated to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) between 2009 and 2011 to investigate mortgage fraud. However, according to the Inspector General’s findings, the FBI ranked financial crimes lowest on a list of criminal threats.  The Inspector General also found mortgage fraud was a low priority or not even identified as a priority in FBI Field Offices in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.

The Inspector General also found that DOJ officials reported inaccurate data regarding the number and scope of the prosecutions the Department had pursued to combat mortgage fraud.

Read the entire letter HERE.

source: http://democrats.oversight.house.gov