With regulators looking at all aspects of the real estate industry, and with Sarbanes-Oxley a perpetual boardroom presence, you would think that mortgage fraud would have peaked by now. But guess what? A new study by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute has found that the number of fraudulent loans issued from January to March of 2008 rose 42 percent compared with the same period in 2007. Whew! A CNNMoney articles suggests that all the changes in law, which have made it harder for people to qualify for loans, have created incentives for people to fudge. It's just so easy to tweak an application. The most common type of fraud seems to be that which involves false employment or income. This confirms what has been long said about Sarbox: If people really want to commit fraud, they will find a way. But there should be better controls in place for this.

For more:
- here's the article [1]

Related Articles:
KPMG liable for mortgage lender implosion [2]
One way to profit after compliance lapses [3]