Mayor Carlos Alvarez Mortgage Fraud Task Force

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

Because of the economic crisis and the overwhelming amount of foreclosures in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, many desperate homeowners sought refuge in the assistance of mortgage lenders who turned out to be frauds. The FBI reported that mortgage fraud is one of the fastest growing white-collar crimes in the US, and this suspicious financial activity has reportedly tripled in the past four years. To exacerbate the situation, Florida was ranked first in the United States for mortgage loans that contained alleged fraud against the lenders, and Miami-Dade County leads the state in these incidents. While the FBI typically handled mortgage fraud investigations, its office only had a one million dollar threshold and, consequently, 98% of incidents were not processed. To address this issue, the Miami-Dade Police Department implemented the Mayor Carlos Alvarez Mortgage Fraud Task Force, a public/private partnership created to reduce mortgage fraud and prevent victimization of individuals and businesses through effective education, legislation, regulation, law enforcement, and prosecution. The Task Force has five separate committees: law enforcement, legislative, regulatory, business partnership, and education. Each division has their own responsibilities to facilitate investigations of mortgage fraud and prevent future schemes. To date, there are 575 active investigations, and the law enforcement division has made over 100 felony arrests. Additionally, the legislative committee has altered Florida State Statues in order to assist the county in the prevention of mortgage fraud behavior.