FBI Sees Growing Evidence of Organized Mortgage Fraud.(Federal Bureau of Investigation)

LAS VEGAS -- The latest statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirm that mortgage fraud is on the upswing.

"We can't find a chart that doesn't show up in a big way," special agent Bill Stern said at the Mortgage Fraud Conference here last week.

And even worse news, the FBI's mortgage fraud coordinator in Washington said, is that the trend is moving away from rogue individuals who pull off the scams and toward members of organized crime.

"Mortgage fraud is now a criminal enterprise that puts dollars in the hands of people who also are involved in such other crimes as drugs, murders and gangs," Mr. Stern told the conference, which was sponsored by SourceMedia.

As of early this month, the G-Man reported, the number of suspicious activity reports concerning mortgage fraud is up 62%, from 21,994 to 35,617. That, he said, "is a stark increase" compared to those alleging commercial loan fraud and false statements.

Also up is the number of pending cases, the number of charges and convictions and the amount of cases in which losses against financial institutions, the government and individuals exceed $1 million, Mr. Stern reported.

"We are now are prosecuting new cases at the rate of one a day," he told the conference. As ...