Operation Malicious Mortgage

[Zino]

Operation Malicious Mortgage comes down on 400 Real Estate Agents.

This investigation has now landed about 400 real estate figures, including six here in Las Vegas, in some serious trouble.

Some were arrested in March, some as recently as Wednesday,
The government says the real estate figures were involved in mortgage fraud cases totaling about $1 billion in major cities like Houston, Chicago, and Miami. Authorities say its part of their on-going crackdown on individual and corporate mortgage fraud.

Federal investigators say there is a spike in individuals or small rings of people scheming and preying on homeowners in the midst of record high foreclosures and the housing slump.

Federal prosecutors say personal emails along with other evidence will show that the hedge fund managers invested their own money and withheld information that the funds were headed for disaster.

"They lied in the futile hope that it would turn around and their funds and reputations would remain in tact," says Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Investigations, federal authorities say, are ongoing with more arrests expected.

The six people indicted in Las Vegas are 31-year-old Eve Mazzarella and her husband, 45-year-old Steven Grimm; 28-year-old Melissa Beecroft; 46-year-old Christina Thompson; 33-year-old Amy Ortiz; and 52-year-old Joe Panikkar.

Investigators say some of the charges include bank fraud, mail and wire fraud, and money laundering.

Beecroft, Thompson, Ortiz, and Panikkar were arrested Wednesday. They went before a federal judge Thursday afternoon.



Thanks to KVBC