Eric Holder announced today major action against the mortgage fraud that led to thousands of people losing their homes and jobs.
During the enforcement effort, 1,215 criminal defendants responsible for $2.3 billion in losses faced some type of legal action, according to the statement released today. The crackdown, dubbed Operation Stolen Dreams, also included 191 civil cases resulting in the recovery of more than $147 million.
Business Week
South Florida was one of the targets, according to the South Florida Business Journal. Two of those arrested had targeted the Haitian-American community, even offering help with immigration.
"Mortgage fraud ruins lives, destroys families and devastates whole communities, so attacking the problem from every possible direction is vital," Holder said.
Twenty-one federal agencies from President Barack Obama's Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force were involved. It is the "largest mortgage fraud" crackdown in U.S. history.
UPDATE: As Kossack xyz pointed out below , we can lay this right at the door of George W. Bush:
In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.
Washington Post 2008
UPDATE 2
"We have still a number of ongoing investigations," Mueller said. "I can assure you that where we have allegations of fraud in larger institutions, we are continuing the investigations that we've started over the last several years."
Reuters