California Attorney General Creates Mortgage Fraud Strike Force

Rene Rafael Lopez has been duped off $35,000 that he paid to a company, who claimed it would work with him to save his East Los Angeles home from foreclosure. "They told me, 'Don't worry, we are going to take care of everything,'" Lopez said, speaking Spanish. But nothing happened.

Lopez also added that the company is not answering any of his calls now and his home has already been sold at an auction earlier this year.

This has become a common story that is told by numerous homeowners in Southern California, who have lost their properties even after paying thousands of dollars to companies that pledged to help but definitely Lopez had a powerful audience for his tale.

Lopez told about the incident at a news conference at the downtown Los Angeles offices of state Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris, which was basically held with an aim of announcing about the new mortgage fraud strike force that will go after people and companies, who have committed mortgage-related crimes.

"This problem is not going away," Harris said. He also added that the task force will pursue three major areas including the corporate fraud i. e. instances in which bundled mortgages were sold as securities to the state or its pension funds under false pretenses, scams i. e. instances in which consultants, lawyers and other officials took fees from people in foreclosure and thirdly the fraudulent lending practices, which includes deceptive marketing and failure of the companies to fully disclose loan terms and qualifying people for loans who couldn't afford the terms.