“The seminar ‘How to avoid frauds’ is canceled. Tickets are non-refundable.” Mortgage fraud is alive and well in the United States. In Utah, Kouri Richins, 35, the Kamas mother who is accused of killing her husband and writing a children’s book about grief is facing 26 new felony charges, including five counts of mortgage fraud. It certainly is not confined to the U.S.: In Canada (remember Canada, whose citizens used to visit the U.S.?), a tragic tale unfolded with lost money and death. In lighter legal and regulatory news, the recent MBA Hawai’i annual conference attracts well-known industry experts, and a few weeks ago attendees heard Mitch Kider (Chairman and Managing Partner of Weiner Brodsky Kider PC), Brian Levy (Of Counsel to Katten & Temple, LLP and author of Mortgage Musings), and Bob Niemi, CMB (Director of Government Affairs at WBK) discuss regulatory and compliance issues. Lenders and vendors should know what they and other compliance people are watching (see below). (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s is sponsored by Figure, which is shaking up the lending world with their five-day HELOC, offering borrower approvals in as little as five minutes and funding in five days. Figure has hundreds of partners in the banking, CU, home improvement, and (of course) IMB space embedding their technology, giving borrowers an experience they will rave about. Today’s has an interview with Figure’s Michael Tannenbaum on stable coins, the latest happenings at Figure, and product proliferation in the mortgage industry as a result of borrower and investor demand.)
