Real Estate News – June 21, 2011

A Realtor who pleaded guilty to her role in a $4.3 million mortgage fraud this morning said that Jerry Trooien, a well-known St. Paul developer and property manager, directed the scheme (via twincities.com): http://bit.ly/iutRfO

The Obama administration is finally launching a long-awaited $1 billion program designed to provide the unemployed with loans to help them avoid foreclosure (via blogs.WSJ.com): http://on.wsj.com/jGtPxS

States may get to choose individually in a possible nationwide foreclosure settlement with U.S. banks how to use any money, including whether apply funds toward principal reductions for borrowers, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said (via Bloomberg.com): http://bloom.bg/kAzfVh

Gennaro Rauso, 47, of Trenton, NJ, was sentenced today to 160 months in prison for several mortgage fraud related charges, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger. Rauso owned and operated a real estate management company—D&B Property Investors—that purported to help financially distressed homeowners with their foreclosure problems. He pleaded guilty in July 2010 to the mortgage fraud scheme, willfully failing to file tax returns on behalf of D&B Property Investors, defrauding the government of taxes owed on more than $1.6 million in income, and other fraud schemes involving credit cards and cashiers checks. (via Pennsylvania.realestaterama.com): http://bit.ly/jYITqm

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay $153.6 million to settle federal civil accusations that it misled investors in a complex mortgage securities transaction in 2007, just as the housing market was beginning to plummet, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday (via nytimes.com): http://nyti.ms/jnImHj

A proposed 20 percent down payment rule for qualified residential mortgages is too high, argues a growing group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives (via REALTORMag): http://bit.ly/jraL0I