TARP Inspector General Report Touts Mortgage Fraud Investigations
CNNMoney.com reports that the July 21, 2010 quarterly report issued by the Office of the Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP) highlights that office's efforts to prosecute mortgage fraud. The report touts SIGTARP's investigative unit, which Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky said in his report has turned into a "sophisticated white collar investigative agency." The report also highlights the government's June 2010 bust of a billion-dollar mortgage fraud ring that led to the arrest of the former chief of wholesale mortgage lender Taylor Bean & Whitaker on charges he "operated a sophisticated shell game" that sought to prop up his failing enterprise at the expense of investors and taxpayers. Through June, Barofsky's agency was pursuing 104 criminal and civil investigations.
SIGTARP was established by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. Under that Act, the Special Inspector General has the responsibility, among other things, to conduct, supervise and coordinate audits and investigations of the purchase, management and sale of assets under TARP.
