North Carolina Creates New Mortgage Fraud Task Force

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced Thursday the creation of a new Mortgage Fraud Task Force for the district.

The task force will pool the resources of existing criminal and civil attorneys in the office as well as federal law enforcement agencies with the goal of fast tracking mortgage fraud cases in the district. As part of the task force’s creation, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Gilmore has been named to the new position of mortgage fraud coordinator.

“There’s somebody here right now to push these things forward and whose focus is almost exclusively dedicated to that,” says Gilmore, a 32-year-old Raleigh native who received an undergraduate degree from N.C. State University before earning his law degree at the University of Miami.

Gilmore says that the task force will target mortgage fraud at all levels, ranging from straw buyers to mortgage brokers to conspiring loan officers.

The Eastern District office, which is overseen by U.S. Attorney George Holding, also announced the results of a national mortgage fraud takedown called Operation Stolen Dreams. Starting on March 1, the operation has involved 1,215 criminal defendants nationwide, including 485 arrests of people who are allegedly responsible for more than $2.3 billion in losses, according to a statement issued by the U.S. attorney’s office. So far, the operation has generated 191 civil enforcement actions that have resulted in the recovery of more than $147 million.

Locally, Gilmore says that the Eastern District office has gotten convictions out of three cases so far and several other cases are expected to move forward in the next few weeks.