“The recent explosion of mortgage and securities fraud cases is unprecedented and has created significant burdens on our law enforcement community,” said Delahunt. “If we are to protect the American consumer and boost confidence in the marketplace, then we must provide more resources to aggressively prosecute these cases.”
Last week, FBI Director Robert Mueller testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and reported that the explosion of mortgage fraud cases has stretched thin the resources of the FBI for white collar investigations. Today’s hearing, entitled “Fighting Fraud and Protecting Taxpayers,” focused on a number of legislative initiatives to fight financial fraud, corporate fraud, contracting fraud, and mortgage fraud.
One of these proposals, H.R. 1748, the “Fight Fraud Act of 2009,” which Delahunt is an original co-sponsor would improve the government’s ability and capacity to investigate and prosecute mortgage and financial fraud. It is designed to protect taxpayers from future frauds that exploit the economic assistance programs intended to restore and rebuild out economy.
The bill provides substantial funding for the Justice Department and other agencies to hire, prosecutors, agents and analysts in order to restore their capacity to pursue mortgage corporate and other financial fraud. It will also provide important clarifications to current criminal and civil fraud statutes to ensure that law enforcement has the tools and resources it needs to prevent and punish these frauds, as well as to recover taxpayer money. To read the text of the bill, please click here.
“The current financial crisis was caused in part by lax regulatory oversight of risky mortgage and securities products,” said Delahunt. “One way we can restore trust and confidence in the financial markets and among consumers, is by tightening up our laws and through aggressive prosecution of abuses.
The hearing also included, H.R. 1292, which would amend Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to establish a National White Collar Crime Center grants program for purposes of identification, investigation, and prosecution of certain criminal conspiracies and activities, including financial and mortgage fraud. Delahunt expects the legislation to be marked up by the Committee in the near future.
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