The Department of Housing and Urban Development investigated five mortgage-servicers over the past four months and discovered some were “significantly worse than others,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. The results of the investigation, which covered more than just the foreclosure fraud scandals of the past few weeks, will be released in the upcoming weeks. The White House’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force, on top of the 50 state attorneys general taking similar steps, “is at the early stages of investigating the way mortgage companies handled their documents.” And, finally, the New York Fed, which propped up the banks two years ago, told some of them to take back the crappy mortgages they originated because foreclosing on houses and eating the losses without doing the correct paperwork, or any paperwork, is not considered cool. [NYT, WSJ]
