In Virginia, the FBI in December 2007 launched a mortgage fraud task force, gathering federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials from Prince William, Loudoun and Fairfax counties to map out a strategy to tackle the issue region-wide. One of the federal investigations is centered on Rippon Landing, according to Steve Durst, a U.S. Postal Inspection Service spokesman for the D.C. division, whose agency investigates mortgage fraud because it involves use of the mail.
The FBI is also involved in the probe, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Adam Lee, a supervisor for the FBI squad that oversees mortgage fraud investigations locally, declined to comment on the Woodbridge probe but said of mortgage fraud in general, "Right now we have a full plate of those type of cases." An FBI report pegged the amount of fraud in 2006 at $4.2 billion nationally. Those cases often involved the use of bogus appraisals to obtain inflated loans, sometimes with the buyers and sellers working together to defraud the lender.
A Northern Virginia appraiser who spoke on the condition of anonymity said he approached authorities several months ago after becoming suspicious when a client told him about an opportunity to make quick money from buying a townhouse in the Woodbridge subdivision. He reviewed land records in Rippon Landing and found that some of the sales prices had unexpectedly spiked at a time when the broader market was falling.
The subdivision is part of a sprawling 186-acre community at Route 1 and Rippon Boulevard being developed by D.R. Horton of Fort Worth, one of the nation's largest home builders. Construction at Rippon Landing started in 2005, and people began moving in about January 2006, the height of the housing boom. During that period, properties were quickly snatched up, and townhouses were selling in the upper $500,000s, according to residents and property records.
For more details: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/17/AR2007121701993_pf.html
In Texas, the legislature and their Texas Residential Construction Committee is extensively documented as ineffective or just downright corrupt. The following link will have to do for the moment as additional documents are gathered and scanned.
Texas corruption and builder donations:
