New York City began a computer program yesterday to search the city's public property database for "digital fingerprints," or red flags, that could indicate nefarious real estate activities such as mortgage fraud, according to an article in today's edition of The New York Times by Cara Buckley.
Under the system, devised by the mayor's Financial Crime Task Force, the program will look at "multiple changes in title ownership, or flipping; the transfer of titles at below-market prices; and the sale of properties at prices beneath the minimum amount required for tax filings," the article said.
The task force, it continued, will hand over the flagged addresses to district attorney's offices, the Police Department and the Department of Investigation, adding that "the city's investigative and prosecutorial authorities have been slow to seek out mortgage fraud in the past, noting the complexity of the cases and the need to pursue more pressing and destructive crimes, so the new system is a change in outlook."
"Instead of waiting for victims to discover fraud," said John Feinblatt, the mayor's chief policy adviser, "this helps victims without them knowing."
A city spokesman said the program was modeled after an initiative used by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to sift through data for evidence of money laundering.
"Property owners' characteristics, like their age and immigration status," the article continued, "will also be taken into account in identifying potentially troubled properties. Officials said those who committed mortgage fraud often preyed on elderly and immigrant property owners because of their increased vulnerabilities and talk them into taking out fraudulent mortgages they do not need or transfer their properties using forged or false documents."
According to an April 2010 report by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, New York State ranked second, behind Florida, for mortgage fraud cases. The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said the mortgage fraud cases investigated by his office had quadrupled in recent years, from a few a year to 10 to 20 a month, the article said.
The city also urged homeowners to sign up for notifications by calling 311 or by registering online to be alerted about transactions involving their properties. The city began this service last summer, a year and a half after a reporter for The Daily News "stole" the Empire State Building by using fake documents to transfer the deed to Nelots Properties LLC - "Nelots" being "stolen" backward - to highlight loopholes in the city's system for recording mortgages and deeds, the article said.
Under the system, devised by the mayor's Financial Crime Task Force, the program will look at "multiple changes in title ownership, or flipping; the transfer of titles at below-market prices; and the sale of properties at prices beneath the minimum amount required for tax filings," the article said.
The task force, it continued, will hand over the flagged addresses to district attorney's offices, the Police Department and the Department of Investigation, adding that "the city's investigative and prosecutorial authorities have been slow to seek out mortgage fraud in the past, noting the complexity of the cases and the need to pursue more pressing and destructive crimes, so the new system is a change in outlook."
"Instead of waiting for victims to discover fraud," said John Feinblatt, the mayor's chief policy adviser, "this helps victims without them knowing."
A city spokesman said the program was modeled after an initiative used by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to sift through data for evidence of money laundering.
"Property owners' characteristics, like their age and immigration status," the article continued, "will also be taken into account in identifying potentially troubled properties. Officials said those who committed mortgage fraud often preyed on elderly and immigrant property owners because of their increased vulnerabilities and talk them into taking out fraudulent mortgages they do not need or transfer their properties using forged or false documents."
According to an April 2010 report by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, New York State ranked second, behind Florida, for mortgage fraud cases. The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, said the mortgage fraud cases investigated by his office had quadrupled in recent years, from a few a year to 10 to 20 a month, the article said.
The city also urged homeowners to sign up for notifications by calling 311 or by registering online to be alerted about transactions involving their properties. The city began this service last summer, a year and a half after a reporter for The Daily News "stole" the Empire State Building by using fake documents to transfer the deed to Nelots Properties LLC - "Nelots" being "stolen" backward - to highlight loopholes in the city's system for recording mortgages and deeds, the article said.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
6sqft delivers the latest on real estate, architecture, and design, straight from New York City.
