Let's get some mortgage fraud training!

So how does a MDPD mortgage fraud detective get to learn all they need to know about mortgage fraud?  As we've learned over the course of our blog, mortgage fraud is a complicated and very paperwork intensive crime, a mortgage fraud investigator has to get into the minds of mortgage brokers, straw buyers, title agents and real estate attorneys.  Surely there's some sort of extensive training program for cops that are going to go after these smarter than average criminals, let's not lose site of the fact that most of these fraudsters have been in the real estate or mortgage game for years, in order to catch them at their game, you have to be at least as knowledgeable as they are.  Are the mortgage fraud investigators that smart or well trained?  We can't speak for all of them, but at least in the case of Detective Jorge Baluja, we know somehow the system failed him horribly, whether he wasn't trained properly or perhaps he was and just wasn't smart enough to grasp the concepts that he was being taught, we're sure we don't need to remind our readers of Detective Baluja's extensive knowledge of real estate or the mortgage business...

So just what kind of training did the mortgage fraud investigator that's the center of one of our mortgage fraud stories get?  Let's go back to his deposition from the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case and have Detective Baluja tell us...

Not exactly the answer to the question Detective Baluja was being asked, but does anyone recognize that name, Sgt Richard Davis?  That's the same guy that did the undercover work on one of the Mortgage Fraud Task Forces inaugural cases!   You remember, Sgt. Davis went undercover to the closing posing as the sellers accountant and caught attorney David Rodriguez red handed officiating the crooked real estate closing.  So know we know that not only did Sgt. Davis do under cover work but he also trained the mortgage fraud detectives.  Wow, this Davis guy must be one busy fellow!  Let's keep going...

There's two things about this excerpt that strike us as strange, firstly considering all of the experts that are on the MDPD Mortgage Fraud Task force, why was there only one person training the detectives?  The second thing that seems strange is the fact that these detectives only receive ONE WEEK OF MORTGAGE FRAUD TRAINING?  WTF is that?  The people they're going after are highly skilled sophisticated criminals that have years and years worth of real estate and mortgage know how and they're going to catch them after one week of training?  PUHLEEZE!  Moving along...

You've got people like real estate industry veteran Nancy Hogan or attorney Robert Cohen who represents the biggest title insurance companies and others from the banking sector, with this kind of brain power on hand, why only have one guy training the new mortgage fraud detectives?  Considering all the time and dedication these people have given to the task force, wouldn't they have gladly volunteered time to teach the guys on the front line how to catch the bad guys?  If you have these kinds of resources available to you, why the hell wouldn't you use them?  

Ok, maybe we're getting carried away.  Perhaps this week of training was so intense, so thorough that there was no need for more, maybe you could call it something like a "mortgage fraud cram course".  It's entirely possible that the training over that week was so good that even Detective Baluja was ready to hit the streets, let's see...

BRILLIANT!  After all that intensive training, after bringing in a headline mortgage fraud case, after all that coaching by Assistant State Attorney Kostrzewski, Detective Baluja can't recall how a mortgage fraud can occur.  Wonderful. 

Isn't it hard to imagine a scenario worse than this?  After everything we've learned, does anything surprise you any more?  Problem is that we haven't even scratched the surface yet, our story is much larger than a Detective that couldn't investigate his way out of a wet paper bag or a bumbling washed up prosecutor who couldn't even explain his own case to a judge, much, much larger.  We've stepped into a pile of $hit that was previously unimagined.

Today we learned that Sgt Davis has many roles within the mortgage fraud task force, investigator, educator, mortgage fraud task force member, etc.  Doesn't he seem like a busy man?  We're gonna have to take a closer look at Sgt Davis tomorrow...