Exec teaches mortgage fraud

Fraudulent mortgage activity that resulted in more than $550 million in
approved home loans in West Palm Beach, Miami and Tampa leads back
to Orson Benn, formerly a vice president at Argent Mortgage. Benn and
several associates were convicted of racketeering this year. Benn taught
Florida mortgage brokers in the art of fraud. From Benn’s office in New
York, he began a long run of teaching mortgage brokers how to doctor
credit
reports, coached them to inflate income on loan applications, and
helped them invent phantom jobs for borrowers. At least 600 homes in
foreclosure in Miami-Dade county were financed using Benn’s fraudulent mortgages.