[Aggie Mama]

Throwing someone in jail for lying on a mortgage application? That’s just silly. Just don’t give them the darn loan!

[oblomov]

>>Throwing someone in jail for lying on a mortgage application? That’s just silly.

I take it you haven’t read the print above the signature line or a mortgage (or other loan) application?

[SJSAMPLE]

At what point does FRAUD become inconsequential?

It might not be “practical” to put them in jail, but a good chunk of the people involved in this mortgage mess brought this upon themselves, either by fraud or naivete.

[NYFriend]

Actually, it’s bank fraud, which was one of the higher bank-for-your-buck federal crimes prior to the sentencing guidelines (I think it called for up to a 30 year prison sentence). In reality, you can steal a lot more money from a bank through a fraudulent loan than you can by sticking up a teller. It’s a big deal, and as you can see, widespread loan fraud can not only endanger a bank’s financials, but can drag down the entire economy.

I like to see somebody start going after these guys, or at least someone talking about not giving any bail out to anyone who made one material false statement on their application.

My wife and I just applied for our mortgage about a year ago, and we were debating how to calculate our annual income (if you go my our monthly pay checks, my salary looks to be $4 less than my annual salary, because for some reason my last two or three pay checks each year vary by a couple of bucks). We were actually worried about that $4.

Somebody gets a $100,000 loan that they can’t pay back by lying to the bank, and the bank has to spend a couple thousand dollars trying to collect past due payments, and then foreclosing on and selling the house, which may or may not satisfy the loan. That couple of thousand dollars lost is probably as much as the average bank robber takes (it doesn’t matter if the mortgage is insured, any more than whether a bank, or store that’s robbed has insurance to cover the loss).

[ladyjane]

Throwing someone in jail for lying on a mortgage application?

Yes. Many people have gone to prison for lying on mortgage applications. For some reason the government doesn't want to do it anymore. Wonder why?

[Myrddin]

Throwing someone in jail for lying on a mortgage application? That’s just silly. Just don’t give them the darn loan!

Why not? It's bank robbery without the gun...and perjury. Martha Stewart went to prison for less.