The roundup of weekly HECM news

 

What do strippers, casinos, and groceries have in common? It’s bad enough to be forced to foot the bill of your own company’s audit and financial monitoring. Reverse mortgage servicer Ocwen Financial paid over $44 million dollars to cover the costs of monitoring services to Fidelity Information Services as part of their agreement with the state of California for its investigation of claims that Ocwen did not produce the required paperwork related to the state’s Homeowners Bill of Rights. The servicer alleges the auditor burned through the budgeted money allocated for a two year period in just 11 months, paying for strip clubs, casinos, liquor, and groceries. They also claim that FIS auditors watched videos on company time, left without clocking out, and inflated daily hours worked and mileage expenses. F.I.S. flatly denies the allegations. The auditing firm’s contract was terminated by the court under a new consent order.

Fraud comes in all shapes and sizes and it wasn’t from a loan officer or financial professional. Court papers allege a Chicago contractor, Mark Diamond, of scamming more than $10 million in a repair scheme that targeted older homeowners . In all there are an alleged 122 victims- most women, African-American and in their 80’s.