You (or Casey) cannot convince me that he didn’t know he was stealing. He would have continued to do so for years had he not been caught. What I mean by caught is that he was not expierenced enough to hide his crimes long enough to get out from under the houses he stole.

The purchases were the result of lies. I blame the lenders too. Stated income loan. Please that’s just asking for trouble. And that’s just what they got. The lenders don’t care as long as the mortgage is serviced. It’s still fraud.

If you dig deep enough there are title companies getting kickbacks and third parties are getting cash too. Who suffers. the communities in which these homes go into foreclosure. Property values go down. Property taxes go down and with that people who work in that community suffer because they are paid by tax dollars. The residents suufer beccause they don’t get fair value for their homes in the area of the foreclosed.

Yes you can argue it’s one house in a community and it’s no big deal. The big deal is if you let people like Casey continue on their merry way they buy (steal) more homes in a particular community and rent them out as HUD homes and they eventually let the homes go into disrepair and eventually foreclosure. Then they disappear.

Do I hate Casey. No, I don’t know him enough to hate him. Do I want to see him go to jail for the crimes he commited. YES. Why? The fact that he knew he was committing a crime. You can’t let people who know they are committing crimes get away with them. Especially when they admit the crimes in public.

Call me harsh, but if dealt with the lot of thiefs I’ve been dealing with for the last 2 years you’d change your tune.

You’re right about Casey. He took a risk to try to live life fuller and gunned a system which allowed him to do it. His plan would have worked brilliantly - the flaw being no hedge against a decline in the real estate market.

As to the issue of criminality.. .technically under the letter of the he could be in trouble. But look at the culture and what’s been going on for the last decade.

No one had to answer for the performance of loans. The rising housing market disguised the loose guidelines (potential defaults were prevented by refinancings) and everyone made their golden crumbs at the vansihing loaf was bured deep in the bread box. After banking deregulation in 1999 the lenders would buy securities firms and the securities firms would buy lenders, all of them buying time and each other before the cat got out of the bag.

It was all good until interest rates went up. It will be interesting to see if Casey has to answer in a bigger way for embellishing on his loan apps, but what he did was part of a system of rampant “control fraud”. Prosecuting him would be tough and embarassing.

Often the only intelligent reason given is that he allegedly ‘lied’. If you follow Casey’s site, he clearly implicates BOTH the lenders AND the mortgage brokers in not only assisting him in this, but also ENCOURAGING HIM.

The system is flawed. He was able to exploit it. Hate the game, not the player.

The behavior of the lending industry in this country is disgusting, and none of them deserve any sympathy for the losses he caused them; but that doesn’t make what he did right. People doing what he did contributed to higher housing prices for everyone trying to buy legitimately. You decry the mortgage industry for its scummy ways, but, at the same time, you seem to be saying its ok to do immoral things as long as you can avoid legal repercussions.

But, think of the injustice!!!

How can singles and gays have equal ability to screw the system?

He admitted he lied. The broker,loan officer and everyone else involved should be charged. It’s a RICO conspiracy. Hate the game not the player? It’s no different than someone breking into your home and taking your stuff. It’s not that they want your stuff to keep, it’s to take to sell for something else. With your attitude you’re saying it’s okay to steal.

The morgage company is inviting him to lie. They are a part of the game, so he’s not stealing from them. He’s not going to get charged because the mortgage companies don’t want to charge him. It would be a disaster for them. They want to keep allowing people to state whatever income they want so that the mortagage company can make more money. They know people are lying and are ok with it because that is how they get cash. They charge an inflated interest rate for stated income buyers to make up for the extra risk.

Ask yourself: why don’t stated income buyers pay the same rate as people who can prove their income? Answer: Because the mortgage companies know that the stated income is often a lie. If they were REALLY making that much, the risk would be less and it would only make sense for them to pay the same interest rate as someone who proves their income through a traditional loan.

I will be charging one individual who knew the loans were fraud and knew the people involved were not licnesed to do anything.

Foremost there are systems in place to verify certain information given by a borrower, and compliance with those were clearly evaded in the case of Serin. Moreover, lending guidelines make such loans possible; all in the name of increasing portfolio pools and consequent profits. No doubt in my mind lenders concerned in the Serin saga, are not entirely blameless.

Anyone whom believes that a 23 year old kid can acquire 2+ million in credit, through lying about income and such; either doesn’t know how mortgage operations REALLY work, or has an ax to grind against this kid for other reasons. Yeah he could (possibly, maybe, might) get prosecuted (uncertain given the time frames); albeit prosecution and conviction are two different aspects… Check out the clean hands doctrine, detractors? It applies in criminal cases too.

Casey Serin may be gullible, foolish, a little arrogant, and possibly down right lazy yet the kid hasn’t done anything hundreds (if not thousands) of other borrowers have (albeit on a singular basis) — lied to get a mortgage approval they otherwise would have been denied.

And I, frankly speaking, look with more distain upon those whom cast stones at Mr. Serin for doing what they’ve either done themselves or wish they had the guts to.

I suggest LossMitPro present his assertions on Calculated Risk so they can confirm his opinions. Or not. But that would take guts.