Representatives of the federal Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force are meeting today in Miami for the first of a series of public summits addressing the investigation and prosecution of financial crimes.
Members of the interagency task force, announced last November, met today with banking and real estate representatives in the public and private sector to discuss mortgage fraud—including the evolution of mortgage fraud and its impact on the community.
Robb Adkins, the top federal prosecutor in Orange County, Calif., has been named executive director of the task force. He is detailed at Main Justice from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Adkins, a federal prosecutor since 2001, served as a special assistant U.S. attorney on the Enron Task Force.
Representatives from dozens of federal agencies—including the Justice Department, Treasury, Securities and Exchange Commission, Homeland Security Department, FBI, and the Housing and Urban Development Development—are participating in the task force. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. chairs the task force.
U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner of the Eastern District of California is co-chair of the mortgage fraud working group. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stanley Boone in Fresno has been detailed at Main Justice since June as the white collar crime coordinator.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan is working on securities fraud, and U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones of Minnesota is handling enforcement at large. The Justice Department assistant attorneys general who are working on the fraud task force include Lanny Breuer of the Criminal Division, Thomas Perez of Civil Rights, Christine Varney in Antitrust and the Civil Division’s Tony West.
“This task force has a straightforward mission: To protect families against financial fraud and restore the confidence of consumers in our markets,” West said in prepared remarks today. “We will hold accountable not just those responsible for the corporate fraud that created our current financial crisis, but those responsible for the financial fraud that affects too many working families, like mortgage fraud and lending discrimination.”
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