Utah State Representative Paul Ray calls for appointment of Utah special prosecutor for mortgage fraud cases.

Salt Lake City / Press Release / Mortgage fraud has and continues to be a crisis of major concern for the Utah real estate market. Some lead to believe that it’s a direct result of Utah family's trusting nature while others site a lack of financial education of Utah’s young married families.

Utah has the highest marriage rate of any state with 58.8 percent of the state’s adults being married compared with the national average of 54.4 percent according to the U.S. Census. To compound this, most of Utah's young families have children early while seeking to support their families on limited incomes from Utah's low end paying jobs. Jobs that often pay wages so low that most Utah's families are unable to afford health insurance.

According to Utah’s 2004 economic summary report published by the Office of former Utah Governor Olene Walker, the state’s economy improved slightly in 2003. Lingering effects of the national economy, a lack of high personal wage earnings, dismal investing and significant pull-outs from corporations prior to and at the completion of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games contributed to two years of consecutive job losses that have been the worst in 58 years.

In culmination, factors stemming from a lack of financial education and low end paying jobs forces those seeking the American Dream of Homeownerships to less credible mortgage lending outlets. Although not all mortgage lenders operating in Utah apply predatory practices officials are learning many do.

In a first real step to minimize the affects of mortgage fraud crippling Utah’s real estate market State Rep. Paul Ray–R Clinton, plans to introduce a bill during the 2006 legislative session that calls for the hiring of a special prosecutor to tackle mortgage fraud cases.

Under State Rep. Ray’s proposed bill, the special prosecutor would work with a special state and federal task force formed in April 2004 to investigate mortgage fraud. The task force comprises representatives from the FBI, the federal Office of the Inspector General, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Utah Insurance Department’s Fraud Division, the Utah Attorney General’s Office, and Utah Bureau of Investigation.