FBI starts Nevada mortgage-fraud task force

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI has started a mortgage-fraud task force in southern Nevada to combat what the agency said was a "significant crime problem" in the top U.S. state for investor-owned mortgage defaults.

"Mortgage fraud has likely accelerated the recent decline in the Las Vegas housing market," the FBI said in a release from Las Vegas, dated Thursday.

The announcement was made following the indictment of a Las Vegas real estate broker and her husband on multimillion dollar fraud charges in connection with a suspected plan that involved using straw purchasers to inflate values on properties that are resold and often go into foreclosure.

The plan involved 227 properties with a purchase price totaling $100 million, the U.S. Attorney for Nevada said in a release. It said at least 118 of the properties have been sold in foreclosure, resulting in losses to banks of more than $15 million.

Such schemes "have contributed significantly to the demise of the real estate market in Las Vegas and have inflated entire new developments," the FBI said.

"The end result is that home buyers purchase properties in communities that are greatly over valued, and they are then unable to sell or refinance the property, eventually leading to foreclosure. The lending institution or the federal government is left to suffer massive economic losses."

It said that as of February Nevada led the nation in investor-owned mortgage defaults.

The FBI said its task force would work with Las Vegas metropolitan police, the Internal Revenue Service, the Nevada Attorney General's office and other federal agencies.

(Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen; Editing by Diane Craft)