More than 400 charged in mortgage probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - More than 400 people have been charged in a nationally coordinated probe of mortgage fraud that involved an estimated $1 billion in losses, the U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday.

The department, disclosing a 3 1/2 month "Operation Malicious Mortgage," said fraud schemes mostly involved lending fraud, foreclosure rescue scams and mortgage-related bankruptcy schemes. The 144 cases involved individual examples of mortgage fraud, but the U.S. Corporate Fraud Task Force established in 2002 was also "responding to issues raised by mortgage fraud in the corporate sector."

(Reporting by Randall Mikkelsen, Editing by Sandra Maler)