Topic: Investment Fraud

U.S. authorities are ratcheting up their investigation of residential mortgage-backed securities — the bundles of mortgages that were at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis. And they are appealing to the public for help.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been getting tougher on insider trading on Wall Street, but its potential target may be too wide, The New York Times reports.

The investigation into the  $300 million art heist from a Boston museum in 1990 has heated up after authorities searched the house of a mob suspect. The Gardner Museum is offering a $5 million reward.

How some gangs are moving beyond drugs and street crimes and into financial crimes like mortgage fraud.  

Conrad Black is released from prison after serving nearly half of his original six-year sentence for defrauding investors.

Scam artist Nicholas Cosmo says even as his latest scheme was imploding and putting the life savings of 4,000 people at risk, he thought he was “helping people.”

According to a 2011 Federal Bureau of Investigation report, securities and commodities fraud investigations have increased by more than 50 percent since 2008. Here's how you can protect yourself.

A man who set up accounts for funds from a “boiler room” share scam has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after being convicted of three counts of money laundering, the Financial Times reports.

Imprisoned Ex-Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski begged for mercy from a parole board last week, before learning later that his plea had been rejected, a newly-released transcript of the proceeding showed Wednesday, USA Today reports.

Home ownership may be the largest purchase of your lifetime, but if you don’t do your homework before signing on the dotted line, it can end up being your worst financial nightmare.

Mortgage fraud is a growing threat to homeowners and businesses, according to the FBI. With the changing housing landscape come new schemes. Foreclosures and delinquencies have soared over the last few years, and the FBI says that has resulted in an increase in mortgage fraud schemes against distressed homeowners. New original loan fraud investigations, on the other hand, have dropped since there was a decrease in new mortgages in 2011.

Tokyo-based AIJ Investment Advisors lost $1.3 billion in bad bets on equity and bond derivatives, losing the bulk of the pension funds it was managing, Japan's financial regulator said on Friday after stripping the firm of its registration.

Peer-to-peer lending is gaining in popularity. Find out how to protect yourself against scams like the one  a former mortgage broker in Hawaii pulled on his victims.

Tarumi Taxi in western Japan's port city of Kobe is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, offering a glimpse of the crisis facing tens of thousands of small and mid-sized companies across Japan with little hope of meeting their pension obligations. 

How to make sure the work of art you’re buying isn’t a forgery.