Inspired by the recent courtroom news, my younger brother recently
confessed to me that when he first wanted to buy a house, about 35 years
ago, the mortgage company wanted a copy of his tax return, and he had
not yet filed his taxes.
Rather than file them then, he wrote up what looked like his tax return
and sent that to the mortgage company.
He got the mortgage and paid off his mortgage on time, other than being
late for a few payments, for which he paid the extra fees they charged.
And like trump says he feels, he had thought what he did was no big
deal. Typical spoiled little brother.
Now, with trump in the news, and the details of his case, it occurs to
him that he had committed bank fraud. Did he?
Being not-a-lawyer, I told him I thought he had and he was lucky he
didn't go to jail.
But after I thought some more, I asked and he said he had done his best
to put in valid numbers, unlike trump. He certainly didn't make his
income higher than it was. And fwiw that seems to be the number the bank >would most be interested in, not other lines on the form including the
amount of taxes paid. Does that change whether it was fraud or not?
Is there some other crime here also? Is this forgery maybe, even though
this version was never sent to the government? Or can you only forge >something that you write and sign someone else's name, attribute to
someone else?
Inspired by the recent courtroom news, my younger brother recently
confessed to me that when he first wanted to buy a house, about 35 years
ago, the mortgage company wanted a copy of his tax return, and he had
not yet filed his taxes.
Rather than file them then, he wrote up what looked like his tax return
and sent that to the mortgage company.
He got the mortgage and paid off his mortgage on time, other than being
late for a few payments, for which he paid the extra fees they charged.
And like trump says he feels, he had thought what he did was no big
deal. Typical spoiled little brother.
Now, with trump in the news, and the details of his case, it occurs to
him that he had committed bank fraud. Did he?
Being not-a-lawyer, I told him I thought he had and he was lucky he
didn't go to jail.
But after I thought some more, I asked and he said he had done his best
to put in valid numbers, unlike trump. He certainly didn't make his
income higher than it was. And fwiw that seems to be the number the bank >would most be interested in, not other lines on the form including the
amount of taxes paid. Does that change whether it was fraud or not?
Is there some other crime here also? Is this forgery maybe, even though
this version was never sent to the government? Or can you only forge >something that you write and sign someone else's name, attribute to
someone else?
But after I thought some more, I asked and he said he had done his best
to put in valid numbers, unlike trump. He certainly didn't make his
income higher than it was. And fwiw that seems to be the number the bank >would most be interested in, not other lines on the form including the
amount of taxes paid. Does that change whether it was fraud or not?
According to micky <[email protected]>:
But after I thought some more, I asked and he said he had done his best
to put in valid numbers, unlike trump. He certainly didn't make his
income higher than it was. And fwiw that seems to be the number the bank >>would most be interested in, not other lines on the form including the >>amount of taxes paid. Does that change whether it was fraud or not?
It might technically be fraud, but if the numbers were real, nobody
would care because the bank would have given him the same loan if
he'd mailed in his tax return just before applying.
The reason people care about Trump's case, beyond the fact that it's
Trump, is that he wildly invflated the values of his assets, notably
claiming that his apartment is three times as large as it really is,
and claiming a lot of apartments have market rents rather than much
lower rent stabilized ones. If the bank had known the real numbers,
they likely would have made the loans on less favorable terms, or not
at all.
Being not-a-lawyer, I told him I thought he had and he was lucky he
didn't go to jail.
But after I thought some more, I asked and he said he had done his best
to put in valid numbers, unlike trump. He certainly didn't make his
income higher than it was. And fwiw that seems to be the number the bank >>would most be interested in, not other lines on the form including the >>amount of taxes paid. Does that change whether it was fraud or not?
Is there some other crime here also? Is this forgery maybe, even though >>this version was never sent to the government? Or can you only forge >>something that you write and sign someone else's name, attribute to
someone else?
Here's an article from a defense lawyer that talks aboiut this:
https://www.federalcriminaldefenseadvocates.com/mortgage-fraud
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