Mortgage fraud surges in Chicago

David Jackson, with contributions from Ray Gibson, Todd Lighty and John McCormick of the Chicago Tribune, reviewed thousands of pages of land and court records and interviewed more than 100 people to show that a white-collar crime wave is raking Chicago's poorest communities, robbing vulnerable families of their homes and draining billions of dollars from the U.S. economy. During the past five years, mortgage fraud has surged as home loans become easier than ever to get and identity theft has blossomed. The five-part investigation found that blending face-to-face scams with computer forgery, fraud crews typically include home loan executives, appraisers and scouts who troll for victims. "Mortgage swindling has helped drug-dealing gangs, including Chicago's Black Disciples, solidify their control over street corners, launder money and gain safe houses to launch operations. " The story has prompted Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to call for an investigation into mortgage fraud.

Evelyn Larrubia, Jack Leonard and Robin Fields of the Los Angeles Times examined records of more than 2,400 cases handled by California's professional conservators since 1997 to produce a detailed four-part series on the state's failure to protect its senior citizens from those hired to handle their affairs. More than 500 seniors were entrusted to for-profit conservators without their consent at hearings that lasted minutes. Some conservators misuse their near-parental power over fragile adults, ignoring their needs and isolating them from loved ones. One withheld the allowance that a disabled man relied on for food, leaving him to survive on handouts from a church. Another abruptly moved a 95-year-old woman to a care home and for a month refused to tell her daughter where she was. The investigation found that in most cases, evidence of these abuses was in the courts' own files. "An online registry created six years ago to identify and track problem conservators has proved a failure. The reason: Most county courts have ignored it, even though participation is mandatory"

Tim Evans of The Indianapolis Star used state records to find that "the deaths of 10 Indiana children from abuse or neglect were not reported in the state's 2004 child fatality report. If included, they would have brought the number to 66, making it the deadliest year on record". The paper compared the state records on child deaths to media accounts and other sources. Deaths discovered by paper that were not in the report include two cases investigated and confirmed as abuse or neglect by child protection workers. At least eight other deaths apparently were not investigated or counted, though their circumstances were similar to others that were scrutinized. See how the story was investigated.

Pam Louwagie and Dan Browning of the Star Tribune report on the growing problem of young Hmong girls who are raped and prostituted by Hmong gangs. A preliminary analysis found that "these girls were six times more likely than other victims to have been raped by five or more males ". The newspaper used an FBI list of Hmong surnames to extract data on prosecutions of these crimes. The stories explore the clash of cultures that hampers investigation of the crimes and allows them to continue with increasing frequency. See how this story was reported.

Craig Harris, Ryan Konig and Matt Dempsey of The Arizona Republic looked at how minimum regulation and a large population of low-income workers has created a thriving market for payday lenders. "In the past four years, the number of payday-loan offices in Arizona has nearly tripled to 610, and there are more of these offices across the state than McDonald's restaurants and Starbucks coffee shops combined. Arizona also has a higher number of payday-loan offices per capita than the national average." The paper projects that Arizonans will pay $165 million dollars in interest on such loans this year.

Hurst Laviana of The Wichita Eagle used local court records to show that "less than half of the Sedgwick County residents summoned report to the courthouse in any given week. And low-income residents — many of them minorities — are far less likely to report for jury duty than residents of white middle-class neighborhoods." Poor address-keeping is a major cause for why some potential jurors either never get their notices or get them too late. The paper combined the juror information with Census data using mapping software.

Paula Lavigne of The Dallas Morning News used Census and state economic data to show that while residents of Collin County, Texas, are among the wealthiest nationwide, many also have large debts: "On average, Collin County residents have more credit card debt - $4,200 - and a lower net worth - $125,000 - than residents of other high-income counties throughout the country... the county is full of young couples with children who take on excessive debt, in many cases simply to keep up the lifestyle of their friends and neighbors." Lavigne will chat online about the story on Aug. 16.

Staff at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, along with Aaron Kessler used the social network analysis program UCINET and more than 50 interviews to investigate who really wielded power in Richmond, Va. The series includes a story about the four men central to Richmond's power, a story about minorities and how political influence does not equal power, as well as a sidebar on how the series was done. The series includes an interactive network map detailing the Web of power.

Nancy Cook Lauer of the Tallahassee Democrat used local voter data to show that federal oversight of elections in five Florida counties meant to ensure African-American participation seems to have worked: "voting behavior in the five counties under federal scrutiny - Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe - pretty much reflects voting behavior in the state as a whole." Nearly two-thirds of black voters in those counties went to the polls last November, slightly higher than the turnout for the entire state.

Susan K. Livio and Mary Jo Patterson of The (Newark) Star-Ledger investigated the background of Corey Davis, who got nearly $700,000 in state contracts to provide child counseling services despite the fact that "the budding entrepreneur had a felony drug conviction and owed thousands of dollars in child support to two women. Some of the people he employed also had criminal backgrounds. But the state blindly nurtured Davis until learning one of his mentors had cracked up a car last summer, injuring a 6-year-old boy." The state launched a criminal investigation after the paper began asking about Davis.