Mortgage Fraud—Georgia

A previous version of this blog posting mentioned that an attorney, Russell Hippe, had been charged with mortgage fraud. We have been contacted by Mr. Hippe who informs us that his case was dismissed in March of this year. The case, United States v. Parker et al., No. 1:05-cr-00045 (N.D. Ga. 2007), can be found via PACER/ECF and the dismissal is docket entry #533.

Mr. Hippe has requested that we post a personal statement from him, and we are happy to do so:

“What happened was that, six years ago, a convicted felon and other evident schemers - people I had never seen or spoken to before in my life - exploited my busy closing firm with transactions evidently involving prior underwriting fraud and identity theft. After he was caught, the felon then tried to use me personally as a scapegoat. It was stunning. Ultimately, the case was voluntarily dismissed, and I was exonerated. My firm handled over 20,000 transactions. I have never had a bar complaint and, other than this, have never hand any kind of professional problem whatsoever. I hope to one day recover my good name and reputation.”