San Francisco Mortgage Fraud Closings Draw Crowd

Some experienced white-collar hands assembled for closings Monday in one of the few federal mortgage fraud cases to hit a Northern California jury. Judy Yeung, a woman well known in San Francisco political circles, is accused of using straw buyers to obtain fraudulent mortgages totaling $6.5 million. Her case is fairly representative of the DOJ's local mortgage fraud docket; since the housing market collapsed, prosecutors haven't brought any large-scale indictments against corporate lenders in the Bay Area.