FBI assigns field offices to investigate sub-prime fraud

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has ordered more than two dozen of its field offices to stop probing some financial crimes to focus on a surge in sub-prime mortgage fraud.

Kenneth Kaiser, chief of the bureau’s criminal investigative division, issued the directive late last week in a video conference call with the heads of 26 offices in areas where mortgage crime is rampant, said Bill Carter, an FBI spokesman in Washington.

Carter said the shift was made after an analysis of how agents were deployed. The FBI traditionally has moved investigators to address urgent needs, he said. About 150 agents were working on mortgage cases before the change.

“If you’re seeing a significant crime problem, you have to move resources,” Carter said. “We’ve got a big problem with mortgage fraud.”

The 26 field offices were told to temporarily suspend opening new cases dealing with price fixing, mass marketing, wire fraud, mail fraud and environmental crimes, he said. Current cases aren’t being dropped, Carter said. The FBI has 56 field offices.