WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal law enforcement official says the FBI is in the initial stages of trying to determine whether the financial industry may have broken criminal laws in the mortgage foreclosure crisis.
The law enforcement official says the FBI is at the start of a lengthy sorting-out process in which agents will look into what caused the financial institutions to mishandle the flood of paperwork in the historic avalanche of foreclosures.
The official says the question is whether financial institutions were acting with criminal intent or were simply overwhelmed by events in the wake of the housing market’s collapse. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is just getting under way.
