Mortgage Fraud And Identity Theft Bills Continue to Progress
Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna announced that much of his 2008 legislative agenda has survived the 2008 Legislative session.
Mortgage foreclosure fraud:
House Bill 2791, sponsored by Sen. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, helps reduce foreclosure rescue schemes, including those with an option to allow the original homeowner to buy or lease back the property. The bill has passed the Senate, 39-6.
Identity theft:
Bills giving ID theft victims more tools in the fight to clear their names are now one step closer to the Governor’s signature.
House Bill 2637, which allows records provided by out-of-state businesses to be authenticated by affidavit rather than in person in criminal cases, has passed both houses and now heads to the Governor’s desk.
HB 2637, sponsored by Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe, was recommended by the Law Enforcement Group against Identity Theft (LEGIT). LEGIT was a workgroup convened after McKenna’s 2005 ID Theft Summit formed to identify ways to better ensure successful identity theft prosecutions and reduce the number of crimes that occur in Washington.
Senate Bill 5878 incorporated two proposals requested by the Attorney General’s Office, one requiring police reports for victims of identity theft and the other clarifying that each act prohibited by the identity theft statute is a separate unit of prosecution. The bill, prime-sponsored by Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, passed the House of Representatives 95-0 on Tuesday.