A straw borrower is a

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

term for an individual whose name, social security number, and

credit history :''This article deals with the general concept of the term credit history. For detailed information about the same topic in the United States, see Credit score in the United States.'' A credit history is a record of a borrower's responsible repay ...

are used to hide the identity of the organizers of a for-profit

mortgage fraud Mortgage fraud refers to an intentional misstatement, misrepresentation, or omission of information relied upon by an underwriter or lender to fund, purchase, or insure a loan secured by real property. Criminal offenses may be prosecuted in eith ...

scheme. Straw buyers are also used in order to obtain a residential

mortgage A mortgage loan or simply mortgage (), in civil law jurisdicions known also as a hypothec loan, is a loan used either by purchasers of real property to raise funds to buy real estate, or by existing property owners to raise funds for any ...

for a person who would not qualify for the loan, frequently a family member or friend. In for profit schemes, the straw buyer is usually compensated by the organizer for the use of his financial identity. While the straw borrower may have been lured into the transaction with the promise that he would not be liable for the mortgage payments, the straw is legally bound once the mortgage is obtained and will be responsible for making the payments. If the mortgage goes into default or is

foreclosed Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

, it will be reported under the straw borrower's name and his credit will be ruined. Misrepresentation of identity on a federally related mortgage transaction is a

criminal offense In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment.

References

US Code at Cornell University Law School site

US Department of Justice
{{Real estate Mortgage industry of the United States

See also

References