Mortgage fraud scams in Nevada said to proliferate

Nevada's top ranking in home foreclosures nationally "has given rise to a cottage industry of mortgage foreclosure frauds and scams," Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto told a committee Monday.

The attorney general's office has received complaints against more than 200 companies and has active criminal cases against 16 loan modification companies, Masto told the Assembly Ways and Means Committee in testimony. The attorney general's office is reviewing an average of 50 complaints concerning each company.

Prosecutors have won court orders for $670 million in victim restitution, she said.

The attorney general's office has carried out 16 search warrants and presented 11 large cases to the grand jury, each involving hundreds of victims. The office obtained indictments on 20 mortgage fraud defendants. More than 180 cases await investigation, she said.