Financial Update

Lower oil prices sent TSX tumbling, helps send NY markets higher <http://ca.news.finance.yahoo.com/s/19062008/2/biz-finance-lower-oil-prices-sent-tsx-tumbling-helps-send.html> -

· TSX -282.98 The market also took a hit from financials in the wake of a much higher-than-expected 2.2% inflation report for May and more disquieting news from the banking sector in the United States as Citigroup warns of more “substantial” write-downs

· Dow +34.03

· Dollar -.28c to $98.50 as domestic data topped estimates, but a sharp drop in oil prices dragged the currency from the 2week high it reached early in the session.

· Oil -4.75 to $131.93US per barrel Oil, which influences the commodity-linked Loonie’s performance, tumbled $5 a barrel after China decided to raise domestic fuel prices which is likely to crimp demand

· Gold + $10.70US to $904.20US

Bond Rates: http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/bonds.html <http://www.bankofcanada.ca/en/rates/bonds.html>

Hundreds swept up in U.S. mortgage fraud arrests

Report on Business The Globe and Mail

LARA JAKES JORDAN The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The FBI says it has arrested about 300 real estate industry players since March — including dozens over the last two days — in its crackdown on incidents of mortgage fraud that have contributed to the country's housing crisis.

One law enforcement official put the losses to homeowners and other borrowers who were victims in the schemes at over $1-billion (U.S.).

The U.S. Justice Department and FBI planned to announce the recent arrests — including apprehensions in Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and suburban Maryland — at a news conference Thursday afternoon in Washington.

Two former Bear Stearns managers in New York were also included in the sweep, becoming the first executives to face criminal charges related to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.

More than 400 people are being charged in the sting that began March 1 and ended this week, authorities said. They include industry borrowers, loan originators and real estate agents. An estimated 50 people were arrested in the last two days alone.

Across the country, reports of mortgage fraud have soared over the past year as the subprime mortgage market collapsed and defaults and foreclosures soared.

Banks reported nearly 53,000 cases of suspected mortgage fraud last year, up from more than 37,000 a year earlier and about 10 times the level of reports in 2001 and 2002, according to the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

The most common type of mortgage fraud was misstatement of income or assets, followed by forged documents, inflated appraisals and misrepresentation of a buyer's intent to occupy a property as a primary residence.

Over the last several months, the FBI has been investigating an estimated 1,300 mortgage fraud cases — including 19 involving subprime lending practices by U.S. financial institutions.

The Justice Department also is expected to ask Congress for more money to help combat mortgage fraud as part of a larger funding request to curb white collar crime and violent crime.