NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The Securities and Exchange Commission charged six former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with securities fraud on Friday for misrepresenting their holdings of high-risk mortgage loans.

The SEC is targeting three former executives of Freddie Mac (FMCC, Fortune 500), including chief executive officer Daniel Mudd, chief risk officer Enrico Dallavecchia and executive vice president of single-family mortgage business Thomas Lund.

The agency is also going after three former executives of Fannie Mae (FNMA, Fortune 500): CEO Richard Syron, executive vice president and chief business officer Patricia Cook and executive vice president for the single family guarantee business Donald Bisenius.

If the national foreclosure crisis were a baseball game, we would be in about the top of the sixth. And we may have to go to extra innings.

Since the housing market peaked in 2006, some 6.5 million homes have been lost to foreclosure. There are likely another 4.3 million more homeowners who are “seriously delinquent,” meaning they are more than three months behind in their payments, according to data released by the Mortgage Bankers Association this week. Many of those homeowners will soon enter the foreclosure pipeline.

WASHINGTON — Three big U.S. banks are nearing a settlement in which they would compensate borrowers whose homes were improperly foreclosed upon, according to a CNBC report.

Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. would also agree not to start foreclosure proceedings until they have exhausted all efforts to modify a borrower’s mortgage, CNBC is reporting. Many borrowers have complained of receiving foreclosure notices while they’re negotiating to lower their loan payments.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The foreclosure document fiasco has already caused a major headache for U.S. banks — and that headache may soon escalate into a migraine.

But the additional pain isn’t coming from the Obama administration or state attorneys general, both of whom have stepped up pressure on the banks. Nor is it coming from individuals who allege their homes were wrongly foreclosed on.

WASHINGTON — The government spelled out Thursday just how much the most expensive rescue of the financial crisis will end up costing taxpayers — as much as $259 billion for mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

That figure would be nearly twice the amount Fannie and Freddie have received so far.

By contrast, the combined bailouts of financial companies and the auto industry have cost taxpayers roughly $50 billion, according to the Treasury Department’s latest projections. And the bailouts of Wall Street banks alone, which sparked public fury, have so far brought taxpayers a $16 billion return.

WASHINGTON — The foreclosure-document crisis just keeps on growing, and now the FBI is getting into the fray.

A federal law enforcement official told the Associated Press that the agency is in the initial stages of trying to determine whether the financial industry may have broken criminal laws in the mortgage foreclosure crisis.

The official said the question is whether some in the industry 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.

WASHINGTON — The pace of U.S. home foreclosures may not slow much after all.

Bank of America said Monday that it plans to resume seizing more than 100,000 homes in 23 states next week. It said it has a legal right to foreclose despite accusations that documents used in the process were flawed.

It’s not yet clear whether other major leaders will follow suit and resume foreclosures in the states that require a judge’s approval. But the move by the nation’s biggest bank could give way to an industrywide effort to push ahead with a wave of foreclosures that have depressed the housing market.

SAN FRANCISCO — Feeling the weight of mortgages on two properties and several thousand dollars of credit card debt, Jason and Kristin Koontz filed for bankruptcy last year.

The couple surrendered one property to foreclosure but say they were still making payments for their house in Mishawaka, Ind. EverHome Mortgage Co. filed a claim on the three-bedroom ranch to ensure its rights in the bankruptcy proceedings.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will not sign legislation that could have made it more difficult for homeowners to challenge unjustified foreclosure actions, the White House said on Thursday.

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said Obama was sending the bill back to the House of Representatives for further discussion of how it would affect the foreclosure crisis, which has become a political lightning rod amid media reports that banks acted improperly to evict struggling borrowers.
Story: Foreclosures seen slowing as document flaws emerge

WASHINGTON — The government is looking into allegations that mortgage lenders in the foreclosure crisis have been evicting homeowners using flawed court papers, Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday.

President Barack Obama’s financial fraud enforcement task force has a mortgage component to it, Holder noted during a news conference.

In a letter Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and dozens of Democratic lawmakers urged bank regulators and the Justice Department to probe whether mortgage companies violated any laws in handling foreclosures and borrowers’ requests for loan assistance.

In Ohio, state Attorney General Richard Cordray is suing Ally Financial Inc. and its GMAC Mortgage division, alleging fraud that could involve hundreds of foreclosures in the state.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The president’s signature foreclosure rescue plan is losing its punch, according to a federal report released Friday.

Only 36,695 troubled homeowners received long-term mortgage modifications in July under the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program, known as HAMP. This brings the total to 434,717 borrowers who have successfully made it out of the trial phase.

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A month ago, 51,205 delinquent borrowers were given long-term assistance.

The government’s foreclosure relief program just isn’t working.

That was the assessment Thursday of two reports from government watchdogs and a panel of witnesses at a congressional hearing trying to find out why the Obama administration is falling far short of its goal of preventing millions of Americans from losing their homes.