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Law

NC Gets Federal Funding to Fight Mortgage Fraud

The fight against mortgage fraud and other financial crimes just got a little easier in North Carolina – thanks to a new Financial Crimes Initiative.

Ben David is the District Attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties and heads the state conference of D-As. He says the rise in mortgage fraud and other scams is what helped North Carolina get funding for a Financial Crimes Initiative.

Ben David:  "And that’s in part because criminals often see these crimes as low risk and high reward.   You can steal more money with the click of a mouse button or with a pen and a checkbook than you can frequently with a gun and a ski mask."

The National Mortgage Settlement is paying for the new initiative.  David says the money will be used to hire a White Collar Crime Resource Prosecutor, regional prosecutors and other experts to aggressively investigate, prosecute and recover stolen dollars.

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of “Due South” – WUNC’s new daily radio show. The program takes a panoramic view of race, southern culture, politics and place – stories Leoneda has reported on for more than 20 years at WUNC – North Carolina Public Radio. Leoneda is the recipient of Gracie awards from the Alliance of Women in Media, awards from the Associated Press and the Radio, Television, Digital News Association (RTDNA). She was part of the WUNC team who won an Alfred I. DuPont Award for the series, “North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty.” In 2017, Leoneda was named “Journalist of Distinction” by the National Association of Black Journalists. Leoneda is a graduate of Florida A&M University (B.S.) and Columbia University (M.S) where she was a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economics & Business Journalism. Leoneda also studied Environmental Justice as a Knight-Wallace Fellow at The University of Michigan. Leoneda has produced stories from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Her international reporting fellowships include trips to Berlin, Tokyo, Durban, South Africa and Seoul. Leoneda’s essay, “Everybody Is Cheering for You,” is in the book, “HBCU Made – A Celebration of the Black College Experience,” release date January 2024. Leoneda is the proud mother of two sons, Jean Christian and Teemer Seuline Barry.
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