Former mortgage lender accused of fraud

Signaling a commitment to pursue fraud stemming from the housing market collapse, federal authorities Wednesday charged a former executive at a leading private mortgage company in connection with an alleged $1.9-billion scheme that helped topple a major bank and then sought a chunk of the government's bailout fund. Lee Bentley Farkas, 57, the former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. in Ocala, Fla., was arrested Tuesday night on a 16-count indictment charging him with bank, wire and securities fraud. It is one of the largest criminal cases to come from the mortgage meltdown. The arrest came after a 15-month investigation by a dozen federal agencies triggered by the mortgage company's involvement in trying to secure $553 million for Alabama-based Colonial Bank from the government's $700-billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.