The financial scams continue even now. In 2011 I sold my deceased mom's house. The buyer was financing it through Chase. Appraiser comes out to do the appraisal for the loan approval. Since the deadline for closing was coming up fast, I asked when he'd have the appraisal finished. He said he'd be done in a couple of days, but when he submits the appraisal to "the middle man between him and the bank" via email, the MM always has changes. This goes on for a couple of weeks. Why is a middle man who has never seen the house forcing an appraiser to make changes to his appraisal? It's nuts. The mortgage industry was rife with fraud in the 2000's because appraisers were inflating home prices at banks' request to justify stupidly overvalued loans. Some government agency made a rule that appraisers couldn't talk to banks to avoid this problem, but now there is some other "middle man" involved who is cooking appraisals.<p>Here's my suggestion on how to prevent fraud in the financial industry:<p>1. Keep investment banks and deposit-taking banks separate, as was done successfully for years.<p>2. When an investment bank fails, let them fail.<p>3. If there is fraud, try executives and put them in prison.<p>Instead, we have a revolving door between govt regulatory agencies and big banks.