'All the ordinary Americans who have suffered the brunt of this (economic crisis) want to know that we're doing everything possible' to combat white collar crime, said Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, at a hearing Wednesday.

In the most sensational case of its kind in years, former Nasdaq stock exchange chairman Bernard Madoff was arrested in early December after allegedly confessing to his two sons and to the FBI that he had run a US$50 billion pyramid fraud known as a Ponzi scheme.

Investors caught in Madoff's alleged fraud include Hollywood celebrities, charities, universities, and major financial institutions including UBS, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, BNP Paribas and Citigroup.

Over the past few years, the FBI has been steadily beefing up its teams fighting white collar crime - fraud and corruption that has had disastrous consequences for families and the balance of the financial system.

'After 9/11, we moved almost 2,000 criminal investigative resources over to national security matters, particularly counter-terrorism,' FBI Deputy Director John Pistole told Leahy's committee.

'We have been gradually moving those back. And have done that in terms of priority areas, such as this mortgage fraud and the corporate fraud area which is potentially as significant in terms of long-term complex investigations.'

But since 2005, investigations by the federal law enforcement agency on real estate fraud have almost tripled, from 721 cases in 2005 to 1,800 cases currently being investigated, according to Pistole.

'And of course, we expect an upward trend to continue,' he warned.

Corporate fraud and corruption cases number 530, 38 of which are directly tied to the mortgage industry, such as US mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A surge in foreclosures took place following the collapse of the housing market in 2006 and the related subprime mortgage crisis that triggered the financial crisis in August 2007.

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, terrorism had been cited as the top US security concern.

The FBI now has 240 agents assigned to mortgage fraud and related investigations, with over 100 more agents working on corporate fraud matters, Pistole said. The agency also sponsors 55 mortgage fraud task forces or working groups across the country.

But some lawmakers expressed concern that more still needs to be done to address the rising problem of mortgage and corporate fraud. -- AFP