Did Anyone At HUD Watch The Sopranos?

One of the most important skills in politics is being able to act very, very suprised at things that are under your nose. So, I am finally watching old Soprano's episodes and came accross one made in 2002 or 2003, I would guess. It lays out a pretty typical form of housing fraud, executed hundreds if not thousands of times in one variation or another.

The appearance on the show shows how awareness of these frauds had entered popular culture. Most people who wanted to know, knew about it--- except apparently the main agencies being defrauded.

Here's a good article on the subject from 2006. Of course, we know now that the probem was much bigger than stated.