Register of Deeds?
Most likely housing and mortgage fraud.
An interesting scam that was going on in Milwaukee several years ago was to purchase older houses in the north side ghetto (filled with ornate built-ins, woodwork, and tin ceilings), strip them out for “rehabs”...then take the salvaged interiors to sell and abandon the now-destroyed house. Much of this involved Federal funds targeted at improving such “distressed” neighborhoods.