Justice can move slowly, particularly, it seems, when it is of the white-collar variety.

While it is good to see federal authorities haul Timothy Burke, 64, into federal court on criminal charges, we have to wonder: What took so long?

Mr. Burke began his latest alleged scam (he’s been imprisoned for fraud before) in the wake of the 2008 recession. The government contends he illegally exploited the fiscal problems and desperation of others to line his own pockets.

A year ago this month Day Staff Writer Izaskun E. Larrañeta detailed how Mr. Burke, who federal authorities claim used various aliases, took advantage of struggling homeowners. Scanning records for information on pending foreclosures, Mr. Burke would swoop in with a proposal for them. He would take the properties off their hands and assume debt responsibility.

Except, that he didn’t, leaving the ownership unchanged and the debt problems and the pending foreclosure unaddressed. In the meantime, he rented out some of the properties, pocketing the rent money rather than applying it toward the mortgage, unpaid taxes or utility bills.

The scheme defrauded both the owners and the renters, according to the affidavit accompanying the federal charges.

Granted, putting together such a complicated case must be difficult. Rather than prosecuting Mr. Burke with such crimes as embezzlement or theft, prosecutors are charging him with mail fraud, meaning they need only prove his activities were fraudulent and he utilized the U.S. Mail in furtherance of his criminal activity.

Still, it would have been nice to see Mr. Burke arrested earlier. One has to wonder if Mr. Burke would have gotten the government’s attention at all if not for the reporting about his scheme. A lot of people were ripped off in the lead up to and during the Great Recession, yet prosecutions have been relatively minimal.

One thing that probably did get the attention of law authorities is the defendant’s history. He was sentenced in U.S. District Court in New Jersey in September 2003 to five years in prison, gaining his release and beginning his probation in August 2007. According to court records, in the New Jersey case Mr. Burke and his co-defendants told various property owners who were in default of their mortgages that he would take possession of the property and they could walk away from their debts. Instead, Mr. Burke and his co-conspirators rented out the properties, a scheme quite similar to the operation he pursued in Connecticut.

Now, as in New Jersey, he faces the prospect of prison. Some folks don’t learn.