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Mortgage Broker Criminal Histories
09/16/08 - 02:39 PM
Associated Press
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A critical new report says state regulators failed to comply with a law designed to keep convicted criminals from working in Florida’s mortgage industry.

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink says the report shows the Office of Financial Regulation needs new leadership.

Sink pushed for the state’s top mortgage regulator, Don Saxon, to step down and he agreed to resign at the end of the month.

His resignation was prompted by a Miami Herald investigation that found his office allowed thousands of convicted criminals, including some who served time for fraud, extortion and bank robbery, to work in the home loan business and they went on to steal at least 85 million dollars from Floridians.

The inspector general’s report says the office took the fingerprints of people applying for a mortgage broker’s license, but then never turned over those prints to law enforcement officials for criminal background checks as required by law.

The report says the office issued mortgage broker licenses without the proper criminal history checks between October, 2006 and March, 2008.

Inspectors also concluded the licensing application process was subjective without any written guidelines.

Sink says she hopes to find a replacement for Don Saxon who targets mortgage fraud aggressively.

The report also concludes additional legislation is needed to police the mortgage industry.

Loan originators currently are not subject to any licensing requirements by the state and the report urges state lawmakers to fix that problem during their spring legislative session.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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