Thousands with criminal records work unlicensed as loan originators
Gary Kafka, former body builder with a long rap sheet and violent past, wrote millions of dollars in mortgages in South Florida without ever applying for a state license.
View ArticleEx-convicts active in mortgage fraud
When Scott Almeida walked out of federal prison and into the mortgage business, he took a gamble. He admitted on his license application that he had been convicted of cocaine trafficking.
View ArticleWho's watching the brokers
The Office of Financial Regulation was created by the Florida Legislature to oversee the state's banks and securities and mortgage industries. This includes licensing mortgage brokers and mortgage...
View ArticleAbout the Herald investigation
The Miami Herald spent eight months examining the Office of Financial Regulation, the state agency responsible for regulating the mortgage industry in Florida.
View ArticleFor license renewals in Florida, no criminal background checks
At least 20 Florida mortgage brokers maintained their licenses even after committing the most obvious violation of public trust -- mortgage fraud.
View ArticleMortgage regulator's resignation sought
Florida's chief financial officer called for the state's top mortgage regulator, Don Saxon, to resign after a Miami Herald report that his agency issued licenses to thousands of people with criminal...
View ArticleStates act to license loan originators
To Illinois mortgage regulator Dean Martinez, too many loan people peddled home loans without licenses.
View ArticleState let crooked brokers keep working
When state regulators showed up at Samantha Johnson's mortgage company, she had already stolen her first house.
View ArticleIdentity theft is no bar to keeping a broker license
Mortgage broker Brahms Alexis kept his state license for almost three years, even after Florida regulators and federal agents dragged him away from a closing in handcuffs.
View ArticleWhat They're Saying
--Don Saxon, the state's top mortgage industry regulator, said prosecutors routinely ask his agency not to revoke the license when a broker is the target of a criminal probe, "the last thing we would...
View ArticleShowdown over criminal brokers is imminent
Amid mounting criticism of his leadership, Florida's top mortgage industry regulator promised Monday to find out why his agency allowed thousands of people with criminal histories to sell home loans...
View ArticleA criminal past, a trail of new victims
Eighty-three-year-old W.C. Eckles limps around the outside of his house, pointing to the holes in his walls. He stuffs them with rags. He covers them with plywood. But wind, rain and mosquitoes still...
View ArticleFlorida regulators shun licensing for loan originators
With Florida's housing boom revving up, Joseph Falk, the national mortgage industry's top leader, went to Florida regulators in 2002 with an urgent plea: License all mortgage professionals.
View ArticleHome loan racket flourished in Florida
Orson Benn, once a vice president at the nations largest subprime lender, spent three years during the height of the housing boom tutoring Florida mortgage brokers in the art of fraud.
View ArticleCase files of brokers
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View ArticleLoan legacy: vacancy, vandalism, foreclosure
Decaying and neglected homes are Orson Benn's legacy in Miami-Dade County, where the New York lender and his associates at Argent Mortgage wrote $349 million in loans on nearly 2,000 properties.
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