Sunday, July 20, 2008

Miami Herald Uncovers Massive Mortgage Broker Scandal. By Geniusofdespair

This Miami Herald video will break your heart.Scam Mortgage Brokers. Also see the 3 part series Borrowers Betrayed. According the Herald, the State of Florida gave Mortgage Broker Licenses to over 1,000 convicted felons.

To Jeb Bush: Thanks for nothing.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

JeB Bush-Nah I don't think so. Try Alex Sink, she is in charge and apparently not much was being done.

In 2006, the year license applications and home-sale prices peaked, the Florida Legislature changed the law to close a significant gap.

The new provision required state officials to send would-be brokers' fingerprints to the FBI to screen for convictions in other states and in federal court, where serious financial crimes and drug-trafficking cases are often prosecuted.

But state officials didn't follow the law. Last February, more than a year after the statute was changed, Greg Oaks, chief of the OFR's Bureau of Regulatory Review, told The Miami Herald that running the FBI checks using the old-fashioned hard-copy fingerprint cards took too long.

''It's conceivable a person might have an FBI record and we wouldn't see it,'' Oaks said. The agency began to run FBI checks in March of this year, officials said.

I guess she is too busy planning her gubernatorial run in 2010.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous above, Maybe you should read part 2:

Florida's chief financial officer called for the state's top mortgage regulator, Don Saxon, to resign after a report that thousands of mortgage professionals with criminal histories were allowed to work in the industry.

Florida CFO Alex Sink also called for an executive order to stop issuing and renewing mortgage broker licenses to felons.

Geniusofdespair said...

I don't think that Sink or Crist have been in power long enough to take the heat. In the Herald, the paperwork that was forged on W.C. Eckles and Louise Winters, were both signed in 2003, long before either one were in office. Blame it on Bush.

Anonymous said...

Anon 2: Yes I read the whole thing. Have you ever heard of the word scapegoat or fall guy..Thats what is happening here.

Anonymous said...

This is the trickle down effect from many places. The Feds, the major banks, everyone way on high decided to make fast money at the expense of the poor, not so poor, uneducated and educated. There is money blood on the hands of everyone in Washington,DC on both sides of the aisle, but again I look to the leadership of the country as the true villain. This is what happens when you have a "hands-off" policy when it comes to banking regulations. This is nuts and always the little guy ends up in pain, while the big guys drive off into the sunset in the shiny Maserati's. Blaming loan originators is like blaming the soldiers for Abu-Grahib.

Anonymous said...

Gimleteye writes:

RE previous writer, correct on all counts. And it is also the story that executives of The Herald needs to put the I Team on, to absolve itself of journalistic malfeasance related to its failure to report on the housing bubble as it manifested through the energies of powerful real estate interests in Miami, who Jeb Bush ably represented.

Anyone reading this excellent series (and our blog index "housing crash") knows the subtext-- and as long as it remains unwritten, The Herald's credibility is in doubt; notwithstanding Pulitzers or other accolades the series may win.

It was called "the ownership society" and it was promoted by Jeb Bush, Mel Martinez, and the top spin masters in Washington, DC.

You don't hear much of that, anymore, do you?