Has Everyone Seen This?

[Mike Phillips]

This link was provided most recently by Mike Kennedy in another forum.
Credit is also apparently due to Kenneth Brown.

http://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/7242008_Florida_Felon_Mortgage_License.asp

(I hope that works)

"The Miami Herald's investigative team reported on Sunday that the state has approved over 10,000 mortgage broker licenses for convicted felons since 2000; over 4,000 were issued to individuals who had been convicted of crimes such as fraud, extortion, racketeering, and bank robbery - crimes that are specifically prohibited by the licensing statute - and a smattering of licenses are held by felons convicted of violent crimes including 15 murders. Collectively these felons were guilty of 2,821 financial crimes, including 922 larcenies, 752 frauds, 327 burglaries, 161 forgeries and 67 robberies. The list includes brokers arrested and convicted in Florida, those who had been imprisoned in other states, and those convicted in federal courts."

What's up with that?

I wonder if the Herald knows appraisers will get a "fee holiday" this year. Heck, nothing to regulate or investigate here in Florida, right? No sense in all that money being collected if it won't be spent.

 

[Chris Colston]

This story has been out for a whole week and FLORIDA TODAY just picked up on it this morning.

Amazing isn't it?? We have to go through fingerprinting, background checks, interviews with the FREAB if you have so much as a speeding ticket on your record.

So as I said in the thread in the General section, get turned down by the DBPR and FREAB and become a mortgage broker instead! Sad state of affairs for Florida.

 

[Wendy]

It's Friday morning and it just showed up in the Orlando paper. Sad.

 

[David Sawyer]

And some brokers wonder why I only do C.O.D.! NO EXCEPTIONS

 

[Michael Tipton]

State regulatory issue(s)?

For generations, Florida has been known as a land of opportunity, sunshine and swindle. Unfortunately for consumers, the state officials responsible for preventing fraud in the mortgage business have been virtually asleep at the switch for years, ensuring that our standing as a capital of scam remains intact.

...

But the Herald's investigation raises much broader questions concerning state oversight. Since it's clear that the public is insufficiently protected from both criminals and slipshod regulation, the next question must be how and why the system of oversight miserably failed.

That's a question for Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet, which is expected to discuss the mortgage fraud debacle at its Tuesday meeting.

Here's the rub: The governor and Cabinet members — Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson — technically oversee the Office of Financial Regulation. But their oversight is limited to rule-making, and hiring and firing the Financial Regulation commissioner.

...

Mr. Saxon, however, is obviously not the only problem with the office he runs. That this mess grew so out of control over so long a period of time is strong evidence that the system is broken and must be fixed. Ms. Sink agrees.

"To me, it's a flawed system and that's why we get into these situations," she said Tuesday.

This situation is similar to one last year involving the State Board of Administration, which handles Florida's investment portfolio. It failed to let financial managers with Florida cities, counties and school districts know that the widely used Local Government Investment Fund faced much higher risk than they were led to believe. After a run on the investment pool, agency chief Coleman Stipanovich was forced to resign, and the state for the past several months has been trying to repair the damage.
The governor and Cabinet also oversee the State Board of Administration, but as is true with the Office of Financial Regulation and several other regulatory offices, their authority is narrowly defined. In both cases, Florida's top elected officials learned there was a hint of a problem when reporters told them shortly before their stories were published.

"You can make the argument for every Cabinet agency, in my opinion," said the CFO, who added that there aren't even provisions in place for the governor and Cabinet to review the performance of the regulators they hire and fire.

It's increasingly obvious that a new system, maybe up to and including statutory or constitutional changes, must be developed based on more than assurances and carefully managed data — and soon.

Florida's sullied reputation is one thing. Florida families are another.

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008807230371

 

[Tom Woolford]

The only bright side to this story is that most of them will be out of business soon, if not already.

 

[Michael Tipton]

Waving placards and belting out full-throated chants, a community activist group marched into the Office of Financial Regulation's Miami office Thursday with a message for the state agency's chief: Resign.

The Association of Community Organization for Reform Now, known as ACORN, demanded that Don Saxon, the state's top mortgage industry regulator, step down after a series of stories in The Miami Herald revealed more than 10,000 criminals were able to sell home loans in Florida -- many who went on to fleece consumers and lenders of millions of dollars.

Clad in red vests, nearly 20 protesters crowded into OFR's small seventh floor lobby to deliver a letter that also called for a dialogue to develop a new approach to regulating Florida's mortgage industry. ''Everyone knows Florida is in a foreclosure crisis,'' said Sheena Rolle, a special project director with ACORN. ``Yet Don Saxon's asleep at the switch.''

While the Miami demonstration was under way, another was held by ACORN at OFR's office in Orlando.

...

A second group, the Florida office of the AARP, said earlier this week that Saxon should quit.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/617173.html

 

[Ken B]

The Miami Herald is running this as a three-part series. More of the story is to come.

http://www.miamiherald.com/static/multimedia/news/mortgage/brokers.html

 

[Alison Swain]

Good. One thing they can fix is the Dept.'s utter lack of respect for appraisers. Call them sometime and ask for assistance in collecting unpaid fees. Their response: That's your problem; hire a lawyer.

After waiting three months for payment, I've threatened a New York broker with reporting them to the NY Dept. of Banking and had a certified check overnighted the same day. That's the kind of no-nonsense we need from our Dept. here.

 

[Mike Phillips]

I wonder when the issue of Florida appraisers' 2008 "fee holiday" is going to surface. Now we are hearing excuses from one department that funds are/were not available while another department says - we don't need the money - we won't use the money - we don't want them to have it - so let's don't bother collecting it in the first place.

I've stated consistently for nearly 4 years Florida does not have a dog in the enforcement fight. Now that assertion is starting to be questioned at an appropriate level. I've also said Florida will not regulate anything until the federal government forces them to do so.

Now that Florida is atarting to be exposed as the Bananna Republic that we are, and it has captured the nation's attention, Florida taxpayers might get some action. But expect the quality of Florida's public schools to drop another notch, in addition to her reputation for providing quality healthcare for childern.

The situation is bad in Florida, but let's not forget many other states do not have a dog in the enforcement fight either. The nation's residential housing market is a national priority; it should be regulated by the federal government and not left to state legislators who might be concerned more about their election than they are about protecting the public.