Ex-convicts active in mortgage fraud (Miami Herald Special Report Part 1)

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

Ex-convicts active in mortgage fraud
During Florida's housing boom, state regulators allowed thousands of mortgage professionals with criminal records into the industry -- costing consumers millions.

BY JACK DOLAN, ROB BARRY and MATTHEW HAGGMAN
jdolan@MiamiHerald.com

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.

Florida regulators -- responsible for protecting borrowers from predatory brokers -- could have rejected him on the spot. Instead, they asked for a character reference: He gave them a note from his mom. They said he needed a reputable supervisor for his practice: He chose a guy he met in the prison visitor room. They asked for a copy of the court file but never demanded the police report, which shows that he had been caught with a small arsenal of assault rifles and ammunition, in addition to the cocaine. Their background investigation complete, regulators circled ''approved'' at the bottom of the screening checklist, collected a $215 license fee and looked the other way.

Over the next three years, in a crime spree that stretched from Tampa to Miami, Almeida arranged nearly $3 million in fraudulent loans and fleeced 30 people -- many of them elderly and disabled. Twice, the Florida Office of Financial Regulation -- which polices the mortgage industry -- failed to act on warnings that Almeida was stealing from clients, allowing his scam to thrive until police threw him into jail.

The Almeida case highlights one in a series of breakdowns in the state's enforcement system created to protect borrowers. Since 2000, regulators failed to weed out people with criminal histories, monitor scam operations and discipline crooked brokers, a Miami Herald investigation found. State regulators allowed thousands of ex-convicts to enter a profession that gave them access to the most sensitive and personal financial information: credit cards, bank accounts and Social Security numbers.

Those criminals went on to commit nearly $85 million in mortgage fraud, the newspaper found. They stole their customers' identities. They stole their money. They even stole their homes.

MUCH, MUCH MORE AT LINK
http://www.miamiherald.com/static/multimedia/news/mortgage/brokers.html

I'd take a closer look at the MBA's in the board room.

The ex-convict is meant to distract us.

:grr: