Florida's state report concerning mortgage brokers shows that background investigation results ignored or not accounted for

BY Matthew Haggman AND Rob Barry
As Florida grapples with the worst home loan fraud crisis in the country, state mortgage industry regulators failed to order federal criminal background checks of mortgage brokers and, in some cases, never alerted police agencies to crooked mortgage operations, according to a state investigation of the lead agency that oversees Florida's troubled loan industry.
A report released Tuesday to Gov. Charlie Crist and Cabinet members blasts the Office of Financial Regulation for licensing people with serious criminal histories as mortgage brokers even as the state mortgage fraud rate was soaring to the highest level in the nation.

The six-week investigation by Florida's top inspectors general was prompted by a Miami Herald series, Borrowers Betrayed, which showed state oversight of the mortgage industry broke down at every level -- from the licensing of people with criminal pasts to the disciplining of crooked brokers.

''In some instances, the office was not complying with existing governing directives,'' the state report says.

The Herald's series led to the forced resignation of Commissioner Don Saxon, who oversaw the agency since 2003.

The 23-page report, which was obtained Monday by The Herald, concluded the state's regulatory system was ``insufficient to protect the people of the state of Florida.''

Investigators said the agency functioned without any clear guidelines, making up rules as it went along and operating on the wrong interpretations of the law.

All the while, mortgage fraud skyrocketed during the most explosive housing boom in state history. Today, a quarter of all reported fraudulent loans across the country are for Florida properties.

The Miami Herald's series revealed that more than 10,000 people with criminal histories -- including money launderers, racketeers and cocaine traffickers -- were able to peddle home loans across the state this decade.

Crist and the Cabinet -- meeting Tuesday as the state Financial Services Commission -- passed emergency measures last month in response to The Herald's investigation, including rules that automatically ban felons of financial crimes from peddling homes.

In its report, the state auditors found that from October 2006 until March 2008, the OFR issued mortgage broker licenses but did not conduct federal criminal background checks of the applicants as required by state law.

The auditors wrote that Saxon told them he was ''not aware of the strict language'' of the law and ''did not believe'' the Legislature meant for him to immediately implement the federal background investigations required by a change in the law in 2006.

Intead, fingerprint cards meant to be submitted for federal crimes checks were kept in the OFR's files, the report stated.

The Miami Herald found 88 former federal criminals were licensed by regulators this decade, including former bank robbers.

The state probe also found the state did not issue any written guidelines explaining why applicants with criminal histories should be allowed to work in the mortgage industry. The investigation discovered that agency decisions were made on ''experience'' rather than any clearly understood criteria.

The auditors took issue with the fact that broad benchmarks like ''moral turpitude'' or ''dishonest dealings'' were applied to applicants on a case-by-case basis without clear lines of decision-making.

In fact, one OFR official called the moral turpitude standard a ''moving target'' that required guidance from the legal staff because the kinds of crimes under that category vary so widely.

Yet, a senior attorney at the agency told auditors he was never asked to provide written guidance and -- if asked -- likely would not have done so because the law is not clear.

The report also stated that Saxon's agency could have required brokers to submit background information -- such as updated criminal history -- when trying to renew their licenses. But the agency didn't initiate any such practice.

Separately, the report found that loan originators ''perform essentially the same function as mortgage brokers'' but aren't licensed. Saxon told auditors that licensing loan originators would be next to impossible because of the ``influence of the industry.''

But industry leaders in Florida told The Herald that they had pressed Saxon's office in 2002 and again in 2006 to license loan originators -- but regulators refused.

In addition, agency e-mails obtained by The Herald showed that top leaders of Saxon's staff opposed the licensing of loan originators, and in one case, even removed a provision in a legal draft to bring them under state licensing.

Posted by Pebi Services President Tyra Hearns