MIAMI – July 21, 2008 – Florida officials allowed thousands of mortgage professionals with criminal records into the lending industry, an investigation by The Miami Herald found.
Among the ex-convicts given access to the mortgage industry was Scott Almeida, who got into the business after being released from federal prison, the newspaper reported Sunday.
Almeida admitted on his license application that he had been convicted of cocaine trafficking, so Florida regulators asked for a character reference. He gave them a note from his mom. The rest of the story...
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Posted in: Mortgage Fraud
It's about time mortgage fraud was addressed in our state. It is not just here in Miami but it is pervasive all over the state. It will be interesting to see what profession the media takes off after they are finished with the mortgage brokers. Our state is very lax in regulating any of the professions. It is the consumers and the lenders that bear the brunt of mortgage fraud, but it is all of us that will have to pay in more ways than can be imagined. Mortgage fraud has contributed heavily to the difficulties, we as Realtors face in our everyday business.
Kudos to Nancy Hogan, for taking her time to be proactive in trying to combat mortgage fraud in her own way within Coldwell Banker. If all of us took just a small amount of time to be involved to combat this fraud, it would not be the issue it is today. If there is a Real Estate agent involved in a transaction that encompasses mortgage fraud, it's very difficult to say I wasn't aware. There is no such thing as Deliberate Ignorance.