Florida's Fiduciary Felons

Are there people too dumb to know
Bush isn't "for" them?
--WaPo Discussion on U.S. Political Stupidity

I'm getting married in the morning!
Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime.
Feather and tar me;
Call out the Army;
But get me to the church on time
--I'm Getting Married in the Morning,
My Fair Lady

Too much, too little,
too late to ever try again
--Too Much, Too Little, Too Late,
Johnny Mathis
______________

Florida just keeps getting better all the time, as far as creating materials for the next Carl Hiasson novel goes. This one vies with the wife who put her recently killed husband through the wood chipper.

It seems the Office of Financial Regulation (OFR), the agency that licenses mortgage brokers, allowed some felons to enter the Florida home loan business. Actually, about 10,000 of them between 2000 and 2006. Not a good time to have felons running the show, in the midst of the subprime circus.

The fate of the top (non-)regulator, OFR Commissioner Don Saxon, is still up in the air. Said Saxon, ''We do not have a systemic problem of licensing felons.'' We reckon it was not so much a problem, as a choice.

A Miami Herald investigation said "the agency allowed more than 10,000 people with criminal backgrounds to sell home loans in Florida, including bank robbers, racketeers and cocaine traffickers." If you read Travis McGee novels, you realize these are the people in your Florida neighborhood.

"More than 4,000 of those passed OFR background checks despite criminal records, with most committing crimes that state law specifically required the agency to screen -- fraud, dishonest dealing and crimes of ''moral turpitude.'' Convicted criminals went on to steal at least $85 million from consumers and lenders, the newspaper found.

If you've been to a Baptist church service, you know there isn't much worse than moral turpitude, a hazy area including things like fornication and Santería chicken sacrifices.

"Florida now has the highest mortgage-fraud rate in the nation." We're #1, baby.

"Shaken" Florida Governor Crist is nearing the end of his two-week ultimatum to the Office of Financial Regulation to come up with a tougher licensing plan. But not too tough.

The governor said he wants the state to ''be cautious and exercise a degree of compassion'' for license applicants whose prior crimes have no bearing on their ability to act as trustworthy stewards.

'''When it doesn't relate to something of a pecuniary, or financial arena, we need to give people a second chance,' Crist said.

"[Attorney General Bill] McCollum said he doesn't think barring people with prior financial crimes goes far enough, calling for a five- to seven-year ban on all felons obtaining licenses as mortgage brokers, Realtors, bankers or others who handle personal financial data.

"He noted that Scott Almeida, a mortgage broker highlighted in The Miami Herald series who fleeced 30 victims out of nearly $3 million, had been convicted of cocaine trafficking.

''To take a cocaine trafficker and give him a license to be a mortgage broker, I don't think it's any safer than somebody who is convicted of mortgage fraud,'' McCollum said.

McCollum's plan sounds reasonable, but Crist is jockeying for a VP slot this election, so alienating possible allies wouldn't be good. He has already made the family value concession of proposing marriage to Carole Roma. It would be tragedy to lose his spot in the running now.

As for suspect Saxon, he is not gonna give any more new broker's licenses to anyone who has been convicted of a felony in the last seven years. Chief Financial Officer and the Cabinet's lone Democrat Alex Sink says "too little, too late," and she calls for Saxon's ouster.

In addition to the 10,000 fiduciary felons, 5,000 more criminals were hired as loan originators, people who do the same thing as mortgage brokers. Saxon's agency has "repeatedly refused to press for the licensing of loan originators."

"There is a huge question mark as to why none of this was brought up before when it really mattered,'' said House Minority Leader Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. "This should have been done before the cow left the barn.'' Silly Minority Leader Gelber -- that's not how things work in this administration. How can profits be made if the cash cow can't escape when no one's looking, hmmm?

Meanwhile, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) seized First Priority Bank of Bradenton, FL, the eighth bank collapse nationally but the first in Florida (First Priority Bank is Seized.) Analysts say it won't be the last. Florida's central Atlantic coast was a hotbed of subprime mortgage lending.

"First Priority’s former officers and directors failed to properly vet borrowers during the boom, and that they approved an overexuberant expansion at a time when caution was needed."

Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream (Amos 5:24).