What I haven't been able to understand is why so many economically challenged people were approved for mortgages on overpriced pressboard and fake rock crap. Sure, there's fraud, but how bad could it be? Well, a lot worse than even I, the Queen of Doom and Gloom, thought it could be. More than a thousand felons serve as loan originators in Florida.
Gary Kafka, former body builder with a long rap sheet and violent
past, wrote millions of dollars in mortgages in South Florida without
ever applying for a state license.
Fresh out of prison after serving time for bank fraud, he never went
through a criminal background check before selling loans. He never took
a competency exam.
He never had to.
More than half the mortgage professionals registered in Florida --
120,563 -- entered the industry this decade without being licensed by
the state, The Miami Herald found.
Known as loan originators, they perform the same job as mortgage brokers but aren't bound by the same rules.
Read the rest of the Miami Herald story here.