By MIKE BRASSFIELD, St. Petersburg Times Staff WriterWhile workers say they haven't been paid, the Clearwater company's CEO says some loans show signs of fraud.
Published August 5, 2005
A group of Tampa workers twice recently have picketed outside the headquarters of a Clearwater mortgage financing company, saying they haven't been paid for about two months of work. But the company says its reputation is being unfairly smeared.
"We have done nothing wrong," said Jerry Cugno, CEO of Premier Mortgage Funding.
The Clearwater company and a Tampa mortgage broker are trading accusations of fraud. State regulators say they will investigate.
Tampa mortgage broker Victor Perry says he signed a contract on May 13 to become a branch of Premier, which has about 600 branches nationwide. Perry says he and a dozen employees have been signing customers up for mortgages in 36 states using the Premier name.
When banks or title companies sent the Tampa employees their commissions from the approved loans, the office sent the checks to Premier headquarters. Perry says that Premier was then supposed to pay his employees their commissions, but that the company hasn't been doing that. This prompted the picketing last week.
However, Cugno says he is happy to pay the workers what they are owed. The problem, he says, is that some of the loans show signs of fraud.
Cugno said he has begun paying commissions for some loans, but cannot pay for loans he suspects are fraudulent. "We have to separate the good loans from the bad," he said.
