Businessweek: Prestamos FHA: el nuevo robo

COVER STORY November 19, 2008, 6:24PM EST
FHA-Backed Loans: The New Subprime

The same people whose reckless practices triggered the global financial crisis are onto a similar scheme that could cost taxpayers tons more.

By Chad Terhune and Robert Berner

“Don’t let the makeover fool you.”

As if they haven't done enough damage. Thousands of subprime mortgage lenders and brokers—many of them the very sorts of firms that helped create the current financial crisis—are going strong. Their new strategy: taking advantage of a long-standing federal program designed to encourage homeownership by insuring mortgages for buyers of modest means.

You read that correctly. Some of the same people who propelled us toward the housing market calamity are now seeking to profit by exploiting billions in federally insured mortgages. Washington, meanwhile, has vastly expanded the availability of such taxpayer-backed loans as part of the emergency campaign to rescue the country's swooning economy.

For generations, these loans, backed by the Federal Housing Administration, have offered working-class families a legitimate means to purchase their own homes. But now there's a severe danger that aggressive lenders and brokers schooled in the rash ways of the subprime industry will overwhelm the FHA with loans for people unlikely to make their payments. Exacerbating matters, FHA officials seem oblivious to what's happening—or incapable of stopping it. They're giving mortgage firms licenses to dole out 100%-insured loans despite lender records blotted by state sanctions, bankruptcy filings, civil lawsuits, and even criminal convictions.

Premier Mortgage Funding declara bancarrota

Premier Mortgage Funding files BANKRUPTCY

Notice of Bankruptcy Case Filing

A bankruptcy case concerning the debtor(s) listed below was filed under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, entered on 07/03/2007 at 08:56 AM and filed on 07/03/2007 at 08:56 AM. 

Premier Mortgage Funding, Inc.
3001 Executive Dr., Ste. 330
Clearwater, FL 33762
Tax id: 30-0030026 

The case was filed by the debtor's attorney:
Buddy D. Ford
115 N. MacDill Avenue
Tampa, FL 33609
813-877-4669

The case was assigned case number 8:07-bk-05713-CPM to Judge Catherine Peek McEwen. 

by anonamust July 10, 2007 12:00 AM

Compañía de préstamos sospecha de fraude departe de agentes hipotecarios

Mortgage company suspects fraud by Tampa brokers

While workers say they haven't been paid, the Clearwater company's CEO says some loans show signs of fraud.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD, St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer
Published August 5, 2005

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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.