Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

cwa — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

It's not fair to group all "felons" in the same category. There are a lot of people who have a criminal background that really want to turn their life around. Society makes it really hard for them to move ahead with a good career/decent paying job by saying "we can't hire you, you're a felon" without even looking at the crime/situation for that individual. I'm not saying everyone with a background deserves a second chance, but more departments and agencies should look more at the individual and not the label of "convicted felon". I think it's great that the Office of Financial Regulation offers some hope for a second chance and looks at everyone on a case by case basis but I do however, think they should be more strict on who they issue a license to depending on the person's conviction. There are a lot of people out there without criminal backgrounds who are shady, dishonest, and lacking in conscience. The only difference between them and the "felons" is, is that they haven't been caught.

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

vtop1 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

No surprise here! I have been a resident for the last 7 years and I have never witnessed such upside down logic with regards to just about everything that's done. There has been several times that I have written to Ol' Jeb and the responses i received were laughable. You might ask why i am still here. Uhhh, can you say.....Real Estate Collapse?

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

ami — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

I often wondered how some people have gotten their licenses. Since these so called "Regulators" are gov't employees shouldn't they be fired and/or sued? Sounds to me like this is a lawsuit waiting to happen. When you pay the application fees to cover background checks, fingerprints, photos etc. shouldn't we be refunded our money as those services were not being performed? Aren't these regulators responsible for putting the general public at risk? Since this scandle has been busted now is the perfect time for this agency to be cleaned out and a legitimate staff hired. What a disgrace to our industry.

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

EJ — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

I believe that people should get a second chance, but that doesn't mean it should be in the field that they have commited crimes in. If you are recently out of prison and were imprisioned for fraud, you shouldn't be allowed to be in a sittuation where you have access to private financial information. For the guy that had a conviction 17 years ago and has been in the field now for 6 years now, you probably deserved your 2nd chance. It sounds like you were out of prison for a while before someone decided to entrust you with peoples personal, confidential information. I agree that there are a lot of shady people that don't have records, but the fact that the people with records were responsible for 85 mill in fraud kinda shows that they have much worse odds with the felons than they do with the non felons. People deserve a 2nd chance, but there is no way a school would employ someone who was guily of child molestation, so how about giving people a 2nd chance in a field where they are responsible for other peoples financial welfare and security.

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

You know, Not all felons are repeat offenders. I have a felony from 17 years ago and have been in the mortgage buisness for more than 6 years. These repeat offenders make it very hard for people who are trying very hard to feed their familes. Now there are people in this buisness with clean records who are the make felons look like saints. This goes from brokers/Loan officers/ branch managers who ask to strectch values from appraisers, take borrowers stated/stated (as mentioned from another person) 2/28 arm. I've even heard of people who alter w'2s just to go full doc. This is across the board. Not just people with past criminal backgrounds.

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

Patricia Navadomskis — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

This is way way worse than anyone could have suspected. Who is in charge NO ONE. I was worried about FRAUD IN CHICAGO Looks like it's all over. Now everyone's Identity ,credit has been compromised. All the big banks are predatory lenders and made SUB PRIME LOANS .We all owe them money and we are ALL BEING RIPPED OFF

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

cleanupflorida — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

The mortgage industry is just the tip of the iceberg. The construction industry is full of felons and the regulatory agencies look the other way when abuses are reported. The felons will threaten anyone who goes public with the abuses including violence, fraudulent foreclosure scams and extortion. Panama City currently has a huge problem!! The authorities turn a blind eye to the abuse. With all the murders and meth labs who has time to prosecute construction fraud!!

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

Pat Kiehl — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

This is no surprise. I informed the Dept of Fin Reg, Dept of Insurance (title co) and FBI and tried newpaper & TV investigators that 2 mtg brokers scammed me by selling lots to new buyers that I financed. They took the cash from the closing (title company had to be involved) and never paid down the mtg. $300,000 in sales. I foreclosed. The new buyers are now left without their money or land and not one agency has done anything. I had another case where there was mtg fraud on $50,000. The state attorney's office basically told me it wasn't enough money for them to bother. I asked what their cap was in case I wanted to commit fraud & stay under the radar. No response.

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Those who supervise regulated professions in Florida are hopeless. Or is that "helpless?"

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

anonymous — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

And what guidance came from the top? Business as usual at the cost to the taxpayers. now Fannie and Freddie The Bush family and the S&L Scandal Neil, George Jr., George Sr., and Jeb Bush The Savings and Loan industry had been experiencing major problems through the late 60s and 70s due to rising inflation and rising interest rates. Because of this there was a move in the 1970s to replace the role of S&L institutions with banks. In the early 1980s, under Reagan, regulatory changes took place that gave the S&L industry new powers and for the first time in history measures were taken to increase the profitability of S&Ls at the expense of promoting home ownership. A history of the S&L situation can be found here: http://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/s&l/ What is important to note about the S&L scandal is that it was the largest theft in the history of the world and US tax payers are who was robbed. The problems occurred in the Savings and Loan industry as they relate to theft because the industry was deregulated under the Reagan/Bush administration and restrictions were eased on the industry so much that abuse and misuse of funds became easy, rampant, and went unchecked. Additional facts on the Savings and Loan Scandal can be found here: http://www.inthe80s.com/sandl.shtml There are several ways in which the Bush family plays into the Savings and Loan scandal, which involves not only many members of the Bush family but also many other politicians that are still in office and still part of the Bush Jr. administration today. Jeb Bush, George Bush Sr., and his son Neil Bush have all been implicated in the Savings and Loan Scandal, which cost American tax payers over $1.4 TRILLION dollars (note that this is about one quarter of our national debt). Between 1981 and 1989, when George Bush finally announced that there was a Savings and Loan Crisis to the world, the Reagan/Bush administration worked to cover up Savings and Loan problems by reducing the number and depth of examinations required of S&Ls as well as attacking political opponents who were sounding early alarms about the S&L industry. Industry insiders were aware of significant S&L problems as early 1986 that they felt would require a bailout. This information was kept from the media until after Bush had won the 1988 elections. Jeb Bush defaulted on a $4.56 million loan from Broward Federal Savings in Sunrise, Florida. After federal regulators closed the S&L, the office building that Jeb used the $4.56 million to finance was reappraised by the regulators at $500,000, which Bush and his partners paid. The taxpayers had to pay back the remaining 4 million plus dollars. Neil Bush was the most widely targeted member of the Bush family by the press in the S&L scandal. Neil became director of Silverado Savings and Loan at the age of 30 in 1985. Three years later the institution was belly up at a cost of $1.6 billion to tax payers to bail out. The basic actions of Neil Bush in the S&L scandal are as follows: Neil received a $100,000 "loan" from Ken Good, of Good International, with no obligation to pay any of the money back. Good was a large shareholder in JNB Explorations, Neil Bush's oil-exploration company. Neil failed to disclose this conflict-of-interest when loans were given to Good from Silverado, because the money was to be used in joint venture with his own JNB. This was in essence giving himself a loan from Silverado through a third party. Neil then helped Silverado S&L approve Good International for a $900,000 line of credit. Good defaulted on a total $32 million in loans from Silverado. During this time Neil Bush did not disclose that $3 million of the $32 million that Good was defaulting on was actually for investment in JNB, his own company. Good subsequently raised Bush's JNB salary from $75,000 to $125,000 and granted him a $22,500 bonus. Neil Bush maintained that he did not see how this constituted a conflict of interest. Neil approved $106 million in Silverado loans to another JNB investor, Bill Walters. Neil also never formally disclosed his relationship with Walters and Walters also defaulted on his loans, all $106 million of them. Neil Bush was charged with criminal wrongdoing in the case and ended up paying $50,000 to settle out of court. The chief of Silverado S&L was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail for pleading guilty to $8.7 million in theft. (Keep in mind that you can get more jail time for holding up a gas station for $50.) Today Neil Bush is working on closing a deal in Florida, where his brother Jeb is governor, to sell a software package to schools with his startup company Ignite.

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

Florida is not the only state to honor felons in such a manner. Indiana used to be just as bad. I worked for one of the worst crooks there was - he would take cash/checks from people for everything -up front appraisal fees, to pay down credit cards, to pay off collections and "fix" their credit, consulting fees for who knows what - and people would trust his "southern boy" charm and give it to him. He would promptly chuckle at their expense, deposit it into his checking and go about his merry way. When I left his employ, I knew of over $36,000 he had bilked from unsuspecting individuals because he could. Additionally, he tried to use my social security number to sign with new lenders so he could continue to do business because he had almost $500k in Federal tax liens against him. His specialty was writing (kiting) checks for payroll or issuing checks on accounts that had been closed for years. Fortunately, although it has been difficult, Indiana has implemented new licensure laws including full criminal history background checks. Hopefully that will stop some of the nonsense and business by those who do not deserve to do business and make it difficult for those of us who don't lie, cheat and steal at every turn.

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

TED — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

How many non criminals feeced the market.. Give me a break.. The situation has nothing to do with who has a record it has to do with the way things were back then.. Stated/ Stated....That is all

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

Muldoon — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

And the rest of them are felons who have yet to be charged.

RE:Felons Can't Vote in Florida but are Free to Fleece the Public

Dano — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:00:00 GMT

I don't understand how this could happen with the high cost of doing loans in Florida and the fees that the state collected to approve these unacceptable mortgage brokers. It appears that instead of policing this as is done in most other states Florida regulators decided to look at this as a revenue stream! Rather than limit the number by an approved selection process they failed to do the right thing... a background check and a denial for those who don't meet the standards. They blew the doors wide open... Then when we have the bad PR from the deals and clients that went bad it reflects on all of us that have done things the right way. Some one in the Govt should lose their job for this!!!