Georgia state regulators are yanking the licenses of two Atlanta mortgage brokers.
Advent Mortgage Inc. operator Joseph C. Quintons Sr. is losing his license for a number of violations, according to a statement from the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance.
The state cited Quintons for “making misrepresentations in loan files submitted to mortgage lenders, purposely withholding information and making false statements or material misrepresentations to the department, and failing to operate mortgage broker activities in compliance with” state laws.
Quintons’ Advent office may be out of business; its phone number is no longer operational. He could not be reached to comment.
The state first ordered a cease and desist order against Quintons in September. At the same time he was notified that the state intended to revoke his license.
In an unrelated case, City Capital Mortgage operator Yong Rae Park has entered into a consent decree with the state to settle allegations he “made false statements or misrepresented material facts to a lender” and “transacted business with an unlicensed and unregistered” mortgage broker, regulators said in the statement.
According to the state, City Capital’s brokerage license has been revoked and the company has agreed to never apply for a Georgia license. In addition, Park is “prohibited from directing the affairs of a mortgage broker or mortgage lender” or working in the mortgage industry for three years.
Finally, Park is not allowed for three years to apply for a mortgage broker’s or lender’s license as the owner or part owner of a mortgage operation.
Park did not return a message left on his office voice mail.
Georgia has been one of the nation’s hot beds of mortgage fraud, but state regulators, law enforcement and legislators have embarked on a crackdown.
“Residential mortgage fraud continues to receive much attention and has become increasingly more prevalent in Georgia,” the department says on its Web site. “An FBI assistant director testified that fraud is ‘pervasive’ in the mortgage market and is growing fast.”
But along with tougher laws and more enforcement the state is also trying to make it easier for citizens and industry professionals to report fraud. A fraud report is available on the department’s Web site.
The state also urges those working in the industry to watch for signs of fraud.
“According to the FBI, based on existing investigations and mortgage fraud reporting, 80% of all reported fraud losses involve collaboration or collusion by industry insiders,” the department said.
“Some possible signs of fraud in the application — unusually high FICO scores combined with high incomes, higher-than-average mortgage amounts and home values for the neighborhood,” regulators said. “That may sound odd since all these characteristics would normally be associated with problem-free applicants. But unfortunately, the crooks know this too, and they often try to make a loan application good enough to pass cleanly through automated loan underwriting systems.”
