Numerous convicts -- including embezzlers, robbers, meth dealers and rapists -- sold mortgage loans to unsuspecting homeowners in Washington in recent years while state lawmakers and members of Congress debated and tabled requirements for licensing and background checks, records show.
Ronald Bernard Cox Sr. was among them. The convicted felon sold mortgages for as many as eight years, freely admitting in an interview that he sold loans even while on work release for felony theft in 2003. The Federal Way man, who says many of his customers were higher-risk, lower-income subprime borrowers, is among a handful of sellers named in an ongoing state investigation of one of the mortgage companies he worked for.
Roswitha Martha McKinney sold mortgages for only two years. But during that time she bilked two mortgage company owners, a co-worker and a close friend out of a total of $78,000 using bogus checks, according to police and court and state records. Although McKinney stole from friends and associates rather than customers, she and other convicted check forgers, as well as identity thieves and extortionists, had ready access to bank statements, accounts and other such information.
Criminals who were barred from the mortgage business in other states continued to sell loans to Washington borrowers. Garrett Sytsma of Kennewick violated numerous licensing rules in Oregon, losing his license there in a 2003 suspension made permanent in 2004, then gave a mortgage broker a bad check for his own home purchase. He pled guilty to a gross misdemeanor in Oregon in 2005.
That crime ultimately led to the loss of Sytsma's license in Washington state, but only because the Washington Legislature finally agreed to require licensing and background checks for mortgage originators in 2007, although employees of federally chartered banks and consumer lending companies weren't included.
The Seattle P-I examined the histories of loan sellers, taking advantage of records made available for the first time because of the new requirement.
A total of 299 loan originators with criminal records applied for licenses in 2007 when licensing and criminal background checks were first required. They applied even though they knew their fingerprints would be checked by law enforcement and that all felonies and gross misdemeanors involving dishonesty within the previous seven years would disqualify them.
Ronald Bernard Cox Sr. was among them. The convicted felon sold mortgages for as many as eight years, freely admitting in an interview that he sold loans even while on work release for felony theft in 2003. The Federal Way man, who says many of his customers were higher-risk, lower-income subprime borrowers, is among a handful of sellers named in an ongoing state investigation of one of the mortgage companies he worked for.
Roswitha Martha McKinney sold mortgages for only two years. But during that time she bilked two mortgage company owners, a co-worker and a close friend out of a total of $78,000 using bogus checks, according to police and court and state records. Although McKinney stole from friends and associates rather than customers, she and other convicted check forgers, as well as identity thieves and extortionists, had ready access to bank statements, accounts and other such information.
Criminals who were barred from the mortgage business in other states continued to sell loans to Washington borrowers. Garrett Sytsma of Kennewick violated numerous licensing rules in Oregon, losing his license there in a 2003 suspension made permanent in 2004, then gave a mortgage broker a bad check for his own home purchase. He pled guilty to a gross misdemeanor in Oregon in 2005.
That crime ultimately led to the loss of Sytsma's license in Washington state, but only because the Washington Legislature finally agreed to require licensing and background checks for mortgage originators in 2007, although employees of federally chartered banks and consumer lending companies weren't included.
The Seattle P-I examined the histories of loan sellers, taking advantage of records made available for the first time because of the new requirement.
A total of 299 loan originators with criminal records applied for licenses in 2007 when licensing and criminal background checks were first required. They applied even though they knew their fingerprints would be checked by law enforcement and that all felonies and gross misdemeanors involving dishonesty within the previous seven years would disqualify them.
