Florida regulator resigns amid scandal

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Florida's top mortgage industry regulator resigned Tuesday amid a scandal over numerous felons working in the state's mortgage industry, officials said.

Since 2000, more than 10,000 people with criminal records, some of them involving violent crimes, drug trafficking and fraud, have been allowed to work in the mortgage business with convicted felons reaping at least $85 million from illicit activities, The Miami Herald reported Tuesday.

''There is ample evidence to show that crime in the mortgage lending industry has reached record levels,'' said a draft of an emergency rule change Commissioner Don Saxon was to introduce this week.

Saxon, however, resigned abruptly during a committee meeting in the state capital Tuesday morning. Rule changes in Saxon's proposal included barring people convicted of felony fraud or money laundering from becoming brokers, the Herald reported.

But, Florida's chief financial officer, Alex Sink, and consumer groups had called for Saxon's resignation after a Herald report three weeks ago revealed the depth of the problem, the newspaper reported.

Two weeks ago, Saxon said, "We do not have a systemic problem of licensing felons.'' But, the draft report says, the problem is ''an immediate danger'' requiring emergency measures to protect consumers, the newspaper reported.