Lender ordered to pay fine

Kevin Rademacher

Tuesday, Aug. 3, 2004 | 11:13 a.m.

State mortgage regulators on Monday said that Pacific Bancorp has been ordered to pay $199,000 in fines for 16 violations of state lending statutes.

The California-based company -- a subsidiary of North American Real Estate Services -- also has been slapped with a cease-and-desist order, said Scott Bice, the state's Mortgage Lending Division commissioner.

"It's the typical California-based company that comes in and pretty much has nothing right," he said.

In a routine examination, the state discovered that Fariba Azari, the designated "qualified employee," actually worked out of a California office. State rules require that the qualified employee is on site to supervise lending activities, a statement from the mortgage lending division said.

The on-site manager, Robert Anderson, was not licensed to serve as a qualified employee, the statement said. The division also said that the company had closed 166 loans, but investigators determined that all loans were originated by unregistered mortgage agents. The division also found that loans were either not reported, reported fraudulently or reported after deadline on monthly activity reports.

Additionally, the division found that Pacific Bancorp failed to maintain complete records, and maintained other records at a California location, another violation of state rules.

Pacific Bancorp could not be reached for comment.

Bice said the fines were issued after repeated attempts to work with the company to correct the violations.

"We just weren't getting anywhere," he said.

The cease-and-desist order was issued on June 23. The company has 20 days to request a formal hearing. If there is no response, a final order will be issued. Then the state controller will collect the fine, and the Mortgage Lending Division will close the office.