Wednesday, November 21, 2007

First American To Fork Over $5 Million In Alleged Kickback Racket

In Florida, the St. Petersburg Times reports:
  • Florida's second-largest title insurance company will pay $5-million to settle charges that it ran an elaborate kickback scheme to build its business, state and federal officials said Friday. Regulators say that First American Title Insurance Co. illegally paid real estate agents, mortgage brokers, banks and home builders for referrals by making them partners in sham title companies. Eighty-four of these companies were created to funnel business to First American and payments to those making the referrals, authorities said.
For more, see Title company to pay $5M (First American says it did nothing wrong but agrees to close partnership companies).

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