An Atlanta mortgage company agreed to pay a $2 million fine after federal investigators said Wednesday that it misled investors in dealings with a related company.
The settlement is the latest in a string of legal troubles embroiling the businesses of former Ocwen Financial Corp. Chairman Bill Erbey.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said Ocwen misstated its profits in parts of 2013 and 2014 by using asset values provided by a Cayman Islands firm that Erbey also ran, rather than an independent company, as it had stated.
Last year, the Caribbean firm, Home Loan Servicing Solutions, paid a $1.5 million fine to settle related civil charges by the SEC.
In the latest dispute, the SEC said Ocwen also had conflicts of interest and poor financial controls that allowed Erbey to approve a $75 million loan to Ocwen from Altisource Portfolio Solutions, another company he headed. Ocwen had told investors Erbey was required to recuse himself from transactions between related companies, according to the SEC.
Before its legal troubles, Ocwen had been a Wall Street darling, landing Erbey on Forbes’ billionaire list for a time.
But in 2013, Ocwen paid $2 billion to settle federal and state regulators’ accusations that it had mishandled foreclosures and other dealings on many homeowners’ troubled loans.
And in 2014, Erbey stepped down as Ocwen’s chairman as part of a $150 million settlement with New York’s financial industry regulator.
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