Ocala mortgage lender Taylor, Bean and Whitaker shuts down

St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer - Aug 05, 2009

Ocala's Taylor, Bean and Whitaker Mortgage Corp., 12th-largest mortgage lender in the country, has shut down its lending operations after the Federal Housing Administration barred it from making loans that the agency insures.

In an e-mail — with the subject line "The saddest day of my life" — posted on the Ocala Star-Banner newspaper's Web site, Taylor Bean chairman Lee Farkas said Wednesday would be the company's last day of operations. "I have done everything possible to try to save it, but I couldn't," Farkas stated. "Since 1991, we have provided excellence in mortgage banking. We did our best for a very long time. I apologize to everyone." Farkas added that all staff except "essential employees" would be terminated Wednesday.

The closure came a day after the FHA punished Taylor Bean for failing to submit a required annual financial report, and "misrepresenting" its dealings with an auditor that had discovered "irregular transactions that raised concerns of fraud."