The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau forced a Texas homebuilder, Paul Taylor, to give up $118,194.20.

Taylor received the money for mortgage origination referrals and will now deposit those funds into the Treasury.

Both Benchmark Bank and Willow Bend Mortgage Company gave the money to Taylor. 

The homebuilder is now banned from future real estate settlement services, including mortgage origination.
 
“Kickbacks harm consumers by hampering fair market competition and by unnecessarily increasing the costs of getting a mortgage,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray, in a statement. “The CFPB will continue to take action against schemes designed to let service providers profit through unscrupulous and illegal business practices.”
 
Taylor and his accomplishes created and jointly owned Stratford Mortgage Services and PTH Mortgage Company.

The builder then referred mortgage origination business to these false mortgage originators.

The settlement resolves violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, which prohibits giving and receiving kickbacks for services involving federally related mortgages.

In the process of monitoring the two real banks, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. informed the CFPB of the scheme.