Despite a crackdown on Benn's Tampa brokers, nothing happened to the Miami network where most of the loans were written, The Miami Herald found.

Benn, who has begun an 18-year prison sentence, did not respond to a request for comment. Neither did Tuggle or and Steinhauser, both of whom pleaded guilty in the mortgage scheme and await sentencing.

Both are still listed with "approved" licenses on the OFR website, the only place consumers can check the status of brokers.

Although state regulators have known about Valdez's involvement for three years, they never took action against her or Sandkick Mortgage.

The agency identified her as an associated target in a 2005 fraud investigation of another broker in the Benn network, records show.

In addition, the file contains two Sandkick loan applications with bogus claims: One borrower, a 7-Eleven clerk, showed a $50,000 jump in her net worth in just 20 days. Another borrower never worked for the company listed on the application.

But the regulators never pursued the leads.

Terry Straub, director of finance for the OFR, said he can't explain the lack of action. "It certainly sounds like you have some tangible evidence, " Straub said.

Valdez and her co-workers wrote their last loan with Benn in September 2005. Since then, 40 percent of the properties have slipped into foreclosure, the newspaper found.

Some have fallen into disrepair, dragging property values down around them. Others are abandoned. One, in Liberty City, has been razed, leaving nothing but a weed-strewn lot.

Last week, Miami Herald reporters visited Valdez at her Homestead office, now known as Best Mortgage Choice. She refused to discuss the newspaper's findings.

When asked about the misleading information in her customers' loan applications, Valdez said, "That's their problem."