Beazer Mortgage Corp. - Builder retail mortgages

Beazer has called it quits on mortgages. We're surprised it took this long, since the company has been under investigation for predatory lending by NC officials for quite a while, and is under investigation by the SEC too:

The company has said previously it would restate financials for a three-year period after an internal probe found employees in its mortgage origination unit violated federal lending rules.

The company has said it received a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of North Carolina seeking documents related to the mortgage service. A lawsuit filed against the company by 10 home buyers said fraudulent tactics were so pervasive in a Beazer housing development in Charlotte that corporate management must have participated or condoned the approach.

Beazer also had previously disclosed that its former chief accounting officer may have inflated reserves and other accrued liabilities in earlier periods.

Not too surprisingly, the company is planning to exit from a number of markets, including Charlotte (a real shocker), Cincinnati/Dayton, and Lexington, KY.