Eagle First Mortgage - Subprime Lender (Broker)

The summary from the above story sums it up well:

Regulators have shut down Mesa-based Eagle First Mortgage and its more than 75 Valley branches, citing illegal lending practices.

The Arizona Department of Financial Institutions pulled the license of the mortgage firm and its broker, David Sanchez, last week. Regulators described more than 100 illegal money transactions, loan activities and hiring practices.

The firm, one of the largest that Financial Institutions has shut down, has until March 14 to finish any outstanding loans and close its doors.

Eagle first was begun in 2003 by David Sanchez and began rapidly expanding in 2004, according to the article. The firm is has been caught in a veritable dragnet by the Arizona state government. Phoenix has been one of the notorious bubble locales of the country, and it is becoming clear from the enforcement activities in the state that much of the latter years of the bubble were fueled by outright fraud.

Note: I received complaints due to first classifying this company as a "lender", so I've added the "broker" modifier. However, the distinction is somewhat academic given that the company by definition originated retail loans directly to borrowers; whether they funded via wholesale or warehouse is a detail that in many respects isn't relevant. So call them what you will; they were subprime, apparently fraudulent, and now defunct. I call that a lender implosion.