The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Office of Inspector General audited SecurityNational Mortgage Company (SecurityNational), a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-approved direct endorsement lender, to determine whether it properly underwrote insured loans and whether its quality control function met requirements. SecurityNational did not follow HUD regulations when underwriting 18 FHA-insured loans. One of the…

We audited Campaige Place at Jackson (Campaige Place) to determine whether it used its project funds in compliance with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) regulatory agreement and other federal requirements. Campaige Place did not use its project funds in compliance with HUD’s and other federal requirements. Specifically, we determined that: •Owner advances of $73,750 were repaid when the project had no surplus cash…

We audited the mortgage origination and business practices of the First Magnus Financial Corporation’s (First Magnus) corporate office in Tucson, Arizona. The objective of the audit was to determine whether First Magnus violated U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements by paying builders and real estate companies marketing fees and non-competition fees in exchange for the referral of Federal Housing Administration (…

We audited the mortgage origination and business practices of First Magnus Financial Corporation’s (First Magnus) corporate office in Tucson, Arizona. The objective of the audit was to determine whether First Magnus violated U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requirements by paying its brokers volume-based incentives for originating and processing Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgages. We determined that First…

We audited the City of Phoenix Housing Department’s (Housing Department) Housing Choice Voucher program. We conducted the audit as part of the Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) annual plan. The Housing Department was selected for review because it is the largest housing authority in the state of Arizona and had not previously been audited by OIG. The objective of the audit was to determine whether the Housing Department supported tenant…

We audited the Housing Authority of the City of Eloy (Authority) because the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had rated the Authority as troubled for five years. In 2007, the Authority had significant financials problems and terminated its executive director. We determined that the Authority did not have adequate internal controls to safeguard assets and reasonably ensure that HUD funds were used in accordance with…

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Savannah Sandoval, 36, of Camp Verde, was sentenced last week by United States District Judge Steven P. Logan to 24 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Sandoval also was ordered to pay over $650,000 in restitution. Sandoval pleaded guilty on August 9, 2023, to Embezzlement and Theft from an Indian Tribal Organization.Between August 2017 and May 2022, Sandoval, the former Comptroller and Executive…