HUD Settles Kickback Probe

ATLANTA-In a prepared statement, HUD says it has settled a kickback-fee investigation involving locally based Znet Financial, ReMax of Atlanta, certain of their officers and affiliated companies and 14 ReMax agents.

HUD says Znet Financial has agreed to pay the Treasury Department $15,000 and the agents have agreed to refund $400 to each customer referred to Znet for a total $9,200. The individual agents were not named in the statement which was released to the media.

HUD says the defendants allegedly violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) which HUD Secretary Mel Martinez vowed last year to reform. The statement says the defendants agreed to settle “after HUD determined all violated the anti-kickback and unearned fee provisions of RESPA.”