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A state investigation confirmed reports that regulators were asleep at the wheel as hundreds of ex-felons wrote home loans in Florida. In July, a newspaper investigation found 10-thousand ex-cons were working as mortgage brokers from 2000 to 2008. Shortly after the report the head of the Department of Financial Regulation stepped down. The state is still searching for his replacement. Attorney General Bill McCollum said the state should take its time to find a leader for the agency.

“I have confidence however in the agency personnel. That report was critical or mainly a passivity of the office not of anyone doing wrong in the office, just that they weren’t aggressive and proactive and I think all of us want to find somebody in leadership to take on this job and be more proactive in overseeing and regulating this industry,” said McCollum.

Whoever takes the job will have a lot on their plate. Florida has the highest mortgage fraud rate in the nation.