About 830 employees previously described as “furloughed” by troubled Mortgage Lenders Network USA Inc. are reportedly being laid off as the company continues to search for money to finance loans made by the company and resurrect its wholesale lending division.
Layoff notices to furloughed employees in Connecticut and four other states were sent on Friday, the same day state regulators ordered MLN to finance loans that the company made in December or face up to $7.6 million in fines, the Hartford Courant reported.
The Courant said the subprime lender has cut about half of its former staff of 1,800 workers, including 300 in Connecticut, where MLN is based.
MLN shut down its wholesale lending division on Dec. 29 after losing lines of credit used to make loans the company sold to investors in the secondary market. Company officials claimed to have reached a deal with Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. to finance loans, and said they were shopping for a buyer for MLN’s wholesale division while continuing to operate a $19 billion servicing business and retail lending business.
The Courant said it obtained an e-mail to employees in which the company said it is in negotiations with an unnamed investor, but that any infusion of capital would come too late to avoid layoffs.
