The marriage was allegedly hidden; closing attorney already disbarred
A loan originator allegedly steered customers to her husband's construction company while working at the lender financing those same deals.
That is the crux of a federal class action filed late last month against Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation and Hallmark Home Mortgage, painting a picture of an alleged years-long scheme that left roughly 100 families with unfinished homes and mortgages on properties that may never be completed.
The lawsuit, filed December 29, 2025, in the Middle District of Florida, centers on Catalina Rebolledo, a mortgage loan originator at Hallmark. According to the allegations, Rebolledo processed construction loans for customers sent her way by Steel X Homes, a company run by her husband, Richard Rivera, and his partner Paavo Salmi. The marital connection, the lawsuit claims, was deliberately hidden from borrowers.
The arrangement worked like this: Steel X marketed itself as a builder capable of delivering prefabricated homes in under a year, despite never holding a construction license. Prospective buyers were pointed toward Hallmark as the "preferred lender" and offered a 6% discount for using the company. But according to the lawsuit, Hallmark quietly inflated loan amounts by that same 6% and kicked the difference back to Steel X, a practice the plaintiff argues ran afoul of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act.
The allegations do not stop there. Hallmark allegedly released construction draws to Steel X even when required building milestones had not been met. Rebolledo and other employees, the lawsuit claims, knew the benchmarks were fabricated but approved the disbursements anyway.
Kaye Flanagan, then a Senior Vice President at Hallmark, is also named in the suit. In one instance, Flanagan allegedly directed contractors to strip steel materials from one job site and move them to another, then told the affected homeowners to file an insurance claim for the "stolen" goods.
The scheme has already claimed at least one professional casualty. Alejandro Marriaga, the attorney who handled closings for these transactions, was disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court in September 2025 after regulators found he transferred funds to Steel X without buyer authorization and concealed his ties to the company.
When projects stalled, Hallmark allegedly gave borrowers a stark choice: refinance at higher rates and waive all claims, or face foreclosure. The lawsuit characterizes this as a final squeeze on already victimized customers.
Fairway enters the picture through its acquisition of Hallmark in June 2025. The plaintiff argues Fairway inherited liability for its predecessor's conduct, while the deal allegedly left the original Hallmark entity unable to pay its debts.
The case remains in its early stages, with no court rulings on the merits. But the allegations underscore what can go wrong when conflicts of interest go undisclosed and internal controls fail to catch fabricated construction benchmarks.
Fairway operates nearly 50 branches across Florida. The proposed class includes all borrowers who obtained Hallmark loans tied to Steel X construction contracts.
