Major local hard-money lender Max Haynes, who is also board chair of High Desert Montessori Reno, in late December signed a settlement agreement and consent order with the Nevada Division of Mortgage Lending after being caught in a continuing “education cheating scheme.” The information has yet to be displayed at the state level as is usually customary, adding to the lack of publicity this has received.
The settlement document was brought to our attention by a community member who expressed concern that there wasn’t more awareness and state information about this “pay to play” fraud given the amount of money Haynes lends out locally.
A hard-money lender offers short-term loans quickly with high rates for individuals buying residential or commercial real estate and land. Haynes is said to be a key operative in this space in northern Nevada, working on many major projects, with subdivision developers, and according to our sources, the CAI Investments conversion of the Harrah’s into Reno City Center.
The community member wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, as they operate in local real estate.
They added that, “this is a highly regulated industry and when something like this happens it should be right out to the public.” They said these types of settlements are usually published on Nevada state websites but that they couldn’t find it there, and found it instead on the national Nationwide Multistate Licensing System & Registry website.
Alpen Mortgage, the Arlington Avenue company run by Haynes, which bills itself as “Northern Nevada's premier private lender, serving both borrowers and investors in Northern Nevada for almost two decades,” wrote back to Our Town Reno saying the fraudulent course credit was due to “a technical licensing matter.” The email went on to say: “Back during Covid 2020 we unfortunately used a dishonest “online” vendor to complete our required continuing education and made a mistake by not catching an automated, wrongly reported, “in person” course completion requirement. With almost a thousand people and companies in 42 states wrapped up in the vendor education fraud scheme, there was one settlement agreement offered by all states that did not admit wrongdoing but required new education and a new license application, which is now approved and current.”
The settlement agreement Haynes signed which we were shown states mortgage loan originators got course credit for an eight-hour in-person course in Westminster, California, despite never attending. It also indicated the company coordinating these classes, Real Estate Educational Services, helped them cheat by taking the courses on their behalf.
The High Desert Montessori Reno did not write back, nor did Nevada officials, when asked for more information about the case and why it wasn’t publicized.
Haynes has also served with the Reno Mayor on her Housing and Development Task Force. Hillary Schieve who is running for reelection in November wrote back to Our Town Reno saying she had not heard about the settlement agreement, which also included a $1,000 administrative penalty and having to take more classes to regain licensing.
“The task force has not been meeting for a few years,” Schieve wrote in an email. “It was an all open working group and I believe he attended a couple meetings. Anyone was invited to attend the meetings so many people dropped in and out. The goal was to listen to developers frustrations with our planning department.”
Haynes also comes up in public contribution documents, with his two most recent political donations going to perennial losing Republican candidate Adam Laxalt, and Ward 4 incumbent Bonnie Weber, who has faced ethics complaints in her dealings with developers.
In light of the global financial crisis of 2008, caused by irresponsible lending, the Secure and Fair Enforcement for Mortgage Licensing Act (SAFE Act) was enacted that same year requiring all Mortgage Loan Originators (known as MLOs) to complete continuing education approved by the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System & Registry.