Officials said they existed primarily to steer lucrative title insurance business to First American, which split consumers' insurance premiums with participating partners.

In effect, according to the investigators, home builders, lenders and real estate firms could pocket part of buyers' closing costs without customers' knowledge. On paper, the partnership affiliates appeared to be ordinary title agencies, carrying names such as Security First Title, USA Title Partners, Discount Title Services and the like.

But investigators from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Florida insurance regulatory agencies found "all regular title services required to effect title insurance were performed by First American, not the limited partnership agency," which was essentially a shell entity constructed "to compensate (participants) for the referral of the business."