One man had felony convictions for safecracking, breaking and entering, and larceny. Another came to Florida with $2.8-million in unpaid debts, after a Michigan Bar Association committee rapped his "cavalier approach to other people's money." Yet both found a lucrative niche in the federal student loan business.

Today, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) said last month's Times story about Roger Wayne Morgan and Joseph Pursley inspired her to seek federal legislation that would require stricter background checks for those who seek to sell student loans with Uncle Sam's backing.

"Shady student loan operators cannot be allowed to profit off of the hardworking families in the Tampa Bay area or anywhere else," she said in a statement. "Today, no one is taking responsibility for checking the background of lending applicants. Our legislation will change that."

Castor's office said the Times story had prompted her to approach
Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor
Committee, in hopes of stiffening those requirements at the federal
level. Miller has agreed to support the legislation.

"The (Times) investigation highlighted the fact that neither the
state nor federal authorities conduct sufficient background checks for
individuals in the student loan business," she said.

Both Morgan's company, Academic Financial Services, and Pursley's
Student Funding Services have collapsed over the last year amid
lawsuits, angry employees and howling creditors. Pursley's company
remains under a federal investigation, after reports of forged loan
applications prompted a raid by agents of the federal Department of
Education's Office of the Inspector General last spring, according to
state records.

For more details on Castor's bill, read tomorrow's St. Petersburg Times or visit tampabay.com.

-- Tom Marshall and Thomas Lake, Times staff writers