Farragut trading halt fuels speculation it may fold.

Trading in the stock of Farragut Mortgage Co. was suspended on the American Stock Exchange Monday to allow for the dissemination of news.

By late in the day, however, no news had been released and company officials were not available for comment.

The halt gave rise to speculation that the company may be on the verge of going out of business. Callers to Farragut's Mansfield, Mass., headquarters got a recorded message saying the companpy was no longer accepting applications. They were also told that if their loans were being serviced by Farragut, the mortgage would be transferred to another company.

Farragut shares last traded at 37.5 cents each.

In march, Farragut's status as a servicer of Fannie Mae loans was revoked after it was unable to come up with the ash to honor an obligatin to repurchase $373,000 of laons.

In Aprilk W. Gene Ross, a former executive at Paragon Mortgage, Smyrna, Ga., joined Farragut after exchanging $300,000 of Paragon stock for about $500,000 of Farragut shares.

He left Paragon after he was accused of "diverting" funds. He later returned shares worth $207,000 in a settlement.

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