Long before the University of Miami announced in May that its Miller School of Medicine had financial problems big enough to force layoffs of about 900 full-time and part-time workers, there were signs of serious trouble. As far back as October, billionaire car dealer Norman Braman wrote in a memo to fellow UM trustees that he and colleagues had been receiving anonymous letters for months "outlining a host of wrongdoings, mostly at the medical school." Braman and others closely tied to the school warned UM officials the medical school was spending too much, too fast in the push to build a world-class medical center.