We did the crime, learned about the cop who busted us, now what? Also a holiday gift for Roger Besu.

Here we are at the end of the year folks, nearly six months of writing about our story and still no conclusion.  Earlier in the week we got a chance to meet the man who alleges his identity was stolen for the purpose of the mortgage fraud that's that we've been writing about then yesterday we summed up what we know about the lead detective that made the case and today we'll see how the story was covered in the media.

1. The arrests in the Bernardo Barrera mortgage case went down on Friday October 3, 2008, we previously discussed how unprofessional the conduct of the lead detective and the State Attorneys Office was regarding the way the arrests went down on several occasions.  We also got the opinion of a Judge on another high profile case regarding white collar crimes and "SURRENDER".  Tisk, Tisk. 
2. On October 7, 2008 a poorly written article appears in the Miami Herald regarding the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud arrests that seems to be based on an even more poorly written press release.  I wonder where that press release came from, was it from Detective Baluja?  Did it come from the MDPD Economic Crimes Department?  Or did it come from the State Attorneys Office?
3. Upon further investigation we learn that the Miami Herald article doesn't make sense or even add up correctly.  HUH?
4. The media goes quiet on this story, yet our blog is written about on several other internet blogs and on the New Times, once regarding Detective Baluja and a second time regarding Assistant State Attorney Kostrzewski. 

That's it folks, hopefully this week we've delivered a quick summary of the last six months worth of mess making the story and the time line a little easier to decipher.  With that said, let's turn to the story of Attorney Roger Besu, you remember, the disgraced attorney who stands accused of stealing millions of dollars from his clients monies deposited in his law firms trust account.   Originally the state came down pretty hard on Mr. Besu, when he was first arrested they demanded $5 million dollars in bail to let him out of jail and wanted him to surrender his passport!  I guess after some coaxing they decided that perhaps they were a bit harsh and let him go on $50,000 in cash and if I'm reading the docket correctly they let him keep his passport as well.  From what I'm able to glean from the case file, he's been kept on house arrest, that is until a couple of weeks ago, take a look at this snippet from the docket...

The court agreed to let him leave the house and GO TO CHURCH!  For my Besu fans out there, HAVE A HEART!  I wonder how often Mr. Besu goes to church?  I for one would go for at least 20 hours a day to get me out of the damn house!


That brings our blog to a close for 2009, considering all that we've learned during the last six months let's go and enjoy some New Years Eve festivities!  I'll begin with the Straw Buyer fireworks display...

Happy New Year!!!