Another angle from the Maria Teresa Lopez case and how it applies to the Bernardo Barrera Mortgage Fraud case.

In reviewing the affidavit in support of the arrest warrant for Maria Teresa Lopez and Irina Jackeline Ball, we came across this bit of information that sparked our interest...

Although the WFHL loan application indicates it was taken in a face-to-face interview with WFHL loan officer Zoe Azpeitia. Porter stated she does not know and has never met Zoe Azpeitia.

Mrs. Porter is the woman whose identity Lopez and Ball allegedly stole in order to defraud the lender for Ms. Ball's unit at the Murano Grande.  One of the first steps in their mortgage fraud scheme is to fill out a loan application for the person who they were going to get a mortgage under, in this case, Mrs. Delores Porter.  One aspect of the loan application that's been overlooked in many of these identity theft cases is the part at the very end of the loan application where it says 

 "interviewer's name"

From what we've been told, this is where the mortgage broker who took the application has to sign attesting that he/she took the information from the borrower and that to the best of their ability have determined that the information is true and correct.  In the Porter Identity theft case the loan officer that conducted this "face to face" interview was a loan officer named Zoe Azpeitia, when Ms. Azpeitia was later deposed regarding the Porter matter, she tells the attorneys that... 

(Zoe Azpeitia was deposed by attorneys from Cohen Fox, PA on October 8''', 2009.) In that deposition, Azpeitia stated that she did not conduct a face-to face interview with Porter.

Oh, OK.  According to the police report, Mrs. Porter's identity was stolen and now according to Ms. Azpeitia, whose name appears on the loan application as the interviewer, her identity must have been stolen as well?  Ok, got it.  So what's the tie in to the Bernardo Barrera Mortgage Fraud Case?  Easy, there was a similar 1003 loan application for Barrera case as well, let's take a look...

Barrera Loan Application for Oak Avenue Home

Oh nice!  See that signature at the bottom where it says interviewer's name?  Whether the man who signed as the borrower was the real Barrera or an impostor, this man who conducted the interview or took the loan application met with him face to face according to this document.  Now, considering what we know about Mr. Barrera's signature, we can only conclude that the signature on this page is Mr. Barrera's real signature.  If you follow that line of reasoning, then we have someone now (the interviewer) that came face to face with Mr. Barrera and took a loan application for what we now know was a transaction designed to defraud Citi Mortgage.  

There is something else though, we learned through an email written by none other than Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski (we're saving that gem for later) that it's the mortgage brokers that are responsible for...

"verifying the accuracy of employment and assets listed by the potential borrowers."

That's fantastic Mr. Kostrzewski!  By the tone of your email, it looks like you're finally paying attention, albeit about two years too late.  So, who verified Mr. Barrera's employment status for the Oak Avenue Mortgage Fraud?  Let's take a look...

Bernardo Barrera Verification of Employment

Sweet!  The same guy that took Mr. Barrera's loan application also verified his employment!  What are the chances?  So now, we have two more people to add into the mix, the guy that took the loan application and verified Mr. Barrera's employment and now some guy named Rolando Rosa confirmed that Mr. Barrera was a sales manager at Miryil Enterprises.  The question that begs to be asked though is why was this aspect of the Bernardo Barrera case completely ignored by the police and the prosecutors?  This confirmation of employment as well as the mortgage brokers signature at the bottom of the loan application certainly does muddy the waters for the states case doesn't it?  Rather than complicate their case we guess they just decided to look past these pertinent facts.  Nice going guys.


Moving along, yesterday we get this message from one of our readers...

Why be anonymous? It seems to me you should take credit for the vast information you claim to know and have so generously provided. What are you afraid of? You should also remember that what goes around comes around......your thyroid cancer may just come back. 

OH NO!  THYROID CANCER?!  As far as I know there's never been anything wrong with my Thyroid, what's the deal?  FCUK!    Does this reader know something that we don't know?  Should we get our thyroid checked out?!  DAMN!