Fraud? That's an understatement, more on the Maria Teresa Lopez story and introducing the "Mortgage Fraud Troll"...

We've spent the last couple of days discussing the case of Maria Teresa Lopez, a disbarred attorney that is in the middle of a whole mess of fraud.  We discussed a laundry list of frauds that the Florida Bar discovered on Tuesday, yet the fraud she finally got arrested for wasn't the fraud that the bar had discovered.  Let's take a look at the booking info for Ms. Lopez as provide by the Miami Dade County corrections department (as always click on the image to enlarge)...

NICE!  Check out the bail amount, $1,000,000!  We'll get into what she did in a bit, now let's take a look at her partner in crime, Irina Jackeline Ball...

Oh my, $800,000 bail?  Even worse, 5'7", 220 lbs, and that face...

Ready for it?

Wasn't she one of the characters from that movie "Lord of the Rings"?  Because of that build, that face and the audacity of the mortgage frauds she committed, Ms. Ball has earned the title of "Mortgage Fraud Troll".  Now we're sure that you guys think that's a bit harsh, trust us, when you learn what she's done, you'll agree that the name is perfect for her.  Let's go to the affidavit in support of the arrest warrant that was filed by Detective Tamma Hartman of the Miami Dade Mortgage Fraud Task Force against Ms. Lopez and the Mortgage Fraud Troll...

Maria Teresa Lopez Irina Jackeline Ball Affidavit in Support of Arrest Warrant

The first thing that strikes us as strange is the following:

"Your co-affiant is Frank Gramlich a private investigator with the Xavier Group and a retired agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigations..."

What the hell is that about?  Someone that's not a cop can write up an arrest affidavit?  We know that Detective Hartman is green and that this is probably the first case she's ever been the lead on, but we didn't realize that she needed help from someone from outside the PD!  WTF?!  As you can see, this case is based on a condo located at 400 Alton Road AKA the Murano Grande, the story is rather complicated so let's try to make it a little easier and break it down into a clear time line...

• 11/30/07 Ball AKA the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" signs a purchase contract to purchase the unit for $850,000.
• 2/19/08 The "Mortgage Fraud Troll" gets a mortgage from Victor K. Rones for $510,000 on the property even though she hasn't closed on it yet.
• 2/22/08 Closing occurs yet the HUD-1 reflects that the sale is all cash with no mortgage (uh oh).
• 2/25/08 $838,283.50 is wired from the "Lopez" trust account to the seller yet it seems as if $154,323.50 comes from other clients of "Lopez" and not the "Mortgage Fraud Troll".
• 3/5/10 Lender Rones files a foreclosure suit against the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" and files a lis pendens against the subject property.
• 9/23/09 Lender Rones gets a final judgment against the "Mortgage Fraud Troll".
• 9/26/08 "Mortgage Fraud Troll" sells property to someone who has stolen the identity of Delores Porter for $521,250.  "Lopez" closes the transaction despite there being a lis pendens from the original lender whose mortgage she forgot to record.  Keep in mind the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" had just purchased the unit seven months earlier for over $300,000 MORE!  Once loan is funded, no one pays off the original mortgage (which "Lopez" had failed to record) for $510,000!!!

HOLY $HIT!  WTF?!  Let's take a break for a moment and take into account that Ms. Lopez was not allowed to write title insurance with Attorneys Title since November 2007 and was doing real estate closings through another attorney, one Darlene Fernandez Carus.  Ms. Carus makes the following representation according to the affidavit:

"Carus claims that this and other closings were executed by "LOPEZ" in Carus' name without her knowledge or supervision..."

WHAT?!

So we're to believe that Attorney Carus had no idea what Ms. Lopez and the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" were doing and that she had no knowledge of the hundreds of thousands of dollars going through her trust account?

Ms. Carus would have us to believe that the disbursement checks and wire transfers were made from her trust account without her knowledge?

Ms. Carus expects us to believe that Ms. Lopez had access to her trust account and was able to prepare all these documents with her name on it and still, she had no knowledge?  

Ms Carus saw the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" trolling around her office and didn't run for the nearest exit or jump out the nearest window?!  PUHLEEZE!  Getting back to our time line...

• 9/29/08 $519,858.18 gets wired into Attorney Carus' trust account (of which she has no knowledge of according to her statement to the police), the entire proceeds are then wire transferred out of Carus' trust account (again without her knowledge) and into "Lopez's" account at City National Bank.  We can only presume that Lopez was then going to pay off the mortgage that she had forgotten to record seven months earlier?!  LOL!
• 9/30/08 Ms. Lopez then wires $148,872.65 to the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" HUH?!  What about paying off the first mortgage?!
• 10/28/08 Ms. Lopez knowing that she's going to be suspended by the Florida Bar the next day takes the remaining money out of her trust account ($353,678.97) and wires it to her brothers account who also happens to be an attorney.  From this money, Lopez hauls ass with $228,123.98 and the brother distributes $125,554.99 to other clients without ever satisfying the original mortgage from 2/08!

HOLY CRAP!  How the hell did they think that they were going to pull this one off?  WTF?  Knowing what we know from the Bernardo Barrera case where the attorney whose office conducted the closing was arrested, why wasn't the attorney whose office conducted this closing arrested?  Are you telling us she got off because she said "she had no knowledge" of what was going on?  Pfft!  While we're at it, why wasn't Ms. Lopez's brother arrested?  Give me a fcuking break. 

So what do we come away with this week?  We learned from the Florida Bar the villainous activities that lead up to the disbarring of Maria Teresa Lopez, we then learned that she was arrested by the Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task Force on a completely unrelated fraud over a year later than the ones that the bar had found and today we're shown what kind of unconscionable mortgage fraud Ms. Lopez and the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" had committed all while the attorney whose office handled the closing had no idea or knowledge of what was going on (HAH!).  Most importantly from the text of the affidavit in support of the arrest warrant we learn that more than likely the inexperienced Detective from the mortgage fraud task force didn't put together the case or write the affidavit but that the case and the affidavit were probably put together by a retired FBI agent working for a private non government firm.  Sort of like training wheels for the Detective!  NICE!

We'll leave you this Friday with a cure for an ailment that men who take Viagra or Cialis may suffer from.  Surely you all have heard of priapism, the medical condition where the males genitals do not return to their flaccid state, despite the absence of both physical and psychological stimulation, within four hours.  Rest easy gents suffering from priapism, we here at the Straw Buyer have found the cure, if you're suffering from this most horrible ailment, just click here and you'll be cured.

Have a great weekend!