Attorney Michael Walsh, representing the accused ringleader, former Plantation officer Joseph Guaracino, said his client was an active investor who brought in the others to buy dozens of properties during the real estate boom. They submitted truthful information to qualify for the loans, he said.Interesting, defense attorney Walsh is putting the blame squarely at the feet of the mortgage brokers.
``What Joe and the other cops did was legitimate,'' Walsh said after a Fort Lauderdale bond hearing for most of the 13 defendants charged in the indictment that was unsealed Wednesday. ``We know what we submitted, and the records were clean. We can't say what the mortgage brokers did, exactly -- except they committed the fraud.''
Walsh and other defense lawyers said the U.S. attorney's office is building the controversial case on the words of mortgage brokers Matthew Gulla of Davie and Rene Rodriguez Jr. of Plantation, who are cooperating with prosecutors.Of course they're cutting deals! There's no glory in arresting mortgage brokers now is there?! Mortgage brokers don't make headlines, but arresting cops and an FBI agent certainly does! Speaking of the FBI agent, Robert Depriest...
DePriest, coordinator of an FBI hazardous-materials team, normally would be placed on administrative leave without pay after being indicted. But in this instance he will be able to keep his job with pay while the case is pending because FBI supervisors believe he broke no laws, sources said.
Huh?! His own supervisors at the FBI believe he hasn't broken any laws. Very good. One of the crimes that FBI agent Depriest is accused of committing is supplying "false and fraudulent statements" loan application, specifically:
He said that it would be owner-occupied and his primary residence -- untrue statements, according to the indictment.
The allegations the feds make against the law enforcement officers are remarkable, some of which seem a little flimsy at least in our opinion, that is from what we've been able to glean from the articles we've been able to find. With that said though, using this case a template, we're left with a couple of questions when we compare it to the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case,
- If feds arrested the cops for making false statements on loan applications, why wasn't anyone arrested for creating and supplying the false information on the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case?
- If indeed it was the mortgage brokers that falsified the documents according to this federal indictment, why weren't the mortgage brokers indicted or even questioned in the Barrera mortgage fraud?
You all remember her don't you? Turns out that Ms. Lopez was slinging her $hit and threatening this attorney right up until she was disbarred! That takes some balls doesn't it!? Regardless, for those of you following "Ms. Holier than though" and her case, it looks like she's set to plead out on September 1. Karma's a bitch ain't it Ms. Lopez?Have a happy fourth of July folks!
The loss rates on investment properties are much greater than on owner occupied. So rates are higher. And lying to get the lower rate is fraud.
ReplyDeleteJohn,
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%, consider the severity of the mortgage frauds that go unpunished (ie: the busted out homes we've discussed in Coconut Grove), these charges seem trivial in comparison especially if the loans haven't defaulted.
And don't forget the allegations of faking up lease agreements (for their residences?), inflated income claims, and inflated bank statements. What the complaint outlines is that they were buying essentially call options on homes they couldn't afford. If they can't flip them it is only a matter of time before they default. So the funny thing is that it was caught so early.
ReplyDeleteOnce again John, I get it and agree with you but there are mortgage frauds out there far worse than these that aren't prosecuted. The targets here create a great headline, if these guys weren't cops I seriously doubt they would have been charged.
ReplyDeleteWe are very lucky that these criminals were arrested before they could victimize other people. We could say the government is doing their job against criminal groups.
ReplyDelete