Trying to understand the Plantation police mortgage fraud indictment and The Straw Buyer gets a tattoo!

Did you guys take a look at the Plantation cop mortgage fraud indictment that we posted yesterday?  From what we've read in the media, the case seems to be based on the defendants "submitting and causing to be submitted materially false and fraudulent mortgage applications and settlement statements" in order to purchase homes located throughout South Florida.  That a bit of a stretch in our opinion, after all if the feds were going to go after everyone that lied on their mortgage applications, most everyone here in South Florida would be in trouble.  Regardless though, there are a few paragraphs in the indictment that warrant a closer look and may explain what went on...

Right, so they lied on mortgage applications, not really a big deal but lying on the HUD1 settlement statement, that's something altogether different.  Let's keep going...

That's the point of dabbling in real estate isn't it?  Nothing wrong with renting the properties, collecting rents, maintaining the properties and then selling them for a profit, right?  Moving along...

Those are just some of the allegations the feds make against the defendants, once we start playing with forging documents, then all bets are off.  Come on guys, fraud is fraud no matter how you cut it.  It get's worse though...

This is where things really take a turn for the worse.  If indeed the allegations are true and some of the defendants did indeed Quit claim the properties over to Guaracino then the cops charged are nothing more than straw buyers paid by Guaracino and company to fraudulently obtain mortgages for the homes in question.  If our analysis is correct, then there is no defending the people charged, in essence they sold their credit to this group and got paid off for doing so.  After all, could you think of anyone better to use as a straw buyer than law enforcement officers?  Easily verifiable income, great financials, etc and who would think to question a deal involving cops?  Great scam Mr. Guaracino. 

The part of the indictment that really bothers me is the last bit regarding the attorneys...

That's behavior unbecoming of an attorney, destroying evidence?  What really troubles me about this criminal behavior on the part of the two attorneys is that it occurred nearly three years ago, you would think that by now the Florida Bar would have taken some sort of action against these two guys, right?  Let's take a look at the Florida Bar website and see what we can find on these two.  We'll start with attorney Steven Stoll...

Ok, he's still eligible to practice and has no disciplinary history, lets move on to Stephan Orchard...

Look at that, Mr. Orchard is still eligible to practice and doesn't have a disciplinary history either.  Sweet!  That's the Florida bar for you, then again, did you expect any different?

After taking a closer look at the indictment, you have to wonder how one of the defense attorneys could have called the indictment "bogus".  Once you take into account the different aspects of the case and the fact that the cops and the FBI agent basically acted as "straw buyers" for Mr. Guaracino's enterprise, the indictment seems spot on.  With that said, our compliments to Mr. Ferrer and the other AUSA's that put together this indictment which stands in stark contrast to the steaming pile of $hit that Detective Jorge Baluja and assistant state attorney Bill Kostrzewski called a case. 


Now for something different, considering all that's gone on since the inception of our blog almost exactly one year ago, I've decided to get a tattoo to commemorate the upcoming anniversary, a tattoo especially for Detective Jorge Baluja and prosecutor Bill Kostrzewski...

I like it!