From yesterdays Miami Herald article...
I guess congratulations are in order for Ms. Rosen and her defense team. I have to admit, this case flew under my radar as I had no knowledge of it or the fed's "Operation Stolen Dreams". Regardless, let's take a look at the federal indictment...Plantation attorney acquitted in federal mortgage fraud case
A Plantation attorney was acquitted of 13 counts of bank fraud Thursday, after a federal jury found that she did not knowingly participate in a mortgage loan scam that cost three banks $7.9 million.Eve Rosen, 55, was implicated in a scheme in which Broward County developer Jeffrey Phillips recruited South Florida straw buyers to create fraudulent loan applications in order to buy vacant lots in North Florida. Between 2006 and 2008, Rosen was the closing agent on all of the transactions, which featured artificially inflated prices, fake income statements and falsified down payment information. In addition to the 13 counts of bank fraud, Rosen was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
The case was part of Operation Stolen Dreams, the federal government’s largest-ever mortgage fraud takedown effort. Others involved in the case, including Phillips, the straw buyers and those who recruited them to falsify their information, have pleaded guilty in the scheme.
Rosen’s lawyers said their client did not know about the scam that Phillips was perpetrating and was duped just like the banks were.
“She’s been a practicing attorney for 25 years, with no [problems] in the past,” said Russell Koonin, of the Ferraro Law Firm. “There was not one witness on the stand who could point to say that she knew” about the scheme.
In a federal courtroom in Miami, prosecutors argued that Rosen was “deliberately ignorant,” and that she played a part in preparing falsified closing documents.
A jury returned a not guilty verdict Thursday, ending the 10-month long case.
Eve Rosen Mortgage Fraud Indictment
The charges seem to be in line with all the other federal mortgage fraud indictments, wire fraud, bank fraud etc, the only major difference between this case and the others is that this one appears to have involved unimproved vacant lots rather than homes. I really don't know enough about this case to comment at this point, you have to wonder though, how strong could the governments case been against Ms. Rosen if her codefendants all plead guilty and they still couldn't get a conviction against her?
On another note, I'm told that the defense is about to rest in the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case. According to several of our sources, earlier this week one of the jurors told the judge that she was convinced that the cops charged were innocent and nothing that she was going to hear going forward was going to convince her otherwise! Assuming the government didn't get this juror thrown out, isn't a not guilty verdict a foregone conclusion at this point?
Considering the expected outcome of the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trail, I'm left to wonder, who's going to put the defendants lives back together? Who's going to erase the last years worth of economic hardship? Who's going to restore their reputations within the community? If indeed the jury acquits the men charged in this case, was this case really as solid as the government made it out to be? I guess we're going to have to wait till next week to find out.
In regards to the Rosen case.. A good friend of mine that is an attorney, has a good amount of knowledge about this case. He says that Ms. Rosen was 100% complicit and knew exactly what was going on. The prosecution just had a hard time proving it. She still has another case pending from what I understand on the same charges with another case.
ReplyDelete9:25, I see nothing pending federally against Rosen. Do you have a case #?
ReplyDeleteStraw buyer is correct. There is nothing to be found pending on Rosen. Anonymous' information is completely without foundation, and such misinformation shows the credibility of his source.
ReplyDeleteThe fact she was found not guilty shows more of a jury that didn't understand what the case was about than anything else. 1 hour of deliberation and not even a request to look at one piece of evidence...they wanted out for the long weekend and chose to let a woman knee-deep in fraud go free. That's Miami-Dade county for you.
ReplyDeleteI beleive that the police officers had no idea that their signatures were forged and their financial records falsified. The American taxpayer is footing the bill for this case which has no merit. I beleive the federal lawyers have no evidence to prove guilt on behalf of the police officers. Their lives have been ruined for no reason, this has gone on too long already. Lets not waste any more money or time on this case.....
ReplyDeleteThe Plantation cops are not the worst of the worst when it comes to mortgage fraud, but they are guilty...how are we supposed to believe they could afford these investments? They lucked out legally due to the excessive forgeries done by the broker, but the officers knew what they were doing. How one officer can buy 4 properties and still claim he was duped is insulting to taxpayers of south Florida...
ReplyDeleteThe government did not have anything to prove ms rosen had any knowledge of the fraud. It took the jury less than an hour to come back with a not guilty verdict because she was not guilty. She got nothing from Phillips for the closing other than her regular fee. Why would she risk everything for nothing!! Everyone else involved for paid large sums of money and knew they were committing a crime. That alone is sufficient to see that she had no knowledge of the fraud
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