Now that City of Miami Assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur has been convicted of several counts of mail and wire fraud, the question that everyone seems to be asking is whether or not she's going to keep her City of Miami FD pension. The litmus test seems to be whether or not she committed the crimes while on the job at the fire department, from our comments sections yesterday...
It's gonna have to be proven that she used her official position to commit the felony.Understood, so how can we prove that she used her official position to commit the crimes she was indicted for? Once again from our comments section...
There was a rumor that she used her City fax or email to transmit some of the fraudulent communications. Can you look into that?Of course we can! Without having the entire case file at my disposal, this was a bit of a challenge, that is until I found this bit of information regarding a dispute Veldora had during the purchase of another home unrelated to the indictment where her primary residence was called into question. Take a look at this excerpt...
It bears mentioning that after the purchase of Unit 3711, Loan City, the lender, conducted a review of the documents submitted in support of the loan for Unit 3711 and came to the conclusion that the defendant had misrepresented, among other things, her occupancy of the property as her primary residence. Loan City sought indemnification from WCS Lending who processed and collected the information on behalf of Loan City. In connection with that dispute, the defendant on June 27, 2006 wrote a letter that was faxed that same day from the City of Miami Fire Department wherein she stated as follows: “In regards to the statement regarding my residency, I have never stated to any official at Loan City or any other agency that I don’t reside at 3370 Hidden Bay Drive, Unit 3711. That statement is totally false as I have been residing there since I purchased the unit.”In this instance, Veldora was purchasing a home on the west coast and inadvertently listed her primary residence as her home in Weston, when the mortgage broker who was reviewing the loan package for the home on the west coast that they had just lent her the money on, they spotted the Hidden Bay drive unit on her credit report (which was one of the homes that were part of the federal indictment) and realized that she had submitted conflicting statements about where her primary residence was. In an effort to cover her tracks, Veldora wrote a letter to the lender where she stated...
“In regards to the statement regarding my residency, I have never stated to any official at Loan City or any other agency that I don’t reside at 3370 Hidden Bay Drive, Unit 3711. That statement is totally false as I have been residing there since I purchased the unit.”Unfortunately Veldora sent this bogus letter while on the job at the City of Miami Fire Department...
"the defendant on June 27, 2006 wrote a letter that was faxed that same day from the City of Miami Fire Department"While this is the only evidence we've been able to find of Veldora using her position at the FD to commit the frauds she was ultimately convicted of, we're told that there were several other instances where she used her time on the job to further her criminal activities. The question that remains is whether or not this is enough to get her pension taken away from her. We'll keep looking for a definitive answer and report back.
the pension forfeiture statute is tricky. Believe it or not you can kill your wife when u get home from work, in uniform and still keep your pension. Other stuff to look for is did she sign any documents during working hours when she purported to be at work, and wasn't there. That would constitute a situation where she used her official position because by virtue of the fact she was the division head, she didn't have to report her absence of work to anyone. If she took vacation time it won't stick. However say she showed up to work at 11AM signed documents or attended a meeting in regards to the property purchases and didn't charge herself any kind of allowed leave for that day, that would be a situation where she used her position for financial gain or to assist in the commission of the felony. Another thing that would be iron clad is that she doctored up her earnings statements on the mortgage applications. please keep posting the info it will allow the pension board to stop her payments if something like that is found. The date and time of those faxes is crucial, tough though to take a pension away cause someone sent a personal fax from work. Who hasn't done that. Difference here that may make it stick is there's a difference if you send a fax to a bank with your last 2 pay stubs when you're applying for a mortgage no harm no foul.I'm sure your employer wouldn't take issue with you doing that while at work. When your faxing documents that are part of the commission of a felony I would certainly think you employer would take issue with that. Hope this helps. I'll be looking for your future posts.
ReplyDeletePlease verify if there was a $73,000.00 wire transfer in evidnce she did from phone #305-807-4002??? If so, my question, was this a city issued phone????Furthermore, not that it would affect her pension but is there any record when and where she got her Mtg Brokers License, particularly "at what TIME did she do this course???"Was it on the tax payers back.........how about her college degrees, were these aquired during her working hours as well?????
ReplyDeleteFYI, when Veldora committed this crime she was NOT a Division Chief....so a big question????if she did any of these things on the clock, WAS SHE GETTING PAID????QUICK----somebody check public records......
ReplyDeleteWarsaw lost his pension for a crime far less felonious! If she was on the clock while committing Fraud she should loose her bloated pension. Why hasn't the Fire Chief voiced his concerns about his department? He promoted her knowing her felonies!!
ReplyDeleteThey all want it quiet because they all want their bloated pensions. Easy to look at the time lines and her testimony that she told everyone she was 'caught in scam' in 2008 yet the Fire Chief still promoted her!! They are all criminals, some less some more.