Responding to some of the blog comments regarding former City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur's sentencing...

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I'm working on a very important story regarding some unethical activity between City of Miami commissioner Marc Sarnoff and the City of Miami city attorneys office.  We'll have the story ready to go for tomorrow, in the mean time, let's look at some of the comments left over the last few days on our blog posts regarding  former City of Miami assistant fire chief and convicted fraudster Veldora Arthur.


Let's start with this comment...

Anonymous said...

Is she going to lose her city pension??? I really hope you follow this up. She need to lose this as well...

I believe she will lose all or part of her pension simply because she conducted most of these schemes while on City time while using city fax machines and in some instances even city letter head.

Anonymous said...

If the city has an ounce of morality left in its corrupt conscience, it will stip her of everything. I did not see a restitution amount for ripping off 11 milion. If she continues with her pension, this will be merely a slap on the wrist. Corruption and greed at its worst!!!!

There will be restitution, there's going to be a separete hearing in February just for that purpose.  

Anonymous said...

This was a scheme that involved many condo buildings, not just the one in Wellington. She may not have been involved in more than one of them, but the other people indicted along with her, or in similar connected schemes, were involved in more than the Wellington frauds. The series of defaults, after the straw buyers got their money, caused other condo owners to have to pay increased condo fees and property values to go down significantly. So, yes, disgorgement of all money she collected is appropriate.

Correct.  According to the prosecutor, the frauds in this case were just a minor smattering of the many frauds that Ms. Arthur was involved in, we're going to look at least one other fraud that she was involved with but wasn't charged for soon, perhaps after the holidays so that we can highlight how indiscriminate the government is when it comes to charging people based on their ability to garner headlines.  As to the second part of the comment, the judge mentioned the same, even going so far as to say that people like Ms. Arthur were the root cause of the real estate meltdown and because of their bogus inflated property values and subsequent busting out of the properties that we are where we are today with most homes underwater.

Anonymous said...

This convicted felon should lose her pension. She committed crimes WHILE ON DUTY. Send a message. Crime does not pay. What about the $120,000 she got while suspended?

That comments speaks for itself and I couldn't agree more.

Anonymous said...

If she lose her pension or not it won't benefit you! My sister & our family are moving forward & you all should do the same. My sister is paying her time to society & I don't think there is nothing else to talk about.

I'm sorry for the position you and your family find yourself in today as a result of the crimes that your sister was convicted of.  I take no joy in seeing the family suffer because of a series of poor decisions that Ms. Arthur made, but at the end of the day she is where she is and nothing can change that.  I take issue with your statement though when you say...

If she lose (sic) her pension or not it won't benefit you!

In fact, you are wrong when you say that by losing her pension "it won't benefit you".  See, a significant portion of her pension is paid by the taxpayers, the same taxpayers that paid Ms. Arthur an exorbitant six figure plus salary when she was on city time and simultaneously conducting these fraudulent transactions that had nothing to do with her job at the fire department.  For the taxpayer to have to continue paying her pension after she committed these crimes is a further insult to the citizens of the City of Miami.  I'll make you a deal, how about we go and randomly pick out a handful of citizens of the City of Miami and let's ask them what they think.  Are you up for that?

Anonymous said...

Chief Warshaw, the ex-police chief lost his from the City of Miami so she should lose hers too. Any bets she won't lose it...

Agreed.

Anonymous said...

The Straw Buyer, You keep pushing it she will lose her penison...Thank You so much....

That's a bit ridiculous isn't it?  I'm the least of her worries!  If you were in the courtroom during the sentence, did you take a look around and see who else was there?  There were a few members of the upper management of the City of Miami FD that had no love lost for Ms. Arthur who were all to vocal about how the rank and file felt about her tenure at the FD and how they felt about her pension.  Once again, let's not forget the citizens of the city who are appalled at the amount of money she was making on the job while they're working their asses off to make a fraction of what she was making at the FD.  While Ms. Arthur may have taken for granted the incredible pay and gold plated benefits she was getting at the taxpayers expense, most of us would kill to have the same kind of compensation so it's that much more appalling to see someone who had the world at her feet to get involved in this kind of mess.  Don't blame me if she loses her pension, she's got no one to blame but herself for that.


Now, till tomorrow, go back and read this blog post regarding our esteemed City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff and local gadfly and Coconut Grove resident Reid Welch.  This is going to get interesting.