Another look at the auto tag agency story...

Before we go deeper into the Airways Auto Tag Agency story that we first mentioned earlier this month, let's try to get a basic understanding of what the case is about.  The allegations are as follows...


Customer comes into the tag agency and for the sake of our argument, purchases a new license plate for their car and pays the sales tax on their newly acquired vehicle.  To make things easy, let's say that the entire transaction costs a total of $1,000.


At this point the teller at the tag agency takes the $1,000 from the customer, which by the way is almost always cash or a company check assuming it was coming from one of the dealers that the tag agency works with, prints out the required paperwork and receipts from the state computer system, hands the customer a license plate as well as a new vehicle registration and decal.  So far so good right?


According to the police, at some point in the day, the tellers that were charged pocket the money then go and void out the transactions on the tag agencies internal accounting system therefore according to the arrest affidavit shorting the tag agencies proceeds to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (aka DHSMV) which regulates the tag agencies.  


Simple enough right?  You come in, pay your money, pick up your tag, registration, title, etc, the teller does all the required paperwork on the state and the tag agencies internal computer system then at some point after you leave, the tellers would void the transactions on the agency's internal system, pocket the money which would therefore leave a shortage with the state at the end of the day.


Real simple right?  Let's now take a look at a specific day that the police allege that one of these dirty tellers pulled this scheme, specifically, December 18, 2010.  From the arrest affidavit...

Ok, so according to the arrest affidavit, on December 18, 2010 this teller processed six transactions totaling $8,175.90 and then two days later said teller voided these transactions and at some point between these two days the defendant pocketed a little over $8,000.  Now to fully understand these allegations, lets take another look at the tag agency where all this was alleged to have occurred...

What you can't see from this photo is that the place is only about ten feet deep and has three tellers.  Now, take into account that the business is highly regulated by the state and there is a strict inventory of license plates, blank titles, blank registrations, etc.  You start off the day with a certain inventory of items and you finish the day with all those items as well as the money in your drawer fully accounted for.  Also take into consideration that large dealer transactions like the ones that occurred on December 18, 2010 are invariably paid for with a check from the dealership.  Now, tell me how anyone with a modicum of common sense could believe that there could possibly have been $8,000 in cash missing from this tiny tag agency in one day without anyone above the tellers knowing about it?  

Anyone with an once of reason in their head would be confounded by these allegations, that is, anyone but our favorite MDPD Detective, Jorge Baluja...

Tomorrow we'll propose what our theory of this case is and see what you think.

Murder, identity theft and a Mercedes...

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So what was that mysterious email about the other day?  From that email...

This man, Nalio Willliams is wanted for the murder of my friend.  I know it's a longshot but if ANYBODY recognizes him or knows where he is PLEASE let me know.  He shot a good man in the head multiple times for NOTHING.  My friend's 5 year old son, who he loved very much is going to miss him greatly.

Ok, let's start with a quick google search of Mr. Williams to see what we can find.  From CBS4 we get this story...

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – An arrest warrant has been issued for a Hialeah man who reportedly gunned down a Miami man in cold blood days before Christmas.
On December 22nd, Raimundo Modia drove his high-end luxury Mercedes to a West Park warehouse on SW 57th Terrace in hopes of selling it. What Modia, 34, didn’t know was that the prospective buyer, 35-year old Nalio Williams, was a career criminal, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
During the meeting between the two men, Modia was shot several times during the meeting and died at the warehouse. He is survived by a five-year old son.
Williams left a stolen white Toyota Tundra at the shooting scene. The tag on that vehicle was registered to a man in northern Florida whose identity had been stolen, and the vehicle itself was registered to another man in Winter Garden. Modia’s Mercedes was discovered the following day abandoned in Miami Gardens.
A first degree murder warrant has been issued for Williams who detectives believe may still be in the area.
The sheriff’s office said Williams past arrests have been for identity theft and fraud so he may be using an alias.

Ok, from this article we've learned that Mr. Williams shot someone named Raimundo Modia in the head after they met at a warehouse somewhere in Broward county to discuss the sale of a luxury car.  We're also told that shooter has been arrested in the past for Identity theft and fraud.  Interesting.

Now, let's see what we can learn about Mr. Raimundo Modia.  From Sunbiz we get the following...

Interesting.  From what we can glean from Sunbiz, Mr. Modia was in the mortgage business as well as the exotic car rental business.  Wait a minute, what are the chances?  Haven't we discussed this exotic car rental business before?  Let's focus in on one particular business that Mr. Modia was involved with, Elite Luxury Rentals, which just happened to be owned by a fellow named Bryan Guarch.  We've written about Mr Guarch before, for those of you who don't remember, perhaps this press release from the U.S. Attorneys office will refresh your memory...

United States v. Bryan A. Guarch, et al., Case No. 09-20627-CR-Moreno.
On July 23, 2009, thirteen (13) defendants were charged in a 15-count Indictment for their participation in a mortgage fraud scheme that resulted in approximately $4 million in fraudulent loans. Charged in the Indictment were defendants Bryan A. Guarch, 29, Richard Pi, 27,  Edwin Garcia, 30, Carlos Martinez, 29, Wayne Bermudez, 29, Oscar Quintero, 28, Sunsy Garcia, 29, Ryan Barouh, 27, Jason Cuza, 30, Anthony Silverio, 26, all of Miami, Rafael Jaramillo, 32, of Hialeah Gardens, Mario Estrada Mora, 25, of Miami Beach, and Vanessa Negron, 27, of Boiling Springs, South Carolina. According to the Indictment, defendants Guarch and Pi organized the scheme and identified eight properties to be used to defraud mortgage lenders. Guarch and Pi used defendants Edwin Garcia, Rafael Jaramillo, Carlos Martinez, and Wayne Bermudez, to recruit  straw buyers to submit fraudulent loan applications to mortgage lenders. Among the straw buyers recruited in this way were co-conspirators Oscar Quintero, Mario Estrada Mora, Sunsy Garcia, and Vanessa Negron.After submitting fraudulent loan applications to the lenders, Pi and Guarch paid-off loan officers, defendants Ryan Barouh and Jason Cuza, to facilitate the approval of the loans. Guarch and Pi caused the title company closer, defendant Anthony Silverio, to approve and submit to the lender a fraudulent HUD-1 Settlement Statement with an inflated purchase price. In an effort to conceal the fraud, Silverio provided a second HUD-1 Settlement Statement to the sellers reflecting the actual, much lower purchase price of the property. At closing, Guarch and Pi kept more than $1 million in loan proceeds, representing the difference between the inflated purchase price and the price actually paid to the seller for the property. After closing, Guarch and Pi used those loan proceeds to pay off their co-conspirators and to fund their lavish life styles. After each of the closings, the straw buyers defaulted on the loans, causing each of the properties to go into foreclosure and resulting in possible losses to the lenders of more than $2.6 million.The Indictment includes charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and substantive wire fraud. Mr. Sloman commended the investigative efforts of the Federal-State Mortgage Fraud Strike Force, with special commendation to the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Miami-Dade Police Department, and the State of Florida Office of Financial Regulation. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter A. Forand.

Oh boy.  So here we have Mr Modia who was in the mortgage business as well as in the exotic car rental business along with a guy named Bryan Guarch who was federally indicted for running a massive multi million dollar straw buyer mortgage fraud scheme.  Now comes Mr. Williams who then allegedly shoots Mr. Modia in the back of the head who's got a history or identity theft and fraud.  Interesting.

Am I the only one that thinks this case is about something other than Mr. Modia wanting to sell his Mercedes?  I wonder what the cops think?  Perhaps paying a visit to Mr. Guarch over in federal prison may answer some questions...

Mysterious email...

So I'm getting ready to bang out my next "Airways Auto Tag Agency" story when my the email notification on my phone goes off and I get a strange email with this photo...

I've had tons of emails in the past asking me to look at a specific case or write about a story that someone thought was important but what the hell am I supposed to do with this?  Especially since the man who allegedly shot this guys "friend" is still on the loose?!


I guess spending a few hours to see what we can dig up can't hurt, right?  We'll report back tomorrow...

Miami's best blogs, setting the record straight.

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I've gone over the Miami New Times article several times over the last week where we were named Miami's third most important blog.  While I greatly appreciate and am honored with the recognition, I feel that there are some errors in the article that need to be straightened out, beginning with the title they bestowed on me...

Persian New York born...

While that sounds great, it's also incorrect, I wasn't born in New York, I was born in Iran and have been in the U.S. since 1974.  No big deal there.

Prosecutors' Enemy

I find that a bit harsh and inaccurate.  First off, I'm not a prosecutors enemy, while I'm the first to point out when a prosecutor in a case that we're writing about makes a mistake, I'm also first to applaud a prosecutor that's doing a good job, IE the prosecutors in the Veldora Arthur mortgage fraud trial.  The particular prosecutor that I consider my enemy, William J. Kostrzewski, is only labeled as such because of his downright unethical and immoral behavior, his targeting of myself and my family and the fact that when he was faced with the real facts regarding the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case, he still chose to ignore them and go forward with a case that he knew was deeply flawed.

The idea: undermine the case against his spouse.  Hatami zeroed in on the two men responsible for arresting Delaila.  Miami Dade Police Det. Jorge Baluja and assistant state attorney William Kostrzewski. 

Not really.  The idea wasn't to undermine the case against my spouse but instead the idea behind the blog was two fold, first to provide some measure of therapy by giving myself a way to channel the anger I had against the police and the state for arresting my wife on totally bullshit charges.  Secondly the idea behind the blog was in some way shape or form to expose the way we were lied to by the prosecutor, just days before my wife was arrested, once the case was explained to the prosecutor in detail and after my wife passed a polygraph test, the prosecutor assured us that all was well and that he wouldn't move forward against her.  That was all well and good then the son of a bitch went ahead after reassuring us that everything was fine and arrested her, even worse she wasn't given a chance to surrender herself and being the scumbag prosecutor he is, he made sure the police barged into her office midday on a Friday and hauled her off in cuffs.  The real motivation behind this whole mess?  To make sure the MDPD's mortgage fraud task force was able to make a high value arrest to commemorate the one year anniversary of the task forces first arrest.  Wonderful, fuck up someones life, destroy a family just so you can have your fucking headline and hopefully use that to move yourself up the ranks to a statewide or maybe even a nationwide task force.  How did that work out for you Mr. Kostrzewski?  The third and most important purpose of the blog was to clearly show that the state's victim, the man who claimed his identity was stolen which started the whole case, Bernardo Barrera, was indeed lying and was an integral part of the fraud.  We proved beyond a reasonable doubt that indeed Mr. Barrera was an active participant in the fraud that was the basis for the states case, even going so far as to hire our own handwriting expert to prove that his signatures were all over the "fraudulent" documents, we'll talk about that in detail next month.  Despite all we've done to prove Mr. Barrera's complicity in this case, the state still refuses to go after Mr. Barrera when even the attorney handling the foreclosure that arose from this fraud after examining the documents associated with this case concluded that he was involved with this fraud, here's an email from that attorney...

There you have it, an attorney that works on behalf of Attorney's Title who represented Citi Mortgage reviewed the documents that we presented after which he concludes that Mr. Barrera was involved in the fraud that ultimately lead to the arrests in this case, yet here we are nearly four years later and the state still hasn't taken action against Mr. Barrera.

As far as the rest of the New Times article is concerned, the details really don't matter.  I feel like commenting on my background isn't really necessary as disposition of the states previous cases against me speak for themselves.  The rest of it?  Writing about all these other cases, finding corruption in local government, etc, I guess that all came with the territory.  What really bothered me about some of these other cases, all of which were more egregious than the one that my wife was charged for, was that none of them were as heavily publicized as my wife's case, in fact the biggest story of them all, former City of Miami Assistant Veldora Arthur's federal mortgage fraud indictment, wasn't even publicized till I wrote about it!  I never understood the tremendous disparity between these monster cases that never made the news versus the case my wife was charged in that was plastered all over the media.

So, am I done now?  Not yet.  There's still a tons of stories I have to tell about my wife's case that I've held back on, everything from plea deals that were never disclosed to the people that by law were entitled to know about them to prosecutor Kostrzewski ordering one of the defendants girlfriends to wear a body wire in their attorneys office so he could listen in on them discussing the case he was prosecuting.  Oh, and how can I forget, in the heat of the battle, after I laughed at prosecutor Kostrzwewski in open court, he went ahead and sent a subpoena to the company that hosts my domain name in order to reveal my identity!  We'll cover that soon as well.

With all that said, I'd like to thank the folks at the New Times and Francisco Alvarado for bestowing this honor on us.  I'll do my best to live up to being "one of Miami's best blogs".  Back to our regular fare tomorrow...

The Miami New Times ranks us among Miami's best blogs!

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Check the story here.  Can you believe it?  Our humble little blog has been ranked among the best and most prestigious blogs in Miami!  Thanks to all our loyal readers that helped us along the way as well as those of you that are constantly sending us tips.  I'll do my best to keep up and try my best to keep turning out stories that no one else sees fit to print!  I'll do a little explaining over the next few days regarding who I am and why I went about things the way I did.  Until then, thanks to Frank Alvarado and the New Times for recognizing us and congrats to our fellow bloggers who made it on the list, it's an honor to be counted among you.

Saving Veldora's pension...

Our sources tell us that there is a meeting taking place today within the City of Miami whose sole objective is to figure out how to save convicted fraudster and former City of Miami Assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur's pension.  Ms Arthur was convicted and sentenced for her role in a massive multi million dollar mortgage fraud scheme last year, since then there's been strong opposition within the ranks of both the fire department and the City of Miami to Ms Arthur being able to collect her pension.

What makes today's meeting all the more interesting is that I'm told that former City of Miami Police Chief and City Manager Donald Warshaw is keeping a close eye on the proceedings, for those of you who don't remember Mr. Warshaw, this story from the Miami Herald sums up his situation...

Former Miami Police Chief Donald Warshaw is not entitled to his six-figure annual police pension, forfeited when he was convicted of diverting $70,000 from a charity for his personal use, a state appellate court ruled Wednesday.

In a 2-1 decision, a Third District Court of Appeal panel of judges backed last year's decision by Miami's Firefighters & Police Officers Retirement Trust to stop paying Warshaw's pension of about $128,800 a year.


Warshaw, who retired as police chief to become city manager in 1998, avoided a conviction for using public office to steal public money as part of his plea deal with the U.S. attorney's office. Such a conviction would automatically have forfeited his pension, according to Florida statues.

Interesting, if Ms. Arthur somehow manages to keep her pension despite her federal fraud convictions, it's going to set a dangerous precedent.  If she gets to keep her pension then by default, wouldn't Mr. Warshaw be entitled to keep his pension as well?  For that matter, wouldn't any city or county employee who lost their pensions due to a criminal conviction be entitled to get their pension benefits back?  

We'll keep an eye on this situation and report back as soon as we learn anything.  More tomorrow on the Airways Tag Agency boondoggle.

Remembering Dr. King as well as an ugly reminder of the lions at our City's gate...

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Once again, it's the third Monday of January, the day we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  There's plenty of places on the internet that do a better job of honoring the man than we possibly can, considering the state our nation finds itself in today, I think this quote from one of Mr. King's speeches is most appropriate...

“the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice?”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/01/15/v-print/2591162/remembering-mlk-safe-icon-or-radical.html#storylink=cpy

Consider that quote next time you see something wrong going on around you and decide not to do anything about it, perhaps something like what I found littered all over the streets this past weekend...

The pro casino groups were out in full force this weekend plastering Little Havana with this kind of bullshit.  With the kind of money they're putting into swaying the public opinion on getting gambling into our region, is there any doubt that they'll succeed?  Considering the level of voter apathy in South Florida, unless something drastic happens, this is as close to a sure thing as you can get.

The Airways Auto Tag Agency boondoggle...

Earlier this week we discussed the arrest of a number of tellers from a local tag agency that I happened upon accidentally.  The thread that tied the tag agency story to one of our mortgage fraud stories was that they both shared the same detective from the Miami Dade Police Department, Detective Jorge Baluja.  Our assertion is that as long as Detective Baluja is involved, there's more than likely going to be some kind of misconduct or at the very least a totally botched investigation.


The first step in uncovering the good Detective's misdeeds was getting the arrest report for the tellers that were charged from the tag agency.  We took a trip down to the courthouse yesterday and came up with the following, as always click on the image to enlarge...

Essentially what the Detective Baluja is alleging is that the tellers at this auto tag agency would process your transaction, collect the fees and applicable taxes, give you your tag, title or registration, then they'd turn around after you left at some point and cancel the transaction and pocket the money that they had collected.  Considering the size of this tag agency, does it stand to reason that this kind of theft would be going on right under the owners noses without anyone finding out?  The arrest report alleges that there was nearly $20k missing over a period of four months, considering that this is a highly regulated business that works within a strict inventory of license plates and registration decals, how could $20,000 worth of these items go missing without anyone noticing?  Sounds like bullshit to me.


So what's the big deal here?  Why should any of us be interested in a simple case like this?  Be patient, on Monday we'll discuss who's behind this little tag agency as well as the strings that were pulled to get these tellers arrested...

My tag is expired!

What a f-ing hassle.  My damn tag is expired which means I've once again procrastinated, missed the online renewal deadline and I'll have to schlep over to the local tag agency, fight the lines and wait to get a new decal for my miserable vehicle.  Fun, fun, fun.

As far as I can remember there were two types of tag agencies that you could go to, one was the state or county owned tag agency where they'd hand you your new tag or decal on the spot while with the others, you'd drop off your paperwork then go back the next day to pick up your new tag or decal.  Unbeknownst to me, it seems as if all the tag agencies now can print your decal or give you a tag right on the spot, so I figured if I'd find the smallest out of the way tag agency as possible I could be in and out in no time.  I happened upon this tiny place almost purely by accident...

Fantastic, a tiny tag agency in a forgotten part of town right behind Miami Jai Alai.  I figure I'll be in and out of there in no time.  Little did I know that when I'd walk in the place was going to be PACKED!  CRAP!  So here I am sitting in this god forsaken hell hole, two tellers working behind the bullet proof glass with at least a dozen or so impatient and angry people standing shoulder to shoulder waiting to get their crap and get on their way.

I end up waiting for nearly an hour till my turn came up but while I was waiting I struck up conversation with several of the people waiting.  It turns out that one of the reasons that this place was so packed was because it services a number of the car dealers in the area, one of the people I was talking to was a runner for one of the local dealers.  I noticed that the guy had about eight or ten files that he needed to get processed so I figured if I could get on the guys good side, perhaps he'd let me jump in front of him rather than make me wait another hour.  

So here I am in this place that seemed more like the county jails drunk tank than a tag agency, trying to chat up the misfit in front of me while doing a cost/benefit analysis of whether it was worth driving with an expired tag rather then waiting in line for my turn when the guy in front of me drops a bombshell.  He says...

You know the motherfuckers here were all arrested a while back right?

I quickly snapped out of my daze and asked him WTF?  He went on to tell me that the cops had done a raid on this tag agency and ended up arresting three of the tellers behind the counter for stealing money.  He also went on to tell me that the raid was run by the same cop that had busted in on the dealership that he worked at.  I asked him if he remembered anything about the cop, description, name, etc.  He goes on to tell me that he'd never forget the cop because during the raid on his dealership, he ran the receptionists name and found that she had a suspended license and arrested her while she was sitting behind her desk!  So I ask, what was this guys name to which he responds...

Some jackass named Baluja...

LOL!!!  How the hell could this be?  Our very own MDPD Detective Jorge Baluja?

That's it, our day is fucked.  We all know by now if Detective Dumbass Baluja is involved then somethings fucked up.  I'm off to the courthouse to do some digging, more tomorrow...

An unbelievable story...

I stumbled upon a story over the weekend that made me nearly shit myself.  

A story of one of the most powerful people in South Florida government getting caught with their hands in the state's cookie jar only to have their friends in law enforcement turn the investigation around and frame three innocent people to take the fall.  Although this story has nothing to do with mortgage fraud or any of the other types of fraud that we've discussed in the past, it's got everything in the world to do with corrupt practices at both the Miami Dade Police Department and the Miami State Attorneys office.  The icing on the cake is that the cop at the center of this case is none other than our favorite ex mortgage fraud investigator, Jorge Baluja.  

Stay tuned

Prosecutorial misconduct, the gift that keeps on giving...

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Just when you think you've run out of crap to write about comes another instance of flagrant prosecutorial misconduct, the icing on the cake here is that we're already familiar with some of the key players yet somehow the Miami Herald forgot to mention their names.  From the Herald article...

Two MIA “fuel farm” defendants get new trial

By DAVID OVALLE

Two defendants in the Miami International Airport fuel-farm corruption case deserve new trials because a judge failed to give proper instructions to the jury, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.

Cliff Berry Inc., and the company’s former environmental director, Jeffrey Clint Smith, were convicted at trial in December 2008 of first-degree grand theft. The accusations: They pilfered huge amounts of fuel from the airport’s storage depot.

Smith had been free on bond while awaiting the decision. “This news in the new year is extremely welcome from him and his family,” Smith’s attorney, Michael S. Pasano, said. “He had always insisted on his innocence.”

The Third District Court of Appeal also ruled Wednesday that Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jacqueline Hogan Scola failed to quickly hold a hearing to question prosecutors about a key witness who changed his testimony.

The indictments were part of a far-reaching probe that uncovered several racketeering schemes at MIA. In all, more than 20 defendants pleaded guilty.

As for the company and Smith, investigators alleged that company trucks were supposed to haul away wastewater but drove off with jet fuel instead, and later sold it to yacht owners.

At trial, defense attorneys insisted their clients believed they had the “good faith” right to haul away the contents of a fuel-farm tank.

Scola refused defense attorneys’ request that the jury be given instructions outlining the “good faith” defense.

The Third DCA ruled Wednesday she should have allowed the jury instruction because “the evidence at trial was sufficient to suggest the good faith theory.”

Smith was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The company was ordered to pay $1.23 million and was barred from having any government contracts. The company’s former president, Cliff Berry II, was acquitted.

Another legal issue revolved around defendant Brian Schneir, a former supervisor at ASIG Fueling, another company that prosecutors said aided in the theft of the jet fuel.

Schneir pleaded guilty to organized fraud and agreed to spend two years in prison in return for testifying against Smith and Cliff Berry Inc. However, at trial, Schneir changed testimony he gave in a deposition about the dollar amount of fuel stolen and the date the scheme began.

Appellate lawyers argued that Miami-Dade prosecutors failed to quickly inform the defense of the change in Schneir’s testimony. Third DCA Judges Richard J. Suarez and Barbara Lagoa said Scola should have automatically conducted a hearing to see if prosecutors violated rules regarding turning over evidence to the defense.

A third appeals judge, Leslie Rothenberg, disagreed, saying the two defendants were convicted “by overwhelming evidence.”

Scola later ruled that prosecutors did not violate any rules. After prosecutors moved to revoke Schneir’s plea deal, saying he lied before testifying at trial, Scola gave him 12 years in prison.

Ok, so besides the judge screwing up and not allowing the jury instructions to outline the "good faith" defense, there's one other critical problem, the states main cooperating witness changed his testimony before the trial, problem is that the prosecutor knew that the witness had changed his critical testimony yet decided not to tell the defense attorneys about it!  From the article...

Appellate lawyers argued that Miami-Dade prosecutors failed to quickly inform the defense of the change in Schneir’s testimony. Third DCA Judges Richard J. Suarez and Barbara Lagoa said Scola should have automatically conducted a hearing to see if prosecutors violated rules regarding turning over evidence to the defense.

RUT RO!  So the prosecutor knew after his key witness was deposed that his testimony had changed before trial yet he forgot to let the defendants know and in essence covered this critical fact up?  Who could this unnamed prosecutor be?  Why would the Herald write this story accusing the prosecutor of misconduct yet leave out the guys name?  Any guesses as to who this guy is?  Perhaps this photo will help jar your memory...

Richard Scruggs

That would be none other than our favorite ex public corruption prosecutor Richard Scruggs!  You all remember Mr. Scruggs from his stellar performance during the Michelle Spence-Jones mess don't you?  Throughout that debacle Mr. Scruggs hid evidence, coerced witnesses and downright lied to witnesses about evidence he had in his possession in order to get them to say what he wanted.  So the question that begs to be asked is why the hell did the Herald not name Scruggs in the article?  We were able to identify the mysterious prosecutor in this case only after reading the actual appeal, if you have the time, check it out...

Prosecutorial Misconduct Cliff Berry Inc and Jeffrey Clint Smith vs the State of Florida

Carey-Schuler

Now, who's this other player in this fuel farm corruption case that goes unnamed in the Herald article?  That would be none other than former county Commissioner Barbara Carey-Schuler, the same ex commissioner that played a key role in both getting City of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones indicted then through changing her testimony also helped get her case dismissed.  For those of you with a good memory, you might remember Carey-Schuler as the commissioner that was buddy buddy with that crook Oscar Rivero, who was practically a fixture in her office, that was responsible for stealing millions of dollars that were meant for public housing only to build himself a mansion in South Miami.  Funny how her name keeps coming up in this high profile public corruption cases yet somehow she never gets charged?

Regardless, just another instance of a dirty prosecutor who's resorted to obtaining convictions by any means necessary even if it means breaking the very laws he swore to uphold and another black eye for our local state attorneys office.  Oh well...

Following up on Reid Welch's motion to disqualify City of Miami assistant attorney George Wysong...

Right before the Christmas break we discussed the ongoing feud and subsequent restraining order between City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff and Coconut Grove gadfly Reid Welch.  On December 23 attorneys for both parties appeared in court to argue whether or not City of Miami assistant attorney George Wysong should be disqualified from the proceedings because of his role within the city, once again, from his very own bio on the city website...

Mr. Wysong serves as the Police Legal Advisor for the City of Miami Police Department. In that capacity, he handles matters which affect the Police Department, and provides counsel and advice to the Chief of Police and his staff, litigates contraband forfeiture cases, prepares legal bulletins for dissemination to the sworn police officers, provides advices and counsel to the City's Emergency Operations Center in times of emergency. In addition to those duties, Mr. Wysong also reviews contracts and agreements relating to the Police Department and drafts legislation relating to quality of life issues.

As we stated before, the conflict created by Mr. Wysong representing Mr. Sarnoff and the City of Miami Police department is blatantly obvious.  From our November 23 blog post...

So Mr Wysong is the City of Miami police liason, from his bio says his job is to "handle matters which affect the Police Department."  If that's the case, why was he representing Sarnoff at this hearing?  In fact, based on his bio, shouldn't he have been attending this hearing on behalf of the City of Miami police department who should have arrested Mr. Sarnoff for his assault on Mr. Welch?  Doesn't this constitute a serious conflict of interest for Mr. Wysong?

Based on all of the above, you would think the judge would have ruled in Welch's favor and disqualified Wysong, correct?  Not so fast, check the judge's motion that we received yesterday...

Reid Welch Motion to Disqalify George Wysong Denied

To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement.  Just another day in Miami I guess. 

 

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time...

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That's an easy enough proposition, isn't it?  When you're considering participating in some nefarious activity, go ahead and do a quick cost benefit analysis and determine if you can handle the jail time for the crime you're about to commit.  Simple.  I'm sure we've all posed that question to ourselves at some point or another, how much money would justify going to jail for?  Maybe a million bucks?  Perhaps half a million for a year behind bars?  Who knows.


That brings us to the mastermind behind the first mortgage fraud caper we discussed on our blog, none other than John Arthur Romney.  For those of you who aren't acquainted with Mr. Romney, back in 2008 Mr. Romney masterminded a mortgage fraud scheme where he purchased a home then a week or so later through the use of a straw buyer, flipped it for a tidy $400k profit.  Not bad for a weeks work, right?  Problems arose for Mr. Romney when his straw buyer claimed that he had nothing to do with the transaction and in fact his identity was stolen in the commission of this fraud.  We have our doubts about those claims from the alleged straw buyer as the evidence seems to indicate that he was indeed involved in the fraud.  Regardless, back in February of 2011, Mr. Romney took a plea and admitted to his role in the fraud and subsequently was sentenced to 30 months in prison along with another ten years worth of probation.  In our humble opinion, that seemed like a slap on the wrist considering that after a few minutes playing around online we were able to find several other frauds that Mr. Romney was involved in, not to mention the fact that we're told that Mr. Romney had told law enforcement and the prosecutors about tons of other frauds that he had conducted.  

That's all well and good, at least 30 months behind bars is better than what almost all of the other fraudsters that the heralded Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task Force prosecuted got, we were unable to find anyone that got anything more than probation despite millions of dollars worth of fraud that they were found guilty of!  No worries, at least the state got Mr. Romney's case right, that is until a couple of nights back when I was checking in on Mr. Romney's whereabouts in the state prison system.  From his department of corrections page...

The department of correction's page states that Mr. Romney is at the Opa Locka W.R.C. and that his "Current Custody" is "community".  I did a little digging and found out that "W.R.C." stands for "Work Release Center".  WTF?!

Isn't that wonderful?  Mr Romney is out on the street!  He gets to run around all day then come back to a tax payer funded bed at night!  SWEET!!!  

So is that it?  Admit to stealing nearly $400k and all you get is less than 10 months behind bars?  Let's go back to the title of today's post...

"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time..."

With that in mind, let's do a quick cost benefit analysis.  Let's assume that he stole $400k and that he was behind bars for exactly ten months for ease of calculation.  That works out to $40k per month or approximately $1,300 per day.  How many of you guys our there are making $1,300 per day?  Considering our current economic climate, I'd venture to guess that not many of us are doing so.  Remember, this doesn't even take into consideration the other real estate/mortgage frauds that Mr. Romney has admitted to.  Add those numbers in and his average take per day could go up ten fold. 

I'll leave you with this, do you guys believe nine months behind bars was an adequate punishment for defrauding a bank out of $400k?  $40k per month while being fed and clothed by the state doesn't seem like such a bad deal after all, does it?