After reading and rereading the Darlene Fernardez Carus bar discipline I'm bewildered as to how Ms. Carus was able to avoid criminal prosecution by using the "I had no idea" defense. Besides claiming that she had no idea how a million or so dollars worth of real estate fraud occurring using her trust account, title policies issued by her office, etc she then turns around and blames everything on an "abusive and overbearing husband" and an "old law school friend" who abused her trust. The document goes on to claim that Ms. Carus is "a sweet, caring individual" that "had a soft spot and would want to help a friend in a time of need." If that wasn't bad enough, the bar discipline goes on to blame her indiscretions on an infant child with autism as well as a "residential move".
What a story! I almost felt bad for the poor woman till I came across this bit...
"in her naivete, she never considered the possibility that her trusted friend would engage in fraud or misappropriate funds"
For fucks sake! "...in her naivete..." That's a bit much now isn't it!? The attorney defending her has used almost every excuse in the book, overbearing husband, sickly child with autism, close friend that screwed her and last but not least moving her home as defenses for being involved in a million or so dollars of outright fraud and grand theft! PUHLEEZE! This attorney turns over sensitive documents, passwords and wires money in and out of her trust account on transactions whose mortgages she wasn't satisfying into a third parties bank account and she did all of this because of "naivete"? So let me get this straight, when the bank is writing these mortgage frauds off that were committed by the Maria T. Lopez crew, do they attribute the losses to "naivete" as well or do they claim the loss was because of an "abusive or overbearing husband"? The attorney who crafted this excuse ridden document even goes so far as to get an insult in against Ms. Carus' ex-husband, Omar Carus, calling him "a jealous, overbearing, abusive ex-cop who graduated law school but could not pass the bar exam." Wow.
Can anyone accept these excuses considering the complicity of Ms Carus in these complex mortgage frauds and real estate transactions? If nothing else, if you buy all the other excuses, considering that her name is on all the paperwork, her trust account is receiving and dispersing hundreds of thousands of dollars, isn't it her responsibility to make sure that the sellers mortgages were paid off?! Regardless of whether Ms. Carus wasn't aware of the nefarious activities of Ms. Lopez and her gang, it was her name on all the documents, her trust account receiving and disbursing funds related to the fraudulent transactions and her office that was issuing title policies, the simply "not knowing" excuse doesn't hold water. I guess we can attribute Ms. Carus getting off to having a good criminal defense attorney.
Just remember, next time you find yourself in hot water with the law, you can always use the "naivete" excuse!
We briefly discussed the Maria Teresa Lopez mortgage fraud mess involving attorney Darlene Fernandez Carus last week and noted how though late, the Florida Bar finally took action against Ms. Carus for her involvement in the mortgage fraud that ended up getting Maria Teresa Lopez and her brother Guillermo Napoleon Lopez disbarred. Oddly enough out of the three lawyers involved, Ms. Lopez was the only one that was arrested, both Mr. Lopez and Ms. Carus were not charged criminally. The arrest affidavit doesn't really implicate Mr. Lopez, but it certainly paints Ms. Carus as a central figure in the "Organized Scheme to Defraud" yet somehow she was able to evade prosecution.
Regardless, the bar action tells her side of the story, take a good look and we'll discuss tomorrow...
Don't get carried away, there isn't enough room on this blog to round up all the dirty attorneys out there, what we're going to do today is just summarize all the dirty attorneys that we've talked about since the inception of our blog. Here we go...
Roger Besu- charged with stealing over two million dollars of his clients funds from his trust account.
Sally Sawh- oddly enough she's also been charged with stealing over two million dollars of her clients funds from her trust account.
David Rodriguez- charged several counts for setting up an illegal home purchase where the buyer was getting tens of thousands of dollars from the closing without the lenders knowledge as well as paying off the sellers mortgage weeks before the closing actually occurred according to the state. He was the attorney that put the deal together with an undercover cop acting as the sellers accountant.
Alfredo Xiques- he's the guy who notarized forged signatures on a mortgage for his cousin allowing the cousin to make off with tens of thousands of dollars, oddly enough he was never charged.
Scott Rothstein- the high profile attorney that ran a $1.2 billion dollar ponzi scheme through his law firm.
Maria Teresa Lopez- where do we start? This was the suspended attorney who according to the states charging documents kept doing closings through another attorney who didn't pay off mortgages and ultimately made off with hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars of lenders monies.
Guillermo Napoleon Lopez- this would be Maria Teresa Lopez' brother who according to the state helped her launder the proceeds of the crooked mortgages. Again, oddly enough he was never charged.
Darlene Fernandez Carus- this is the attorney that Maria Teresa Lopez used to do her fraudulent deals through, the proceeds of these closings according to the state came through this attorneys trust account and again according to the state it was this attorneys office that was responsible for paying off the mortgages on the transactions that the Lopez group profited from. Once again, despite the apparent involvement in these frauds, this attorney wasn't charged.
Last but not least, we have attorney Delaila Estefano who according the arrest affidavit prepared by Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski was charged with the following:
Furthermore, the State conceded that both Co-DefendantRomney and Martinez did not directly implicate Ms. Estefano has having knowledge aboutthe underlying fraud in the case.
WTF? Nearly two years into the Bernardo Barrera Mortgage Fraud case and the codefendants haven't been able to implicate the attorney?! You have to wonder then, what did Attorney Estefano do that prompted Detective Baluja to arrest her? Let's here it in his own words...
So there you have it folks, the state alleges that not following closing instructions is what got the attorney arrested. Not stealing millions of dollars from trust accounts, not for failing to pay off peoples mortgages, not for fraudulently notarizing peoples signatures or for doing fraudulent deals with undercover cops but for allegedely failing to follow closing instructions. Brilliant Jorge.
"Closing agent failed to follow closing instructions."
So in the case of the Lopez siblings, what exactly did that mean? Let's take a quick rundown of how they failed to follow closing instructions for the properties whose closings they conducted:
Failure to record deeds
Failure to record mortgages
Failure to issue title policies
Failure to collect monies from buyers as outlined by the HUD-1's
Failure to pay off existing mortgages for the sellers
Inappropriate distribution of proceeds from the transactions
That's just a few examples of how the Lopez crew "failed to follow closing instructions." Worst of all, the intention of the closing agents who did not follow the closing instructions was clearly fraud and theft for the Lopez siblings directly profited from their illegal acts, from what we can see, all told they made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars of ill gotten gains.
What's strange about the transactions that we've discussed throughout the last week is that neither Maria Teresa Lopez or Irina Jackeline Ball were the closing agents on the fraudulent transactions, yet they were the only ones arrested (with the exception of Jamie Nails who allegedly procured the stolen identity for one of the transactions and is still at large). The transactions we've outlined all occurred after Ms. Lopez lost her ability to underwrite closings with Attorneys Title and according to the police reports and the Florida Bar's own investigation, the transactions were actually conducted by two other attorneys, Darlene Fernandez Carus and Guillermo Napoleon Lopez. In essence, Ms. Lopez wasn't even the closing agent on the fraudulent transactions which leads us to the question we raised yesterday, why weren't these attorneys, the ones that actually closed the fraudulent transactions arrested? We know that at the very least Mr. Lopez was disciplined by the Bar, but we can't even find as much for the other attorney, are we to believe that both the police and the Bar bought her "I had no idea these transactions were occurring" explanation? That's a tough pill to swallow as these transactions require access to her trust accounts, her offices paperwork to the lenders for the closing, etc. Let's say for the sake of argument that the attorneys had no idea what was going on and were perhaps duped by their employees and/or shady people that were hanging around their offices, as we mentioned yesterday, using the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case as an example, why weren't the attorneys involved who ultimately signed the title policies and closing proceeds checks arrested? What's the deal folks? We're talking near seven figure transactions flowing through their trust accounts and they maintain they had no idea what was going on? I think the best way to sum up that excuse is with my new vanity license plate...
Think about it Detective Baluja and especially you ASA Kostrzewski, it's your favorite phrase...
"Closing agent failed to follow closing instructions."
Last week we learned about the very unlawyerly behavior of attorney Maria Teresa Lopez which eventually led to her disbarment. Together with her partner in crime, Irina Jackeline Ball, both the Florida Bar and the MDPD has accused them both of not only running mortgage fraud scams, not paying off mortgages at closing and stealing peoples identities, but of not even recording the transactions and the mortgages! In a nutshell from the documentation we've been able to find, these two were simply getting the money from the lenders, laundering the money through different title companies and ultimately pocketing the funds!
So how does a disbarred attorney get away with such mayhem? At first we learned that Ms. Lopez was doing these transactions through attorney Darlene Fernandez Carus who claims that these transactions were going through her law office and the funds were being disbursed from her trust account without her knowledge, yeah, ok. What's really sad and what truly reflects what kind of people we're talking about here is where this evil duo sent the money from Darlene Fernandez Carus's trust account, Ms. Lopez used her younger brother's (who happened to be an attorney as well) trust account to distribute her ill gotten gains, ultimately causing her brother to lose his license to practice law as well. Let's take a look at Florida Bar's petition for Mr. Lopez' emergency suspension...
4- Respondent facilitated the misappropriation in excess of $200,000 of trust funds by his sister, Maria T. Lopez, an attorney that was emergency suspended on October 29, 2008 Said funds were provided by a lender for the purposes of the Irina Ball (seller) to Delores Porter (borrower) closing of property located at 400 Alton Road, #2309, Miami Beach, Fl.
That's nice, this would be the same transaction that we discussed on Friday that finally caused the Mortgage Fraud Task Force to go ahead and arrest Ms. Lopez and crew. It gets better...
5- Additionally, Respondent was the settlement agent for real estate transactions where he failed to disburse monies in accordance with the HUD-1 settlement statements, including failure to pay off mortgages that were required to be satisfied at closing. Additionally, in at least one instance, Respondent failed to record a deed and mortgage for a transaction where he was the settlement agent.
Oh boy. It gets better and better...
17- On April 27, 2009, Respondent received $312,490.98 from Susan Friedman towards the purchase of property located at 5225 Collins Avenue, unit 106, Miami Beach, Fl 33139. On same date, Respondent wired Irina Ball $250,000 per instructions from seller, Jose R. Gonzalez. The disbursement instructions indicated that in lieu of satisfying Jose R. Gonzalez's mortgage at Washington Mutual of $272,890.00, monies were to be given to Irina Ball and upon the sale of Irina Ball's property at 6101 Aqua Avenue, unit #301, Miami Beach, Fl 33140, Respondent could then satisfy Mr. Gonzalez's mortgage with Washington Mutual.
Oh really?
18- On May 13, 2009 Respondent was wired $674,648.36 from Pathman Lewis, LLP in regard to the sale of the property at 6101 Aqua Avenue, unit #301. Respondent paid approximately $524,000 to Irina Ball, the seller instead of satisfying two Countrywide mortgages as indicated on the HUD-1.
Did Mr. Lopez miss the following closing instructions?
"The sellers will not receive any proceeds from this short sale transaction"
What the fcuk? Here's the question that begs to be asked, using ASA Bill Kostrzewski's prosecution of the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud as a template, why weren't the other attorneys, Darlene Fernandez Carus and Guillermo Napoleon Lopez arrested? Why haven't charges been brought against the rest of the people involved in these frauds? An even more pressing question is WHAT IN THE FCUK DID THESE PEOPLE THINK THEY WERE DOING? This is some of the most egregious real estate fraud that we've ever seen, how did these idiots think they were going to get away with it?
Jeeze. What's even sadder is that Ms. Lopez not only destroyed her own career but decided to take her brothers down the drain with her. Incredible.
We've spent the last couple of days discussing the case of Maria Teresa Lopez, a disbarred attorney that is in the middle of a whole mess of fraud. We discussed a laundry list of frauds that the Florida Bar discovered on Tuesday, yet the fraud she finally got arrested for wasn't the fraud that the bar had discovered. Let's take a look at the booking info for Ms. Lopez as provide by the Miami Dade County corrections department (as always click on the image to enlarge)...
NICE! Check out the bail amount, $1,000,000! We'll get into what she did in a bit, now let's take a look at her partner in crime, Irina Jackeline Ball...
Oh my, $800,000 bail? Even worse, 5'7", 220 lbs, and that face...
Ready for it?
Wasn't she one of the characters from that movie "Lord of the Rings"? Because of that build, that face and the audacity of the mortgage frauds she committed, Ms. Ball has earned the title of "Mortgage Fraud Troll". Now we're sure that you guys think that's a bit harsh, trust us, when you learn what she's done, you'll agree that the name is perfect for her. Let's go to the affidavit in support of the arrest warrant that was filed by Detective Tamma Hartman of the Miami Dade Mortgage Fraud Task Force against Ms. Lopez and the Mortgage Fraud Troll...
The first thing that strikes us as strange is the following:
"Your co-affiant is Frank Gramlich a private investigator with the Xavier Group and a retired agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigations..."
What the hell is that about? Someone that's not a cop can write up an arrest affidavit? We know that Detective Hartman is green and that this is probably the first case she's ever been the lead on, but we didn't realize that she needed help from someone from outside the PD! WTF?! As you can see, this case is based on a condo located at 400 Alton Road AKA the Murano Grande, the story is rather complicated so let's try to make it a little easier and break it down into a clear time line...
11/30/07 Ball AKA the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" signs a purchase contract to purchase the unit for $850,000.
2/19/08 The "Mortgage Fraud Troll" gets a mortgage from Victor K. Rones for $510,000 on the property even though she hasn't closed on it yet.
2/22/08 Closing occurs yet the HUD-1 reflects that the sale is all cash with no mortgage (uh oh).
2/25/08 $838,283.50 is wired from the "Lopez" trust account to the seller yet it seems as if $154,323.50 comes from other clients of "Lopez" and not the "Mortgage Fraud Troll".
3/5/10 Lender Rones files a foreclosure suit against the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" and files a lis pendens against the subject property.
9/23/09 Lender Rones gets a final judgment against the "Mortgage Fraud Troll".
9/26/08 "Mortgage Fraud Troll" sells property to someone who has stolen the identity of Delores Porter for $521,250. "Lopez" closes the transaction despite there being a lis pendens from the original lender whose mortgage she forgot to record. Keep in mind the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" had just purchased the unit seven months earlier for over $300,000 MORE! Once loan is funded, no one pays off the original mortgage (which "Lopez" had failed to record) for $510,000!!!
HOLY $HIT! WTF?! Let's take a break for a moment and take into account that Ms. Lopez was not allowed to write title insurance with Attorneys Title since November 2007 and was doing real estate closings through another attorney, one Darlene Fernandez Carus. Ms. Carus makes the following representation according to the affidavit:
"Carus claims that this and other closings were executed by "LOPEZ" in Carus' name without her knowledge or supervision..."
WHAT?!
So we're to believe that Attorney Carus had no idea what Ms. Lopez and the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" were doing and that she had no knowledge of the hundreds of thousands of dollars going through her trust account?
Ms. Carus would have us to believe that the disbursement checks and wire transfers were made from her trust account without her knowledge?
Ms. Carus expects us to believe that Ms. Lopez had access to her trust account and was able to prepare all these documents with her name on it and still, she had no knowledge?
Ms Carus saw the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" trolling around her office and didn't run for the nearest exit or jump out the nearest window?! PUHLEEZE! Getting back to our time line...
9/29/08 $519,858.18 gets wired into Attorney Carus' trust account (of which she has no knowledge of according to her statement to the police), the entire proceeds are then wire transferred out of Carus' trust account (again without her knowledge) and into "Lopez's" account at City National Bank. We can only presume that Lopez was then going to pay off the mortgage that she had forgotten to record seven months earlier?! LOL!
9/30/08 Ms. Lopez then wires $148,872.65 to the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" HUH?! What about paying off the first mortgage?!
10/28/08 Ms. Lopez knowing that she's going to be suspended by the Florida Bar the next day takes the remaining money out of her trust account ($353,678.97) and wires it to her brothers account who also happens to be an attorney. From this money, Lopez hauls ass with $228,123.98 and the brother distributes $125,554.99 to other clients without ever satisfying the original mortgage from 2/08!
HOLY CRAP! How the hell did they think that they were going to pull this one off? WTF? Knowing what we know from the Bernardo Barrera case where the attorney whose office conducted the closing was arrested, why wasn't the attorney whose office conducted this closing arrested? Are you telling us she got off because she said "she had no knowledge" of what was going on? Pfft! While we're at it, why wasn't Ms. Lopez's brother arrested? Give me a fcuking break.
So what do we come away with this week? We learned from the Florida Bar the villainous activities that lead up to the disbarring of Maria Teresa Lopez, we then learned that she was arrested by the Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task Force on a completely unrelated fraud over a year later than the ones that the bar had found and today we're shown what kind of unconscionable mortgage fraud Ms. Lopez and the "Mortgage Fraud Troll" had committed all while the attorney whose office handled the closing had no idea or knowledge of what was going on (HAH!). Most importantly from the text of the affidavit in support of the arrest warrant we learn that more than likely the inexperienced Detective from the mortgage fraud task force didn't put together the case or write the affidavit but that the case and the affidavit were probably put together by a retired FBI agent working for a private non government firm. Sort of like training wheels for the Detective! NICE!
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I read a story in the Miami Herald on October 7, 2008 regarding a mortgage fraud case that didn't make any sense to me, I did a little digging and what I found left me stunned. A tale of a task force head whose political ambitions have run amuck, a detective without a modicum of common sense, a reporter that prints anything that's put in front of him, the railroading of an attorney by this machine to further the ambitions of its head and the lengths that those involved will go to in order to salvage a case that should have never been. Please take the time to start from the oldest post first and enjoy...
After reading and rereading the Darlene Fernardez Carus bar discipline I'm bewildered as to how Ms. Carus was able to avoid criminal prosecution by using the "I had no idea" defense. Besides claiming that she had no idea how a million or so dollars worth of real estate fraud occurring using her trust account, title policies issued by her office, etc she then turns around and blames everything on an "abusive and overbearing husband" and an "old law school friend" who abused her trust. The document goes on to claim that Ms. Carus is "a sweet, caring individual" that "had a soft spot and would want to help a friend in a time of need." If that wasn't bad enough, the bar discipline goes on to blame her indiscretions on an infant child with autism as well as a "residential move". 
