It's legal cause my lawyer said so!

At least that's what former president George Bush said when asked about the legality of water boarding.  It's all good cause his lawyer said so!  From the MSNBC interview with Matt Lauer...

Former President George W. Bush was asked during an interview last night why he believes waterboarding is legal.


"Because the lawyer said it was," Bush said. "He said it did not fall within the Anti-Torture Act. I'm not a lawyer, but you gotta trust the judgment of people around you and I do."

No kidding?  So since your lawyer says it's legal, it must be legal?  Fair enough, I think we all would agree that's why we seek the advice of an attorney, if they say it's Kosher, then we move forward, if not then we don't. 


Have I lost you yet?  What does waterboarding have to do with mortgage fraud?  Simple, say for instance you're involved in a real estate transaction but want to make some changes to the structure of the deal and the purchase contract but want to be 100% sure that you're on the right side of the law, what do you do?  The smart thing to do would be to consult with an attorney, if the attorney tells you the changes are OK, then it's got to be all good and on the up and up right?  What if the attorney even goes so far as to sign off on the documents that were modified for this real estate transaction?  Certainly it's got to be legal right?  Remember what former President Bush said...

"...you gotta trust the judgment of people around you and I do."

We've come across a very unusual mortgage fraud prosecution, one where the purchase price of the home was increased before the closing, done so at the instruction of the attorney who advised his clients that doing so was completely legal.  Turns out though while this attorney was advising his clients that increasing the purchase price and putting a second mortgage on the home was completely legal he was working with the police and was instructed by the cops to go ahead and have his clients close this deal that he knew was going to get them arrested.  

This leaves me completely baffled, the poor people involved in this transaction are seeking the advise of their attorney so they don't get in trouble, in the mean time the attorney is working with the cops in order to get these people arrested.  Seems like a bit of a conflict, doesn't it?  Can anyone guess the name of the prosecutor who's behind this mess?

Another mortgage fraud prosecution lead by Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski goes down in flames...

Last December we made mention of the Hilda E. Cardelle mortgage fraud case while we were on a search to find a single mortgage fraud prosecution that ended with jail time.  

As we noted back then, the first charge of mortgage fraud was dropped in less than a month after Ms. Cardelle was charged leaving only the first degree Grand Theft charge...

Based on what we saw on the docket at time, we were lead to believe that the case was going to be plead out, it turns out in fact that the case went to trial and guess what?  Ms Cardelle was acquitted by the court, in other words, the case never made it to jury, the judge dismissed the remaining charge citing lack of evidence of any wrong doing by Ms. Cardelle!  

You have to wonder, how did a case like this make it to trial when the judge herself determined that there was no evidence to prove any wrong doing on the part of the defendant?  Anyone want to guess who the prosecutor was that put this case together?

Oh boy.  We're going to have to take a closer look at this one.  Congratulations to Ms. Cardelle and her defense attorney for bringing another Kostrzewski helmed mess to an end.