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...
Attorney Michael Walsh, representing the accused ringleader, former Plantation officer Joseph Guaracino, said his client was an active investor who brought in the others to buy dozens of properties during the real estate boom. They submitted truthful information to qualify for the loans, he said.
``What Joe and the other cops did was legitimate,'' Walsh said after a Fort Lauderdale bond hearing for most of the 13 defendants charged in the indictment that was unsealed Wednesday. ``We know what we submitted, and the records were clean. We can't say what the mortgage brokers did, exactly -- except they committed the fraud.''
Interesting, defense attorney Walsh is putting the blame squarely at the feet of the mortgage brokers.
Walsh and other defense lawyers said the U.S. attorney's office is building the controversial case on the words of mortgage brokers Matthew Gulla of Davie and Rene Rodriguez Jr. of Plantation, who are cooperating with prosecutors.
Of course they're cutting deals! There's no glory in arresting mortgage brokers now is there?! Mortgage brokers don't make headlines, but arresting cops and an FBI agent certainly does! Speaking of the FBI agent, Robert Depriest...
DePriest, coordinator of an FBI hazardous-materials team, normally would be placed on administrative leave without pay after being indicted. But in this instance he will be able to keep his job with pay while the case is pending because FBI supervisors believe he broke no laws, sources said.
Huh?! His own supervisors at the FBI believe he hasn't broken any laws. Very good. One of the crimes that FBI agent Depriest is accused of committing is supplying "false and fraudulent statements" loan application, specifically:
He said that it would be owner-occupied and his primary residence -- untrue statements, according to the indictment.
HOLY $HIT! If the feds are arresting people for lying about facts like that on loan applications then 99% of the citizens of South Florida better start looking for an attorney and a bondsman!
The allegations the feds make against the law enforcement officers are remarkable, some of which seem a little flimsy at least in our opinion, that is from what we've been able to glean from the articles we've been able to find. With that said though, using this case a template, we're left with a couple of questions when we compare it to the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case,
If feds arrested the cops for making false statements on loan applications, why wasn't anyone arrested for creating and supplying the false information on the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case?
If indeed it was the mortgage brokers that falsified the documents according to this federal indictment, why weren't the mortgage brokers indicted or even questioned in the Barrera mortgage fraud?
Moving right along, we had a chance encounter with an attorney yesterday who specializes in real estate law, among other things we discussed the federal case against the Plantation police officers. During the course of our conversation he told us about an attorney who made a living partly by finding clients who thought they were somehow wronged in a real estate transaction then suing the attorneys and title companies that conducted the transactions. He went on to say that this attorney who had a highly condescending holier than though attitude wouldn't even litigate the cases but would threaten to refer them to a litigator that she called a "Puerto Rican street fighting bad ass" (his words not ours) when they wouldn't settle. We asked who this attorney was, lo and behold it was none other than MARIA TERESA LOPEZ! DAMN! You all remember her don't you? Turns out that Ms. Lopez was slinging her $hit and threatening this attorney right up until she was disbarred! That takes some balls doesn't it!?Regardless, for those of you following "Ms. Holier than though" and her case, it looks like she's set to plead out on September 1.Karma's a bitch ain't it Ms. Lopez?
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.
We have to be honest here folks, we here at the Straw Buyer are not computer savvy, not one bit. We've had several people suggest that we get involved in all the difference social media sites (myspace, facebook, twitter, etc...), to be honest with you all that stuff is way above our pay grade. That's not to say that we haven't been looking through some of those sites to glean information on the people that we've been writing about, it's just not our cup of tea.
What's startling though about these social media sites (IE facebook) is just how much of their private lives people make available for the public to see, pictures of themselves inebriated, doing things that perhaps you'd like to forget or even worse, pictures of themselves with people that they may not want anyone to see, etc. These social media sites make a great investigatory tool for law enforcement. While the Barrera mortgage fraud case was in its earliest stages, through facebook we were able to link almost all the players involved in the fraud including several other people the PD didn't even know about. Even worse though are all those horror stories that emerge from these social media sites, people getting raped, kids getting molested, really who needs it? Does anyone remember this guy?
Is meeting real people in person too much trouble?
Regardless though, there is one aspect of Facebook in particular that can lead to major embarrassment for prominent members of the community, IE judges, politicians, etc. What happens when you're say a judge or a member of the local police forces command staff with a Facebook page and it turns out one of the people on your "friends" list is accused of some sort of embarrassing act or even worse a heinous crime? Not good huh? You all remember Glenn Theobald right? He was the former Chief counsel of the Miami Dade County Police department and the former chairman of the Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task Force. Let's take a look at Mr. Theobalds friends from his Facebook page...
Uh, oh! Let's take a closer look at that person outlined in red...
Wait a minute, doesn't that face look familiar?Could this Maria Lopez be the Maria Teresa Lopez who was charged and arrested for mortgage fraud,grand theft, identity theft and money laundering that wediscussed a few weeks ago?Damn! That doesn't look good now does it!
Mr. Theobald, you may want reconsider that Facebook friend!!!
Well, what do you know, Mr. Barrera tells the police that for reasons unbeknown to us or anyone else with a modicum of common sense, on February 8, 2008 he just decides out of the blue to check his credit report and finds a new loan that was opened up under his name without his knowledge. Wow! What are the chances? That's the exact same way he found out about the fraudulent loan for the Oak Avenue home just a little over a month later! We know Mr. Barrera has had trouble, according to him, receiving letters from different lending institutions at his primary residence, just a little while back we found at least 5 letters that Citi Mortgage sent to his primary residence in reference to the Oak Avenue home mortgage well before he claimed he found out about the fraud. Do you guys think there's a chance that the bank that lent the money on this fraudulent boat deal could have possibly sent Mr. Barrera some correspondences regarding this loan to his primary residence before February 8 when he claimed he found out about the fraudulent activity on his credit report? What are the chances? Take a look for yourselves...
What are the chances? How much mail must have been going to Mr. Barrera's home that somehow never made it to Mr. Barrera? Take a look at the pertinent dates on this loan statement, from what we can see it looks like the statement was mailed by GE Money bank on 1/25/08 from Atlanta, so how long could it have taken for the statement to reach Mr. Barrera's home? Let's see, the 25th was a Friday, so lets say for the sake of argument that the mail takes 5 days to get to Mr. Barrera's home, that would put the statement in his mailbox no later than 1/31/08. Now the reality is that mail from Atlanta to Miami takes no more than 3 days and is sometimes delivered in just 2 days, but for our purposes lets just assume that the statement was received on the 31st. If that's the case then what did Mr. Barrera do with this statement during the seven days before he reported the identity theft? Can anyone guess why Mr. Barrera waited till 2/8/08 to report this case? We'll give you a hint, the answer is in the other documents that he supposedly didn't receive.
Does anything else about this loan statement for the fraudulent boat purchase strike you guys as strange? Take a closer look at the statement, specifically the part that says "payment allocation"...
SEE THAT! Someone made a payment on the loan! WTF?! Who the hell made the payment and how did they do it? If you look back at the Maria Teresa Lopez and Irina Jackeline Ball mortgage fraud and identity theft case you'll see that there were payments made on that fraudulent loan as well. In that case the police got copies of the money orders that were used to make the payments with, traced them back to where they were purchased and then were able to identify who actually purchased the money orders. According to the affidavit in support of the arrest warrant in that case, the store owner who issued the money orders was able to positively identify one of the defendants as the person who purchased the money orders and that helped solve the PD's identity theft case. Now, could you imagine if we were actually able to find out how the two payments on the fraudulent boat loan were made? Check out what some good old fashioned investigating will get you...
NICE! You have to wonder though, does the PD have these money orders? Surely if they did they would have traced where they were purchased from, gone over there and interviewed who ever issued the checks right? PUHLEEZE! Even worse, do you think Detective Baluja (while he was the lead on the mortgage fraud case) even checked into this case? We'll discuss tomorrow, we've gone way over our daily quota of FAIL!
Although the WFHL loan application indicates it was taken in a face-to-face interview with WFHL loan officer Zoe Azpeitia. Porter stated she does not know and has never met Zoe Azpeitia.
Mrs. Porter is the woman whose identity Lopez and Ball allegedly stole in order to defraud the lender for Ms. Ball's unit at the Murano Grande. One of the first steps in their mortgage fraud scheme is to fill out a loan application for the person who they were going to get a mortgage under, in this case, Mrs. Delores Porter. One aspect of the loan application that's been overlooked in many of these identity theft cases is the part at the very end of the loan application where it says
"interviewer's name"
From what we've been told, this is where the mortgage broker who took the application has to sign attesting that he/she took the information from the borrower and that to the best of their ability have determined that the information is true and correct. In the Porter Identity theft case the loan officer that conducted this "face to face" interview was a loan officer named Zoe Azpeitia, when Ms. Azpeitia was later deposed regarding the Porter matter, she tells the attorneys that...
(Zoe Azpeitia was deposed by attorneys from Cohen Fox, PA on October 8''', 2009.) In that deposition, Azpeitia stated that she did not conduct a face-to face interview with Porter.
Oh, OK. According to the police report, Mrs. Porter's identity was stolen and now according to Ms. Azpeitia, whose name appears on the loan application as the interviewer, her identity must have been stolen as well? Ok, got it. So what's the tie in to the Bernardo Barrera Mortgage Fraud Case? Easy, there was a similar 1003 loan application for Barrera case as well, let's take a look...
Oh nice! See that signature at the bottom where it says interviewer's name? Whether the man who signed as the borrower was the real Barrera or an impostor, this man who conducted the interview or took the loan application met with him face to face according to this document. Now, considering what we know about Mr. Barrera's signature, we can only conclude that the signature on this page is Mr. Barrera's real signature. If you follow that line of reasoning, then we have someone now (the interviewer) that came face to face with Mr. Barrera and took a loan application for what we now know was a transaction designed to defraud Citi Mortgage.
There is something else though, we learned through an email written by none other than Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski (we're saving that gem for later) that it's the mortgage brokers that are responsible for...
"verifying the accuracy of employment and assets listed by the potential borrowers."
That's fantastic Mr. Kostrzewski! By the tone of your email, it looks like you're finally paying attention, albeit about two years too late. So, who verified Mr. Barrera's employment status for the Oak Avenue Mortgage Fraud? Let's take a look...
Sweet! The same guy that took Mr. Barrera's loan application also verified his employment! What are the chances? So now, we have two more people to add into the mix, the guy that took the loan application and verified Mr. Barrera's employment and now some guy named Rolando Rosa confirmed that Mr. Barrera was a sales manager at Miryil Enterprises. The question that begs to be asked though is why was this aspect of the Bernardo Barrera case completely ignored by the police and the prosecutors? This confirmation of employment as well as the mortgage brokers signature at the bottom of the loan application certainly does muddy the waters for the states case doesn't it? Rather than complicate their case we guess they just decided to look past these pertinent facts. Nice going guys.
Moving along, yesterday we get this message from one of our readers...
Why be anonymous? It seems to me you should take credit for the vast information you claim to know and have so generously provided. What are you afraid of? You should also remember that what goes around comes around......your thyroid cancer may just come back.
OH NO! THYROID CANCER?! As far as I know there's never been anything wrong with my Thyroid, what's the deal? FCUK! Does this reader know something that we don't know? Should we get our thyroid checked out?! DAMN!
"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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We learned about disbarred attorney Maria Teresa Lopez yesterday, what was most interesting though is that the MDPD nor the Miami Dade County Mortgage fraud task force did ANYTHING about the millions of dollars of fraud that she committed leading up to the Florida Bar disbarring her. What gives? Some of those frauds were from back in 2006 and the Mortgage Fraud Task Force didn't do anything about them? What's worse is that the petitions for suspension by that bar could have been copied word for word into an arrest affidavit, they'd already done all the investigating and writing! Cut and paste then VIOLA! Instant arrest affidavit with all the documentation to back everything up, not to mention of far better quality than any arrest affidavit that we've seen to date.
So what did it take to finally bring the Mortgage Fraud Task Force to arrest Ms. Lopez? Let's take a look at the article from the Sun Sentinel...
Former Dolphin Jamie Nails charged with fraud Offensive lineman stole identity of ex-teammate’s grandmother, police say
Jamie Nails, a former Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills offensive lineman, is being charged with mortgage fraud after police say he stole the identity of the grandmother of a former teammate.
An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for Nails, 34, who was believed to be in his native Georgia.
Miami-Dade prosecutors say the alleged victim is the grandmother of Nails' former Bills teammate Daryl Porter.
Also charged: Irina J. Ball, president of Pan American Investment and Mortgage Corp., and Maria T. Lopez, a Coral Gables lawyer disbarred in January for improper handling of client matters.
All are charged with organized fraud, organized scheme to defraud, first-degree grand theft and fraudulent use of an identity.
According to an arrest warrant made public Wednesday, Nails and Ball stole the identity of Delores Porter, 74, to obtain a $510,000 mortgage for a South Beach condominium in her name. Lopez acted as the deal's closing agent, according to Miami-Dade's Mortgage Fraud Task Force.
Prosecutors allege that Ball paid $49,625 to Nails as part of the deal. Nails could not be reached for comment Wednesday night.
This is Nails' second brush with the law since he left the NFL in 2003.
In November 2006, Fort Lauderdale police arrested Nails for grand theft after he failed to return a Chrysler 300 Touring to a rental car company. Records show he accepted a plea deal, agreeing to three years' probation plus restitution.
A 6-foot-6, 335-pound guard, Nails played college ball at Florida A&M and was drafted by Buffalo in 1997. He played four seasons there before signing with Miami.
But in December 2002, he tore his Achilles tendon and never again played up to his potential. He was released after the 2003 season and did not return to the NFL.
After his release, Nails coached for the Miami Fury woman's football team, and the short-lived indoor arena team the Miami Morays.
Wow. The article is more about the football player than it is about the crooked attorney, that's in striking contrast to this article isn't it? Looks like all the Task Force is concerned about is a scintillating headline, damn the real story! There is something that doesn't seem right, from our research, the attorney was suspended from practicing back in 2008, the fraud that's described in the article above occurred either right when she was suspended or just afterwords, that's a problem as once an attorney is suspended, the Bar takes over their trust accounts and disburses any monies that may be left over to makes sure there's no funny business going on, so who closed this crooked deal? What did Ms. Lopez have to do with it and why wasn't the person who closed the deal arrested as well? We'll take a look at that aspect of the story tomorrow, trust me what we're going to find is going to make your stomach turn.
Today we're going to discuss the case of disbarred Miami attorney Maria Teresa Lopez, an attorney accused of doing in the bars words "great public harm". We wonder how this story flew under the radar? Where was the media blitz and fanfare for this case? From the initial Florida supreme court suspension...
The following paragraphs will detail some of these transactions which include failure to satisfy two (2) mortgages and flipping (compound transactions which were conducted simultaneously).
Sound familiar? Remember the transactions we talked about last summer regarding the homes that were busted out in the Grove? Let's see what Ms. Lopez was up to, again from the bar...
H. The first transaction occurred on or about March 31, 2006, involving property located at 2300 SW 26 Street, Miami, Fl 33133. The HUD-1 Statement reflects that the purchase price was $720,000.00; that Respondent was the settlement agent; Christian Giannotti was the seller; and Mairet Corzo was the buyer.
I. This transaction appears to not have been an arm’s length transaction. Christian Giannotti and Mairet Corzo were the principals in a Florida Limited Liability Company identified as Giannotti & Corzo, LLC. It is Respondent’s contention that she had no knowledge of the existing relationship between the parties prior to or while acting as the closing agent for the transaction.
J. During the Staff Auditor’s review of the records, he found the following problems with this transaction:
1. The cash from borrower listed on line 303 of the HUD-1 Statement was $24,904.60, however, those funds were never provided by the borrower. It is Respondent’s contention that the funds were provided by seller to borrower as a loan from seller’s proceeds.
2. The cash to seller listed on line 603 of the HUD-1 Statement was $166,935.52, however, the actual disbursements were $75,000.00 to Christian Giannotti, “the seller”, and $66,030.92 to Mairet Corzo, “the borrower”.
3. There was a “Gift of equity” (listed on line 509 of the HUD-1 Statement) in the amount of $170,000.00 which reduced the sales price.
4. Respondent contends that she received $4,350.50 in fees, and since she was a broker with Preferred Mortgage, she also received approximately $6,000.00 more.
SWEET! Both the buyer and seller cashing out at the closing and the attorney doing the closing is not only the closing agent but the mortgage broker! Talk about multitasking! It get's better...
K. In the above transaction Respondent failed to satisfy an existing mortgage on the property in the amount of $320,000.00 from Capital Homes and Investments, which filed a Lis Pendens on March 7, 2007. Capital Homes and Investments has not foreclosed on the property because Christian Giannotti filed a Suggestion of Bankruptcy. Capital Homes and Investments has filed a claim with The Fund. It is Respondent’s contention that this claim has recently been settled among the parties.
L. On or about December 27, 2006, Mairet Corzo refinanced the above property located at 2300 SW 26 Street, Miami Fl 33133 and netted approximately $73,412.06 before she let the property go into foreclosure. Respondent was the Settlement Agent and again failed to satisfy the existing mortgage of Capital Homes. From this transaction, Respondent contends that she received $6,346.62 in fees and held $20,000.00 in her trust account in an effort to obtain a release of mortgage from Giannotti. On or about August 21, 2007, those funds were paid to The Fund when she disclosed the existence of said funds during a deposition.
COOL! Not only was the first part of this closing hokey but she allows the buyer to refinance the property and she FORGETS TO PAY OFF THE MORTGAGE AT THE CLOSING! To add insult to injury, attorney/mortgage broker Lopez pcks up another $6,346.62 in fees! COOL!
It get's better...
M. The second transaction involved property located at 13040 Coronado Terrace, Miami, Fl 33187. The HUD-1 Statement reflects that Respondent was the settlement agent; Irina Ball acted as purchaser; the seller was Max Gawley; the settlement date was August 16, 2007; and the purchase price was $930,000.00.
N. In addition to this HUD-1 Statement, there is a second HUD-1 Statement with the same date, but this time Irina Ball acted as the seller of this same property to a buyer identified as Roximar Duval. This HUD-1 Statement reflects that the sales price was $1,275,000.00; the cash from borrower was $324,657.05 ; and the cash to seller was $1,229,544.96.
O. In reality, there was no cash from the borrower . It is Respondent’s contention that the borrower did not bring cash to the closing, but the funds were provided by seller as a loan to borrower from seller’s sale proceeds. The real seller, Max Gawley, received $797,282.05, Irina Ball received $38,780.86 and Respondent contends that the $9,136.50 she received was for fees. It should be noted that the lender recorded a Lis Pendens.
Ok, another bust out, no cash to close (actually $324,657.05 missing, but who's counting), double huds, simultaneous flips (same day no less) with a net profit of nearly $300,000 and to add insult to injury, the house is in foreclosure. NICE! Ok, one more...
P. The third transaction involved property located at 400 Alton Road #710, Miami Beach, Fl 33139, and it is similar to the previous transactions. The HUD-1 Statement reflects that Respondent was the settlement agent; Irina Ball acted as the purchaser; the seller was Adam Slone; the settlement date was October 15, 2007; the purchase price was $880,000.00; and the cash to seller was $165,040.43.
Q. In addition to this HUD-1 Statement, there is a second HUD-1 Statement dated October 26, 2007, in which Irina Ball acted as the seller for the same property to a buyer identified as Juanita Nails. This HUD-1 Statement reflects that the sales price was $1,050,000.00; the cash from borrower was $117,207.12; and the cash to seller was $1,028,390.68.
R. Again, there was no cash from the borrower. It is Respondent’s contention that the borrower did not bring cash to the closing, but the funds were provided by seller as a loan to borrower from seller’s sale proceeds. The seller, Adam Slone, received $165,040.43; Irina Ball (through her corporation Pan American Investment and Mortgage Corp.) received $38,780.86; and Respondent contends that the $25,902.78 she received was for fees.
More of the same, simultaneous flips, six figure profit and Attorney/mortgage broker Lopez pockets a nice $25,902.78 fee! Bored yet? Ok, one more...
S. Another transaction where Respondent acted as the closing agent involved property located at 16485 Collins Avenue #1136 Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. The HUD-1 Statement reflects that Respondent was the settlement agent; Cliff Johnson acted as purchaser; the seller was Jessica Borer; the settlement date was August 29, 2007; and the purchase price was $850,000.00.
T. In addition to this HUD-1 Statement, there is a second HUD-1 Statement with the same date, but this time Cliff Johnson acted as the seller for the same property to a buyer identified as Roximar Duval. This HUD-1 Statement reflects that the sales price was $998,000.00; the cash from borrower was $82,686.42; and the cash to seller was $128,618.92.
U. Once again, there was no cash from borrower. It is Respondent’s contention that the borrower did not bring cash to the closing, but the funds were provided by seller as a loan to borrower from seller’s sale proceeds. The seller, Jessica Borer had her existing mortgages satisfied, but did not receive anything further. It is Respondent’s contention that Irina Ball (not listed in either of the two HUD-1 Statements) received $22,915.68 pursuant to a disbursement authorization and and that the $17,233.07 received by Respondent was for fees . It should be noted that the lender has recorded a Lis Pendens.
Once again, the simultaneous flip, huge profits and the home goes into foreclosure after the scam, oh and the attorney/mortgage broker receives a $17,233.07 fee!
Now, take into account that these closings occurred back in 2006 and 2007 yet the attorney/mortgage broker wasn't arrested?! Why weren't people like Detective Baluja and ASA Bill Kostrzewski staying up till four in the morning writing up arrest affidavits to bring this woman down? We'll get into that tomorrow.
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". 
