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So what do you get when you've admitted to committing hundreds of millions (if not billions) of dollars worth of mortgage fraud over the span of a decade? The two mortgage brokers at the epicenter of the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trial, Matt Gulla and Rene Rodriguez Jr, have finally received their sentences, remember, they both admitted to among other things, destroying evidence, committing thousands of other frauds, not to mention that they literally imploded in court while testifying against the men on trial possibly causing the prosecution their case.
So what would these guys get considering the only two guys convicted in this entire case John Velez and Joseph Derosa received 42 months and 37 months respectively in federal prison for committing a fraction of the crimes that Gulla and Rodriguez committed. Take a look for yourselves...
Matt Gulla Sentence
Rene Rodriguez Jr. Sentence
Interesting huh? Matt Gulla gets 34 months and Rene Rodriguez gets 43 months in federal prison. Remember even after these guys both became cooperating government witnesses they were proven in court to lie about the extent of the other frauds they were involved in, were exposed to be liars while on the stand severely damaging the prosecution who they were supposed to be helping and then admitted to committing fraud in every single loan they processed over the last decade, by their own admission, fraud in over a billion dollars worth of mortgages. With all that in mind does it seem fair that they literally only get a slap on the wrist for their crimes?
Let's not forget that in addition to everything else that they did, after cooperating with the government and allegedly turning over all the evidence that they had in their possession pertaining to the case at hand almost two years after they had cut their respective deals and cooperated with the government, on the eve of the first trial they admitted to shredding documents and destroying their office servers which could have held tons of documents that would have been favorable to the defense. Even after making that kind of admission, at the end of the second trial the government even made a motion to the court asking that their sentences be reduced because of their "substantial assistance" to the prosecution. WTF?!
Remember, before there were any indictments, before there was even a hint of anyone getting arrested in the Plantation Cops mess, both Gulla and Rodriguez had retained top flight defense attorneys and had hammered out deals with the government in exchange for selling out the rest of the guys charged. Considering how light their sentences are and the fact that they won't pay any restitution despite admitting to over a billion dollars worth of fraud, this just goes to show that when you think the shit is going to hit the fan, make sure you win the race to the prosecutors office, whoever gets there first, will get the best deal as evidenced by Gulla and Rodriguez's sentences. That's all well and good if you can live with yourself and don't mind looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life...
Go back and read the comments sections of our last weeks worth of posts and you'll find long winded diatribes both for and against the defendants in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial. Things like, Joe Guaracino is a crook, this guy drives a Corvette (the horror!), the other guy has a small penis, this one's innocent, the other guy's guilty, the jury did the right thing, the jurors are idiots, etc. So much emotion, so much anger, yet everyone seems to be missing the point.
Let's say for the sake of argument that the defendants charged in this nearly five year long investigation that's come to be known as "operation copout", were guilty. Say the government was right, they lied about their incomes, they fudged where the down payments for the homes in question came from, let's even assume there was some level of complicity from the attorneys charged as well, what's the net result? Remember, all the loans in question were paid back with the exception of a few that were under Guaracino's personal name, so in a nutshell, assume these guys were guilty of all of those things but in the end the banks all got their money back plus profits.
Now, with that assumption made, look at what was learned during trial, the mortgage brokers who made all these alleged crimes possible walked with a slap on the wrist and a $500 fine. Granted, they're going to do two or three years behind bars but anyone remember what they admitted to? Both Matt Gulla and Rene Rodriguez admitted to committing fraud on every loan they had processed over the last decade! While the government calculated the alleged Guaracino involved frauds to be somewhere in the +/- $16mm range, imagine the dollar figure for the frauds these mortgage brokers must have been involved with? It's easily in the hundreds of millions if not in the billion dollar range! We're talking a decade worth of loans, perhaps thousands of frauds. With that in mind, does the governments strategy of going after the cops really make sense? The brokers got immunity for all the other crimes they committed in exchange for their testimony against the cops that were charged as part of "operation copout", does that seem correct? At least in my opinion it doesn't. I thought that going after the mortgage brokers seemed like a more plausible scenario and therefore using the cops to testify against them, instead we got this wacky prosecution where in the end the real culprits, the real masterminds got away. Does anyone believe for a moment that Guaracino and his group of cops were the only group that the brokers worked with? Throughout the history of this case we've had plenty of people come forward and tell us that there were groups of teachers, firefighters and other cops that were all working with Gulla and Rodriguez on similar deals, why didn't anyone investigate those transactions?
The truth of the matter is that the guys who were the subject of the governments prosecution in this case were small potatoes. The "big fish", "masterminds" or "ringleaders" weren't the cops or even the lawyers that were charged, they were the mortgage brokers who in retrospect got the best deal of all considering the magnitude of their crimes. Whether the untold millions worth of fraudulent loans or destroying evidence, these guys should have gotten decades in federal prison, instead we're left with nearly 9 months of trials that seemed to never end and a two low level players whose convictions will probably be overturned on appeal. That hardly sounds like justice to me.
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Our comments section has been abuzz over the last few days, first with the second phase of the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial ending in a hung jury and now with the sentencing of the two cops convicted in the first trial, John Velez and Joseph Derosa, being sentenced today. I was frankly very startled to learn that in light of the outcome of the second case and the fact that 4 of the six defendants from the first case were acquitted, the court seems to have thrown the book at these guys.
John Velez was sentenced today to 42 months in federal prison, Joseph Derosa received 37 months in federal prison and three years of probation. Mr. Velez was found guilty of one count of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements on a hud. Mr. Derosa was found guilty of one count of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of "making false statements within the jurisdiction of hud". Does 37 or 42 months seem commensurate with those charges? Hardly in my opinion and even worse when you take into consideration the fact that the banks that were the alleged "victims" of Mr. Velez and Mr. Derosa's scheme have done far worse than they have and to date they've gone unpunished. What makes this even more outrageous is the fact that both Velez and Derosa had no records! Let's not forget that before this mess these guys were cops!
Now, if that wasn't enough to get your blood boiling, let's take a look at what the cooperating defendants got. We'll start with the mortgage brokers, the two crooks at the center of this mess who admitted to forging hundreds if not thousands of documents, two fraudsters that admitted to committing fraud on nearly every single loan they processed over the last decade, what did the government hit these guys with? Matt Gulla got 34 months and his partner Rene Rodriguez gets 43 months with each one of them having to pay $500 in restitution each. How's that for justice?! These two characters were responsible for hundreds of millions, perhaps several billion dollars worth of fraud and they get off this lightly? Judging by the severity of the convicted cops sentences, shouldn't these two get the chair?!
So here were are after nearly five years worth of investigating, almost 8 months of trials and this is the best we can do? I'd love for someone to do a cost benefit analysis of just how much it cost to achieve the two convictions that resulted from "Operation Copout". Any wonder why our government spending is out of control?
On another note, we're being told that the government has rested its case against federally indicted City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur. This case seems to be moving at a much faster clip that the other federal mortgage fraud trials we've been watching, I suspect the trials going to be over within the next ten days. I'm also told that Veldora herself plans on testifying, that in and of itself should make for some interesting theater.
I want to thank all of you for your efforts and dedication to Human Rights and Human Kindness, in the past year I have experienced such emotion, joy, sadness and never ending faith. It is because of all of you that I am alive today, as I look at my sister Martina I am marveled by the love she has for me and of course I worry about her and her health, but as she tells me she is the eldest and she will not back down from this fight to save my life and prove to the world that I am innocent of this terrible crime.
As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see first hand. I am humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing Joy. I can’t even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human Spirit to see Justice prevail.
I cannot answer all of your letters but I do read them all, I cannot see you all but I can imagine your faces, I cannot hear you speak but your letters take me to the far reaches of the world, I cannot touch you physically but I feel your warmth everyday I exist.
So Thank you and remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated. There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.
I can’t wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form, I will one day be announcing,
“I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!”
Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win!
Rest in peace Mr. Davis.
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Just when you think you've heard it all regarding the mortgage brokers what are at the center of the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case, something else pops up that leaves you speechless. From the very beginning of the case we've been told time and time again that the mortgage brokers involved were a literal fake document factory, they faked and forged all kinds of documents from verification of employment letters, bogus loan applications, fake tenant leases, etc. Much to the governments chagrin, the various defense attorneys have exposed these guys to be the crooks they are, not only by having them admit to all the fake documents that they created but also having them admit that they also forged the borrowers signatures on most of the same documents which we later found out was common practice for thousands of loans that they originated over the last decade.
If all that wasn't bad enough, yesterday we learned that the mortgage brokers, Rene Rodriguez Jr and Matt Gulla, had also been submitting fake loan commitments to the lenders! For those of you that are unsure about what a Loan Commitment Letter is, lets be clear:
...it's the document an underwriter sends to the loan officer once a loan is approved. A commitment letter will detail every aspect of the mortgage. It will include the terms and interest rate. It will itemize the “Conditions” (the items that must be provided or explained for final approval). The commitment letter will be dated and it will have an expiration date. It may be signed by the underwriter. The Loan Commitment Letter is a formal, legally binding document.
In one instance, UBS sent the mortgage brokers a commitment letter that said the loan was going to be 80% loan to value meaning the buyer had to bring in a 20% down payment with no secondary financing. Pretty cut and dry right? The lender (UBS) was granting the loan based on the fact that the buyer was putting in some of his own money, since the buyer was going to have his own money in the deal he was less likely to default on the loan therefore making the loan a safer bet for the bank since the buyer was going to have some "skin in the game". In this instance the lender prohibited secondary financing, but that wasn't an issue for the brokers! Fraudsters Rodriguez and Gulla altered this loan commitment and removed the secondary financing prohibition then forwarded it to another lender who provided the remaining money to close the deal therefore making this loan a nearly 100% bank financed deal even though the original lender prohibited secondary financing. Not bad, huh? You think there's any chance that the poor guy who borrowed the money for this home knew anything about the degree of fraud and criminality that was involved in this deal? Is it conceivable that the mortgage brokers told the borrower that they were not only going to fake the loan applications and other associated documents necessary to obtain the loan, but that they were going to also fake the official loan documents that the primary lender issued in order to obtain financing from a secondary lender? Highly unlikely.
What makes all this even worse is that Rodriguez and Gulla, the mortgage brokers that are at the center of this shitstorm that we refer to as the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trial aren't even on trial! These guys set themselves up with sweetheart deals from the get go, even before anyone was indicted. It seems to me that these guys should be the ones that get the book thrown at them, not the poor cops who got the loans then paid them off only to later get indicted and have their careers and lives destroyed based on the testimony of two lowlife criminals who would sell their mothers out in order to lessen their stints in federal prison. Oh well.
Now, moving on, once again our friend Al Crespo comes through with a fantastic bit of reporting where he uncovers a list of all of the City of Miami employees that have a take home car from the city, can anyone guess who we found on that list? Take a look...
That's none other than the federally indicted City of Miami Assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur! Not only has Veldora been sitting at home since she was Federally indicted for mortgage fraud on paid administrative leave while pulling down over $300k+ in pay and benefits and traveling all over the country over the past few months since her indictment, to add insult to injury she's also got a car that's paid for by the City of Miami taxpayers! Sweet, where can I sign up for a deal like this? Like everyone's been saying lately, ONLY IN MIAMI!
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As the title states, we've come across another instance where the defendants in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case have a witness who's favorable to their case and as we've seen before, the prosecutors don't want the jury to hear about it. In this instance the witness that's come forward isn't a paid expert or someone that's been offered immunity or any other kind of deal by the government. The witness that the prosecutors don't want the jury to hear about came forward on her own to testify about the fraud that mortgage brokers (and cooperating government witnesses) Matt Gulla and Rene Rodriguez Jr. had committed when doing her home mortgage.
From the very onset of the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case, the defendants had maintained that they loan applications they submitted were truthful and accurate and that the mortgage brokers then doctored the applications and ultimately forged the borrowers signatures on the documents that were then forwarded to the banks that funded the mortgages. Now, I'm sure some of you would say that this sounds like a bogus "I knew nothing about what was going on" defense, that's where this new witness comes in. Apparently the new witness that the prosecutors don't want the jury to hear from had the very same problem, she submitted accurate 1003 loan applications to the mortgage brokers only to find out later that they had doctored the applications and forged her signature on the new fraudulent applications. Interesting, huh? Consider that this new witness has no motivation or incentive to come forward with this damning testimony against the brokers, she's simply coming forward to set the record straight about how these criminals operated and how they did the very same things to her as the defendants in this case allege were done to them.
So what's the problem? Aren't the defendants entitled to have this witness testify before the court and jury and set the record straight about the crooked ways of former mortgage brokers Matt Gulla and Rene Rodriguez? Why are the prosecutors fighting so hard to have this testimony excluded from the trial, after all isn't this trial about a "search for truth" rather than just achieving a conviction by any means necessary? At this point the prosecutors arguments are moot as the judge has allowed the witness to testify before the jury. I was rather surprised considering how the judge has ruled in other similar circumstances throughout this case. We'll have to wait till tomorrow to hear what the witness has to say...
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One of our readers took the time to put together an analysis of the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case as they knew it. Here it is...
The Governments Misconduct goes far beyond the average case. It appears the case was investigated by an FDLE agent who had no experience in Mortgage Fraud...
No kidding, a cop investigating a mortgage fraud case that has no experience with mortgage fraud? NAH!
...he came up with a theory decided to name it operation COPOUT and once named in 2008 there was no stopping the targets they originally thought were guilty.
No stopping the agent once he thought his targets were guilty? Didn't we discuss this phenomenon a while back?
They made a deal with the two mortgage brokers. Then they relied on just those two brokers. They failed to properly investigate. They ignored information the brokers were destroying evidence
they had all the resources but never served a search warrant they just sent subpoenas and waited for the brokers and others to send documents gave them plenty of time to take out the real information that was sent to them and alter things.
Interesting point, why not just raid the mortgage brokers office, catch them off guard and take everything they got so they don't have a chance to filter out what they don't want law enforcement to see or worse, destroy evidence? Considering that the targets of this investigation were fellow law enforcement agents whose lives would be permanently altered by an indictment of this nature, why wouldn't they take the time to properly investigate this case?
Let's talk about their theory
First it was straw buyers then they acknowledged real investments
Then it was they took money and ran then they found out most homes had extensive remodeling and were sold
Then no repairs were done then close to 2 million in receipts cancelled checks and invoices and over a thousand pictures produced ( wouldn't a simple purchase and sale appraisal show the interior improvements done)
Then the indictment said the borrowers submitted false information
After the brokers plead they found out the brokers submitted all the false info
They also said there were forgeries all over the loans they ordered everyone to take handwriting exemplars accept that's right the brokers the exemplars said nope none of these guys did the fraud it doesn't match
Then through motions they found out the brokers committed over 1000 forgeries and every loan involved had a forged application and all disclosures sent to the lenders were forged by the brokers. So all the loans involved all the forgeries an fraud was committed by the brokers.
At this point, why not do the right thing, dismiss the charges against the cops and then nail the brokers to the cross?
Ok well we spent so much money and time an we already indicted all these people so let's just go with they knew or should have known. That documents they never seen or should have seen were forged and falsified because borrowers although there not involved in the loan process between a broker and a lender they should have thought to ask are you using my w2 and tax return? Or are you putting us in subprime loans with higher rates then what we qualify for so the brokers could get paid 100s of thousands in what are now considered illegal Yield spread Premiums.
Ok so we know the brokers did all the fraud and the whole case rest on the other defendants had to have knowledge.
Oh but we found out in the last trial the brokers did the same fraud to 1000s of others for over 10 years.
Instead of clearing 1000s of victims the brokers pull off there last big con! They make a deal then destroy other evidence and admitted on the stand oh yea we did all the fraud and to thousands.
Here's where I get lost, the government now has the mortgage brokers admitting that they've committed THOUSANDS of frauds over the last decade causing untold millions in losses to the banks yet the prosecution is still focusing on a handful of defendants whose worst crime is allegedly misstating their incomes on loan applications for loans that were ultimately paid off anyway? Let's not forget that it's already been proven in the previous trial that the defendants didn't even know that the brokers were doctoring the loan applications and forging their signatures!
I'm lost. Who exactly were the victims in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case? The homes that are at the center of this indictment for the most part were purchased, improved then resold. Where's the problem? What am I missing?
Ever since the real estate and mortgage meltdown we've been inundated with ads for lawyers that are going to help you the poor consumer get relief from those evil banks that gave you all kinds of money that you now can't pay back. Their m.o. was all to enticing, don't pay your mortgage, instead send me a few hundred bucks a month and I'll keep you in your house until the bank buckles over, screams for mercy and gives you your house back with a monthly payment that you can afford. Sounds great but does anyone know one these deals that actually worked out? All I've ever heard of was lawyers taking peoples money and not doing shit, sort of like what attorney Rashmi Airan-Pace of Miami is accused of doing. From yesterdays Daily Business Review article...
Stacy Peppers, a West Palm Beach insurance agent, got a cold call in 2009 from a company promising to secure her a loan modification. With her husband recently laid off, Peppers was having trouble paying the mortgage on her Pompano Beach house and was turned down for a mortgage modification when she called her lender.
So far so good...
But Peppers said she heard nothing from her lawyer, Rashmi Airan-Pace, and could get no calls returned for months. So she started requesting a refund.
"I was getting aggravated," she said. "I kept asking for my money back and heard nothing back."
Uh oh...
Finally, Peppers called her lender, Chase, and was dumbfounded by what she heard. She was told no one had ever called on her behalf and the bank had never heard of the Airan-Pace law firm.
WHOOPS! It gets worse...
Peppers is one of a half dozen clients who complained to The Florida Bar about the Airan-Pace firm and its principal, Rashmi Airan-Pace.
But clients from around the country began complaining to The Bar and on such websites as ripoffreport.com with similar tales about Airan-Pace — they hired her firm to help negotiate a mortgage modification with their lender but nothing was done. They also complain that when they asked for refunds, they got no answer or were rebuffed.
So we've got an untold number of people who claim that attorney Airan-Pace has taken their money and not done anything in return, here's another example...
One such client was Christopher Delany. The former New York mortgage broker said he once had 90 employees but got in trouble when the housing market downshifted. The father of four hired Airan-Pace for help forestall the foreclosure on his Kendall home. He paid her $2,000 and offered to do some marketing work for her.
"I asked her for assistance with dialogue with the bank and to prolong the foreclosure," he said. "I said, 'Can you do that?' She said, "Yes, yes, yes.'"
But Delany said he could not get Airan-Pace on the phone after that and got no relief from foreclosure proceedings. He demanded a refund from Airan-Pace and finally threatened in a letter to "become William Shakespeare" and start writing letters to The Florida Bar turning Airan-Pace in. Her father responded in a strongly worded letter that he did not appreciate the threat and would sue for defamation.
Could it get any worse than this? Considering the magnitude of the accusations against her and rumors of an FBI investigation into her involvement with some questionable real estate transactions, what kind of punishment do you think the Florida Bar gave her? Disbarment for sure right? In case you're interested you can read the Bar's disciplinary action against Airan-Pace here, in a nutshell she got suspended for 45 days and ordered to pay a few of her clients back a portion of the money that they had given for their loan modifications.
Big fucking deal, who knows how much money these people took in and how many people got stuck in situations like this...
Delany said he feels particularly bad for a neighbor he recommended to Airan-Pace whose house was sold at auction. "She took his money, and she didn't do anything," he said. "For every one person complaining, there are probably 100 people she screwed over. These law firms are becoming processing mills."
I'm sure the people that forked over their hard earned money with hopes of saving their homes only to get nothing in return are ecstatic to know that this attorney has to take a 45 day vacation as punishment.
Now, onto the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trial. I've been backed up and haven't been able to spend time going through the recent events regarding this trial, I looked up the docket and was shocked to find this (as always, click on the image to enlarge)...
The court's in recess till July 18th? How does the court take a nearly three week break during the middle of a trial? Anyone have any insight as to WTF that's about?
Lastly, considering the not guilty verdict in the Casey Anthony murder trial and the recent comparisons of this trial to the O.J. Simpson trial, I thought this is an appropriate warning for our readers...
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Could this be true? Several sources as well as several of our commenters tell us that both Veldora Arthur and Thomas Thelusma have been on paid administrative leave since they were federally indicted for mortgage fraud! From our comments section...
Anonymous said...
While I don't agree with the "black thing" comment, the rest is very troubling if true. As we've said time and time again, we believe in the presumption of innocence, innocent till proven guilty, but this business of getting federally indicted and then being put on paid administrative leave is a bit much, isn't it?
What's even more troubling is the fact that the cops indicted in operation "Cop out" aka the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case were put on "leave" without pay after they were indicted. Why did the cops get sent home with no money while having to prove their innocence while the City of Miami fire department employees get to stay home while still raking in six figures? Worse still, with the City of Miami teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, how the hell can they justify paying these federally indicted employees while they're sitting at home? Can we really afford to have anyone sitting at home while getting paid as if they were at work?
Now, going back to the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case, aka "Operation Cop out", we learned yesterday that the decision to go after the cops was made by FDLE special agent Dennis Roadruck...
In the spoilation hearing before this court Lead Agent Dennis Roadruck testified that he in his sole disgression limited this investigation to the cops.
I wonder what it was about the cops that caused agent Roadruck to focus his attention on them and them alone? We've been told time and time again throughout the course of this investigation and subsequent trial that the mortgage brokers involved, Rene Rodriguez and Matt Gulla, had committed hundreds if not thousands of similar frauds. Even worse, the government was not only aware of these other cases of fraud but they also had the mortgage brokers records and hard drives which contained proof of these frauds, so why did this investigation only zero in on the cops that were indicted?
You guys hash it out and we'll discuss further next time.
