Sentencing for two guys who admitted to a decade worth of fraudulent mortgages...

.

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...

New revelations of the mortgage brokers in the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case committing even more fraud! Also, can anyone guess which grossly over paid City of Miami employee gets a take home car?

.

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!

Indicted City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur and firefighter Thomas Thelusma on paid leave?! And "Operation Cop out", what's in a name?

.




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...

Where the F*^k are the Cops!Veldora Arthur has been on PAID LEAVE since March! Now Thomas Thelusma has the same special 'LEAVE' Plan!! WTF I total agree that all are innocent until proving guilty BUT that doesn't mean you CANT WORK. But then again we DON'T Get IT.....because its a 'Black Thing'.

May 19, 2011 10:09 AM

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.

Great news for Deutche Bank, it looks like the may have a chance to get some of their money bank from former City of Miami CFO Larry Spring! Also, what's in a name? Another angle on the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case aka "Operation Copout"

.

You all remember the City of Miami's former CFO and "financial guru" Larry Spring, don't you?  In case you've forgotten, the "financial guru" had purchased his mothers home, stripped all the equity out of it then let it fall into foreclosure finally ending up with a nearly $250,000 judgement against Mr. Spring in favor of Deutche Bank.  

Larry Spring 14421 Polk Street Final Judgement

No big deal right?  Just another worthless judgement that the bank will never collect?  WRONG!  Today we learned from our friends over at the Crespo-Gram report that Mr. Spring is about to come into a shitload of money...

According to the documents that Mr. Crespo has unearthed, Mr. Spring is about to receive $125,734.56 for retiring from his post as the City's CFO.  I wonder, since there's no record of a satisfaction of judgement for the outstanding debt Mr. Spring has to Deutche Bank, isn't he still on the hook for the money he owes to the bank?  If indeed he is still indebted to the bank, since both Deutche Bank and Morgan Stanley both received federal bailout money, Mr. Spring actually owes the money to the American taxpayer as well!  With that in mind, do you think Mr. Spring is going to run and hand over the proceeds of his severance package to the banks who have a six figure judgement against him?  Somehow I doubt it.  If you do feel that Mr Spring aka the City of Miami's "Financial guru" should pay back the money he rightfully owes, then you may want to contact the attorney who got the judgement against him.  From the recorded final judgement...

That would be Meaghan Dunne Esq who can be contacted at mdunne@defaultlawfl.com. I'm sure she'd love to hear about Mr. Spring's recent windfall.

Our comments section has been jumping this weekend, specifically the last post we made regarding the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trial.  From the comments we get this gem...

I've asked this several times... Why only the cops? Why not rene or matts family members? Why was this whole case called" Operation Copout" in 2008, when the officers were never even interviewed yet??? Let's call a spade a spade...

WTF?  This is the first time I've heard the Plantation Cops case referred to as "Operation Copout".  Take another look at that comment, think for a moment if the commenter is correct and the operation was labeled "Copout", does that mean that the feds went in from the get go to bring down fellow law enforcement officers?  Could this explain why the feds have all but ignored the hundreds if not thousands of frauds the mortgage brokers Rene Rodriguez and Matt Gulla have been involved in?  We'll have to take a closer look at this angle...

The anatomy of a rat, a little known fact about defendant Rene Rodriguez, Jr.

.

It's an age old scam, a group of people get caught committing a crime which then triggers a race to the prosecutors office to see who can cut a deal first to save their own ass by selling out their co-conspirators.  Sometimes people are forced to cut these kind of deals because they don't have the money to defend themselves or worse when the mountain of evidence before them is insurmountable and there's no sense in going to trial.  In these cases the only way out may be to cut a deal and give the government whatever they need to bury the other defendants.  Not exactly the honorable thing to do but whatever.


There's another reason to turn on your cohorts and cooperate with the government.  What if you're a seasoned career criminal who knows that they can get out of just about any crime and be back on the street to commit more crime by simply cooperating with law enforcement and prosecutors?  Wouldn't that give you an air of infallibility and the license to do just about anything you wanted?  Think about it, forge some documents?  Fuck it, I'll cut a deal.  Fabricate fake tax returns?  Fuck it, I'll cut a deal.  Scam customers and rape them with exorbitant fees?  Fuck it, I'll cut a deal.  Screw banks out of millions of dollars?  Fuck it, I'll cut a deal.  As long as there's a bigger fish than you in your group, you'll be good to go.

Now, coming back to the Plantation Cop's mortgage fraud scheme, the two most important cooperating witnesses for the government till now have been the two mortgage brokers, Rene Rodriguez, Jr and Matt Gulla.  From what we've been able to find, these two mortgage brokers were at the very epicenter of hundreds if not thousands of mortgage frauds as well as the ones that were included in the Plantation Cops federal mortgage fraud indictment.  Who knows exactly what their reasons were, but they were the first ones to run to the government to cut a deal and cooperate against the remaining co-defendants.  Like we said earlier, nothing strange about this, standard operating procedure for people caught committing a crime that are trying to find the easiest way out.  

While the indictment against the Plantation Cop's was filed in mid 2010, it seems like Rene Rodriguez and Matt Gulla were racing to the prosecutors office to cut a deal as early as late 2008/early 2009.  No big deal right?  While going through the voluminous files that are part of this case, I came across an interesting bit of information over the weekend, it turns out that during the peak of the real estate boom, around 2005, the same time frame that the homes that were included in the federal indictment were bought and sold, Mr. Rodriguez was cooperating with the government on another case!  Think about that for a moment.  How do you think Mr. Rodriguez's business partners, friends and clients would have behaved if they knew that he was a cooperating witness on another case?  Remember that air of infallibility we spoke of?  Do you think Mr. Rodriguez's judgement may have been impaired when he was forging all those mortgage docs, creating all that bogus paperwork, raping banks out of millions of dollars all the while knowing that if the shit hit the fan he had a get out of jail free card in his pocket?  From the opening statements...

In furtherance of his cooperation, am I able to go into that, he learned from an early stage, once his hand is caught in the cookie jar, how to get it out nice and clean? He learned once he gets caught, instead of accepting responsibility and does what he does, he plays the cooperation game so he could get back on the streets into his nefarious activities.

What's really disturbing about Mr. Rodriguez and his previous history of cooperation is that for some reason or another, the judge doesn't want the jury to hear about it!  Anyone have an angle on this?  We'll discuss Mr. Rodriguez's cooperation further tomorrow.

Finally, someone points the finger at the banks!

We've heard the government blaming mortgage brokers, lawyers, borrowers, etc time and time again, all the while ignoring what we called the "unindicted co-conspirators", the banks that actually made the loans.  Now we finally have someone that's pointing the finger directly at the banks that were at the root of the mortgage and real estate meltdown.  Defense attorney Michael Walsh in his opening statement in phase two of the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial introduces the jurors to the "unindicted co-conspirators", from his opening statement...

It can't be the banks with all their investment bankers, all their certified financial planners, all their lawyers, all their licenses, all their charters.

Of course not!  They wouldn't dare commit a crime let alone financial fraud?!  Remember, it wasn't the banks fault, the blame was squarely on the borrowers and the brokers who lied on their loan applications...

Mr. Sullivan told you the banks are going to tell you that they relied on that. You will not hear from a single person, not one, nada, not a single person who processed a single loan in this case. Do you know where those people are?  Neither do I, neither does the Government.

Exactly!  It wasn't the banks or the people at the banks whose responsibility it was to process these loans or verify what was on the applications fault for dolling out all the money to these people who allegedly lied on the loan applications!

Every single bank, not the bank by name, but the individuals in the bank were criminals, and you will hear that the Government hasn't indicted a single banker except for one for all the stuff they did.

It was the banks and their reps that told the brokers what they needed in order to fund these loans, they set the guidelines for the debt to income ratios, they set the requirements for employment, etc.  It wasn't up to the broker or the borrower to approve the loans, it was strictly up to the bank.  The banks could have easily called and verified what was on the applications, but they chose not to, they chose not to as they needed to hand out the money as fast as they possibly could so they could resell the loans and make more money.

These institutions, call them the big banks. Little banks, obviously, LB, little banks. Little banks is where the crooks worked at, crooks, not people who would be guiled, but people in the business of beguiling, people who like to -- people who lie. I could use big words. When it comes down to it, it is a lie.

These little banks and these crooks, Matt Gulla and Rene Rodriguez, what they did, what they did is, on every single real estate transaction they made, guess who got paid? Matt and Rene, between five and $25,000 per loan. Guess how many people they committed fraud to? Every single loan they ever processed. Not just for the defendants the Government has decided to prosecute, but each and every single loan.

Nothing new here, just the first time that I know of that an attorney has decided to bring in the banks who till now have claimed that they were a victim of these alleged fraudsters.

What happens, John Q. Public, anybody that went into them, came into Matt Gulla and Rene Rodriguez -- Matt Gulla and Rene Rodriguez were in bed figuratively, in the criminal bed with the little banks and crooks. Why?  Because the little banks would take all these loans that they committed fraud on, package them up and sell them to the big banks, and the big banks would pay them.

So, in other words, A would borrow money from B. A's money would be paid back by C. The big banks never cared if B paid them back, if B did, that was icing on the cake.  The little banks, the money they lent to these borrowers through extortion is loans, predatorial type loans did everything. The fraud that is on the loans was perpetrated by the mortgage brokers and the banks.


So, these loans that the banks and mortgage brokers scammed up, that is why you will see the fraud in there, they sold them to the big banks and they hid all that fraud.

Taking into account what Mr. Walsh has outlined in his opening statement and the facts that we're already all to familiar with regarding the lenders complicity in these loans, why hasn't the government gone after any of these lenders?  Think of the tens of millions of dollars that state and federal prosecutors have spent prosecuting these crimes yet to date they haven't gone after the real culprits?  This is no different than law enforcement targeting the corner drug dealer but never going after the kingpin who's growing, processing and importing the drugs.  When will a prosecutor grow a pair and finally file charges against these banks? 

Too damn tired.

Too tired after the Heat game to bang out a meaningful post today.  I'd like to throw a bone to the commenter that left this comment yesterday...

Can we please get an update on the plantation mortgage fraud case? As you can tell from the amount of comments on past posts - everyone visits this blog for that. Thanks.

While I disagree about your assertion that everyone visits our blog to read about the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case (our stats are actually higher when we write about the City of Miami misdeeds), here's a video that brings us back to the heyday of the real estate boom...

The two guys in the end of the commercial are non other than Rene Rodriguez (the bald dark skin guy) and Matt Gulla, the crooked mortgage brokers that pled guilty and are now cooperating with the government against the other co-defendants in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial.  I find the "family" image with the kids and all so amusing, while these career criminals who have confessed to committing hundreds if not thousands of frauds from 2001 to the date they were actually busted are out robbing banks blind.  They have the nerve to show put together commercials like this with their kids in order to portray a trusting wholesome image only to have them just a few short years later sell out their clients and business associates in order to save themselves from serious jail time. 

Trying to understand the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trial verdict.

 I was dumbfounded with the jury's verdict yesterday in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial.  John Burstein from the Sun Sentinel covers the verdict here.   I can't seem to understand how some of the defendants were found not guilty while others were found guilty since they all allegedly did the same thing.  I was of the belief that they were all going to be found not guilty or all guilty, I never imagined two of the six were going to be found guilty while the others walked.  Once again though, we find the government successfully prosecuting people that simply lied on their mortgage applications, as we've mentioned before, if that's the new standard for mortgage fraud prosecutions then the overwhelming majority of the people who purchased homes over the last decade could possibly run the risk of being convicted of mortgage fraud!


I'm still having trouble reconciling yesterdays verdict.  Could it have been simply a case of four of the six defense attorneys doing a better job then the other two?  Was the evidence against the two convicted officers that much worse than the rest?  Perhaps after nearly two months of sitting in jury box and going over thousands of pages of evidence, hundreds of hours of testimony and endless scores of expert witnesses, maybe the jury was lost?  Take a look at this question the jury sent to the judge just before they came back with the verdict and draw your own conclusions...

Question From the Plantation Cops Mortgage Fraud Trial Jury

The jury asks:

Can a defendant be not guilty of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and/or wire fraud and yet be guilty of mail fraud & wire fraud?

Does that make any sense to any of you?  Considering the nature of the crimes in question, the question makes no sense, yet it's a perfect example of the jury's state of mind, at least in my opinion.


Regardless, moving on to a comment left by one of our esteemed readers this morning...

Anonymous said...
what fine words of wisdom do you have now jerky

Thanks for that.  I'll leave off with congratulating the fine defense attorneys who did an excellent job exonerating their clients, Deric Zacca, Roger Cabrera, Steven Potolsky, Michael Dutko, Marc Fagelson, Jayne Weintraub and Anthony Livoti.  Well done, brilliant work.  Best of luck to officers Joseph Lagrasta, Casey Mittauer, Daryl Radziwon and FBI agent Robert Depriest and their families.  I hope they're able to get their lives and careers back together and put this whole ugly ordeal behind them.  

As far as the other two defendants that were found guilty, John Velez and Joseph Derosa, in light of the crimes they were convicted of, we can only hope the court is lenient with their sentences.

Jury in the Plantation cops federal mortgage fraud trial still out. UPDATED! VERDICT IN.

As the title states, they're still out. We'll update as soon as there's news. In the mean time, what do you guys think the verdict will be?

UPDATED AT 10:50.

We're being told that the jury just came back (unconfirmed). Stay tuned.


Jury Has Reached a Verdict in the Plantation Cops Mortgage Fraud Trial



VERDICT IN. Take a look for yourselves...

Plantation Cops Mortgage Fraud Trial Verdict

Velez and Derosa found guilty while Radziwon, Depriest, Mittauer and Lagrasta acquitted.

The jury in the Plantation Cops federal mortgage fraud trial has begun deliberating...

Our sources tell us that the case was handed over to the jury yesterday at 1:40 PM, so much for our theory that the jury was going to come back with a verdict in under an hour!  We were also told that the prosecution accidentally handed over documents to the jury with post it notes with information that the jury wasn't supposed to see all over them.  


While we wait for the jury to come back, I have to wonder, what impact will this verdict have on the next trial?  For those of you who don't remember, the case was split into two trials, one for the cops and another for the lawyers, Steven Stoll, Stephan Orchard and the Guaracino brothers, Joeseph and Dennis.  If the first case comes back with an acquittal, what's going to happen with the second case?  Remember, the cops defense in the first case is that they had no idea what they were doing was wrong and had relied on the attorneys and brokers who told them everything was on the up and up.  


I know our readers are on the edge of their seats waiting for the verdict, check back often today (assuming the jury comes back today), I'll have an update as soon as there's a verdict.  In the mean time, it's gonna be a nail biter!

The Defense rests in the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trail.

.

From what we’re told the defense rested yesterday in the Plantation Cops federal mortgage fraud trial, closing arguments are expected this morning and the case is expected to get to the jury this afternoon.  It’s been nearly two months since the start of this trial, I have to wonder how much information the jury has been able to retain?  Our courtroom observers have told us that most of the jury had a hard time keeping awake during the six weeks of the prosecution’s case and that across the board they looked bored off their asses.  On the other hand, it looks like the defense took only two weeks to present their case, I’m not exactly sure why it took six weeks for the prosecution.

So what do you guys think?  At least one of the jurors has said that there’s nothing that’s going to change her mind about the defendants innocence, isn’t that one juror enough to screw up the case for the prosecution?  In my opinion there’s no way the jury is going to find any of these guys guilty.  Why?  It’s simple, these guys aren’t accused of stealing millions or defrauding the banks and leaving them with a laundry list of busted out houses that are in foreclosure.  The crux of the government’s case against these guys is that they lied on mortgage applications in order to obtain the loans that are at the center of the indictment.  The reason that they will not be found guilty is because there isn’t a single member of that jury or one of their family members that hasn’t done the same.  In fact, I’d be willing to bet that some of the very jury members that now sit in judgment of these cops has been involved with some sort of real estate investment/flip scheme over the last ten years therefore making a guilty verdict the ultimate expression of hypocrisy.  We’ll know the outcome soon enough, I’ll update as soon as there’s anything new.

Why is the government trying to exclude a key defense witness from testifying?

Last week we discussed what we called the "unindicted co-conspirators" in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case, in essence our theory is that the banks that lent the money for what the government alleges were fraudulent real estate transactions were in on the deal.  In other words, the lenders knew about the inflated incomes and the bogus supporting documents on the loan applications, as a matter of fact it seems based on the documents that we've found in the court dockets that the defense has an expert witness that is willing to testify to the lenders complicity in these transactions!  While cruising the court docket I came across this motion...

daryl radziwon motion for expert witness

From the looks of it, it appears that a defense witness named Dr. Gary E. Lacefield, an expert in the area of mortgage fraud, is prepared to testify that the banks involved in these transactions were well aware of what was going on in order to obtain these loans and in fact may have helped encouraged some of the fraudulent behavior that led up to obtaining these loans!  Considering the potential magnitude of Dr Lacefield's testimony, why would the government look to exclude him from the trial?  If indeed Dr. Lacefield could prove that there was lender complicity in all of these deals, isn't the defense entitled to use him?  Check out Dr. Lacefields background here, considering his background, can you guys see any reason why he shouldn't be allowed to testify? 

The unindicted co-conspirators in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case...

.

 

That term "unindicted co-conspirator" has a pretty nice ring to it doesn't it?  By definition the term refers to a person or entity that is alleged in an indictment to have engaged in conspiracy, but who is not charged in the same indictment.  So who could we be referring to?  Who are these co-conspirators that are suspiciously absent from these prosecutions?  After spending nearly a year going through the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud indictment backwards and forwards it seems that the government had indicted almost everyone that had ever had anything to do with the case including but not limited to buyers, mortgage brokers, title agents, closing agents, etc.  So who could have been left out?


Throughout the last few weeks of testimony from the Plantation cops federal mortgage fraud trail we've learned that there was another group of conspirators in the alleged fraud that knew everything that was going on, conspirators that knew about the exorbitant seller contributions, the excessive escrow amounts, earnest monies coming from third parties, borrowers closing on two "primary residences" withing the same months (in some cases the same day), borrowers whose credit reports showed multiple inquiries from mortgage brokers and lenders within days of the transaction they were about to close, etc...  So who were these "unindicted co-conspirators" involved in the Plantation cops case and just about every other case we've written about?  Here's a small listing of this usual suspects...

These lenders were at the center of each and every mortgage fraud case I've written about, none of the frauds we've discussed could have been possible without these guys.  They all knew what was going on, the paperwork proves it.  Even worse, the entire real estate bubble happened because of their lax lending standards and the fact that they looked the other way while their pockets were getting full as a result of them bundling the garbage loans that they wrote into worthless triple A rated mortgage backed securities.  

Haven't we had enough of street level mortgage fraudsters getting racked over the coals during these nonsensical mortgage fraud trials?  When is a prosecutor going to have enough balls to go after the real criminals that got us to where we are today?

Another government witness in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial admits to having lied...

"Never talk when you can nod,

and never nod when you can wink,

and never write an e-mail because it's death.

You're giving prosecutors all the evidence we need."

Elliott Spitzer, interview with ABC news, circa 2006 as Attorney General of New York.

Yesterday defendant turned cooperating government witness Jacqueline Elek Trumbore took the stand in the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trail.  From what we understand Mrs. Trumbore worked for Turn Key Title which was owned by attorney Steven Stoll, the title company that handled most if not all of the transactions which are the subject of the federal indictment.  As with the other cooperating witnesses, Mrs. Trumbore cut a deal early on with the government, here's her plea agreement as it appears in the court file...

jacqueline trumbore factual proffer

The problem is though that Mrs. Trumbore claims that she was pressured by her attorneys into taking this plea, the court learned this through a series of emails that were revealed during yesterdays hearings from Mrs. Trumbore to her friends and family.  Here's one of the emails...

Now, lets take a look at that "stipulated proffer letter" that she refers to in her email...

jacqueline trumbore stipulated factual proffer

If Mrs. Trumbore is telling the truth and was indeed innocent of the charges that she plead out to then how's this going to look to the jury?  If you accept the premise that Mrs. Trumbore did not commit the crimes that she plead out to, you have to ask yourself, what kind of criminal defense attorney would tell their client to accept a plea for crimes that they did not commit?


On another note, one of our readers who has left several comments over the last few weeks of posts repeatedly asserts at the end of each comment that every one charged in the Plantation cops mortgage fraud indictment had some level of guilt.  I don't think anyone is going to argue that considering the number of transactions that are in question (60+) and the way the transactions were conducted that everyone involved knew there was something that wasn't above board about their dealings.  My problem with this case is that it seems like the governments efforts are wasted considering there are crimes that are far more severe that go unpunished.  I also understand that the government want's to get their pound of flesh against these fraudsters to show the citizens that they're going after the people that theoretically helped bring the nations economy to its knees.  That's fine, but why not go after the people that were behind deals like the ones we discussed in Coconut Grove nearly two years ago?  Or how about hanging the guys involved in the fraud that occurred at 911 Columbus Blvd by their balls?  These frauds cost banks millions of dollars and were run by a sophisticated ring of criminals yet to this day no one has been punished.  Why not go after these guys rather than trying to persecute these cops who lied on their loan applications and ultimately either paid off the mortgages or are still living in the homes that are in question?

So what happens when a government witness pleads out then is caught lying?

That's a question that several of our readers posed yesterday, what's going to be the fate of cooperating government witnesses Rene Rodriguez Jr and Matt Gulla who were found to be somewhat less than honest in their testimony at the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud trial? Both witnesses made startling revelations during the trial and disclosed facts that they somehow forgot to tell the government and their handlers, so what now? In order to get some idea what could happen to these guys we must first take a look at their plea agreements, for today's discussion, let's look at Mr. Rodriguez's plea agreement...

rene rodriguez plea agreement


The first thing that disturbs me is that Mr. Rodriguez executed this plea agreement back on 8/31/09, one full year before the indictment came down. I have to wonder, what was Mr. Rodriguez doing during that year before everyone else was indicted? Do you think he let anyone know what was going on or did he continue doing business and setting up his clients?


From the plea agreement...

1. The defendant agrees to plead guilty to an indictment to be filed by the United States Attorney's office at a future point in time.
2. The defendant agrees to plead guilty to the following counts in the indictment to be filed, one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1349 and one count of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1341. The defendant understands the maximum statutory sentence under 18 U.S.C. 1349 and 1341 is a period of up to 20 years in prison, maximum term of up to three years supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 as to each count.

So it looks like Mr. Rodriguez is looking at a shit load of time but since he's cooperating with the government they've agreed to argue that in exchange for his cooperation they'll request that his sentence be significantly reduced unless...

...the defendant:

1. fails or refuses to make a full, accurate and complete disclosure to the probation office of the circumstances surrounding the relevant offense conduct;
2. is found to have misrepresented facts to the government prior to entering in to this plea agreement; or
3. commits any misconduct after entering into plea agreement, including but not limited to committing a state or federal offense, violating any term of release or making false statements or misrepresentations to any governmental entity or official.

You don't need to be genius to figure out Mr. Rodriguez's fate after he's embarrassed the government the way he has...

On another note, for those of you following our blog from it's inception, you'll be pleased to know that I'm working on a very interesting lead, a story of a prosecutor making homosexual advances towards a defense witness. Imagine what the bar might think of that?

The "proposed" special jury instructions that resulted from a government witness destroying evidence, another point of view on the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case and a company that banks hired to fabricate and forge documents

We left off yesterday discussing cooperating government witness Rene Rodriguez Jr. confessing to the court that he had destroyed evidence after he became a witness in the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case. After presumably hearing several of the defense attorneys argue for the dismissal of the case because of the destruction of possibly exculpatory evidence, the defense proposed special jury instructions that outlined the destruction of the evidence and how it may have impacted the credibility of the governments witness. Here are the proposed jury instructions...

plantation cops special jury instruction regarding the destruction of evidence by Rene Rodriguez Jr

Here are the most interesting bits of the instructions...

...both co-defendants separately admitted to this court, under oath that they "would also forge the purchaser's signature on many documents that were initially submitted to the financial institution and mortgage lending companies."

...after he agreed to truthfully cooperate with the government, co defendant Rodriguez intentionally destroyed documents that were material and pertinent both to the facts of this case, and to Rodriguez's honest compliance with his promise to the Government to be truthful and complete in his cooperation.

...Rodriguez intentionally tampered with computer equipment...to the extent that the electronic data stored on that computer equipment was destroyed and could not be accessed by the Government or the Defendants.

...this court found after considering the evidence and Rodriguez's testimony, that despite his denials, Rodriguez had indeed intentionally tampered with computer equipment, rendering the information stored on the computers inaccessible to the government and the defense as well. You are also entitled to consider this court's finding that Rodriguez lied under oath...

...you are also entitled to infer...that the electronic information he made inaccessible...were material to the case before you and that they would have established reasonable doubt as to the guilt of each of the defendants.

In other words, there were documents that could have exonerated each and every one of the defendants on trial that have been destroyed and are impossible to retrieve, but rather than dismiss the charges we want you to determine their guilt or innocence without these crucial documents. Am I the only one that doesn't understand this? What am I missing?


Now, let's look to one of our readers that left an interesting comment on our post from last Wednesday regarding the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case..

Anonymous said...

In response to the post which states Gulla/Rodriguez made 3%, thus making more than Guaracino, please keep this in mind: 1. Let's assume they made 3% per loan. On a $300,000 loan thier cut was $9,000. 2. On the same property, Guaracino flips it for a $100,000 profit. 3. It is an 11-to-1 ratio in favor of Guaracino. Please explain how Guaracino is a Patsy in these deals???? Furthermore, check the mortgages which were recorded with the county. It is my understanding NOT one of these were forged by the brokers...these defendants are hardly innocent.April 4, 2011 11:39 AM

This comment brings up an interesting point, if indeed the mortgages were actually executed by the cops that were charged in this case, why was Guaracino making $100,000 profit flipping the homes that weren't his? I'll have to do a little digging before we can properly address this comment.


Now comes the best part. After sitting back over the last couple of years and hearing about people who've been arrested for lying on mortgage documents, forging signatures on loan applications, stealing peoples identities for the commission of mortgage fraud or simply lying about their income, I was simply floored when I came across this story last Sunday on 60 Minutes...



DID YOU GUYS GET THAT? Banks hired companies to fabricate loan documents then have fictitious people sign the documents as fake bank VP's who then had their signatures notarized by notaries who knew that the signatures and documents were FRAUDS! Even worse, the banks then used these documents to further perpetrate the fraud on the borrowers who were in foreclosure and the court system! I have to ask, why have these people gone unpunished? Where is our favorite assclown prosecutor? Why is the government destroying the lives of people involved in street level mortgage frauds when you have massive conspiracies like this going on costing the country billions if not trillions of dollars?