That's right folks, the Straw Buyer has been so busy at work that we couldn't get around to making an installment on the blog yesterday. While we're always researching material for the blog 24/7, the actual writing of the blog is done late at night or in the wee hours of the morning, believe it or not our 9 to 5 job has been so hectic lately that we couldn't even find time to attend to our blog! With that said, you have to wonder, how do those with more than one job manage? How could you possibly devote your full attention to a 40 hour a week daytime (say 9 to 5) job while having a totally unrelated second career simultaneously? We've talked about Sgt. Richard Davis from the Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task force earlier this week and learned that not only does Sgt. Davis do brilliant work during the day (remember the attorney David Rodriguez mortgage fraud case?) at the MDPD but he also has successful Real Estate, mortgage, accounting and financial planning businesses as well.
We're not sure how Sgt Davis can manage to wear all those hats at the same time, perhaps he's just really efficient and manages his time better than we can? Good for him if that's the case. In this instance we need a little clarity so we can understand what's going on here and to the surprise of all our readers, we're actually going to get some answers from Detective Jorge Baluja of all people. As shocking as that may sound, let's go to his deposition from the Bernardo Barrera (remember him?) mortgage fraud case where he answers some questions about how the mortgage fraud task force is set up...
That's simple enough, two squads of five detectives each and a Sergeant that runs each squad, therefore two Sergeants. Very good.
Ok, great place to start. Look at that! That's the Sgt Davis we've been talking about this week! Wait a minute though, if there were only two squads then why are there three Sergeants?
Ok, for a minute there Detective Baluja lost us, but then he clears it up. Apparently there's three squads, two of which we know have 5 detectives and two Sergeants each and now this third squad that handles special projects that Detective Baluja tells us is run by Sergeant Davis. Got it. So how many people is Sergeant Davis running in his "special project" squad? Let's see what Jorge tells us...
Oh, ok? A Sergeant that's running a squad where he's the only member, that is according to Detective Baluja. We learned earlier that Sgt. Davis was a veteran of the real estate and mortgage industries, maybe he doesn't need to work with anyone, perhaps he's a one man mortgage fraud investigating machine! Ain't that right Jorge?
Hmmm... Are we reading that right? One could infer from Detective Baluja's statements that Sgt. Davis, the leader of the "special project" mortgage fraud task force squad (that consists of only himself) isn't investigating any mortgage fraud cases or possibly doing any work, but before you'd make that inference you'd have to consider the source of the information, Detective Jorge Baluja who isn't exactly the most credible source of information now is he? If you were to buy Jorge's statements word for word you'd almost conclude that the Sgt was kinda doing nothing on the job, wouldn't you? Surely that couldn't be the case for someone with as long and distinguished a career with the PD as Sgt Davis now could it?Nah.
That's right, how many jobs do you have? For most of us the answer is just one, after all with all the other responsibilities that we have in day to day life, who the hell could imagine having more than one full time job? There are some out there though that can handle more than one job, years ago I met a guy that worked at two different Subway sandwich shops, one during the day, another at night and then when he was done, he worked as a toll collector on the Florida Turnpike! Not for us, thanks! Sort of reminds me of that skit from that old TV show...
So what's this got to do with our tales of mortgage fraud? Yesterday we discussed Sergeant Richard Davis again, a distinguished member of the Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task Force, according to at least one of our readers, he may have even been responsible for the formation of the task force...
"Creator and Head of the MDPD Mortgage Fraud Task Force"! Research a little further and you'd discover that Mr. Theobald didn't know anything about Mortgage Fraud until he "stole" the brain works of mortgage fraud from its true Creator, Sgt. Richard Davis formerly "creator and head" of the Mortgage Fraud Task Force; that was until Mr. Theobald stole that position from him as well. I concur with a prior commentor; "Karma is a bitch."
For what it's worth, we haven't been able to confirm Jennifer's statement, but it does warrant further investigation. So what's all this got to do with our story? Yesterday we met Sgt. Richard Davis and learned that he wore many hats in the MDPD, not only does he investigate mortgage frauds but he also trains new detectives on the mortgage fraud task force and he's a member of the Task Forces board as well. That's a lot of hats for one man to wear but that's not all, see Sgt. Davis does much more than just train detectives and investigate bad guys, he's also a real estate broker, mortgage broker, financial planner, tax preparer and maybe even a closing agent! That's one busy man! Let's take a look at his bio...
Richard Davis (President) as a student at the University of Miami working towards a degree in Accounting & Business Administration.
Uh, ok.
He began his first company after realizing that his friends and associates were in need of income assistance. Accounting, Taxes, Etc. was incorporated in 1975. His business began to grow as the needs of his young clients progressed, and they were now in the market to purchase their first home. As a result, Richard began selling real estate to accommodate the needs of his clients. He accomplished this while maintaining full employment with Caterpillar Tractor Company. Richard remained working for Caterpillar Tractor Company for 11 years, then moved on to become a police officer with the Miami-Dade Police department. He quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant. Because of his passion for real estate and financial matter, Richard has spent seventeen of his twenty years on the police department in the Economic Crimes Bureau supervising investigations related to mortgage frauds, embezzlement, and financial schemes to defraud.
Sounds good, he's certainly got the experience necessary for the job.
Today, what began as a simple tax business has grown into a full service financial company offering financial planning, mortgages broker services, real estate service and federal income tax preparation.
A full service financial company and a Sgt with the MDPD simultaneously? How do you juggle all that responsibility? That's got to get you thinking. Let's take a look at the responsibilities that Sgt Davis has:
MDPD Sergeant on the mortgage fraud task force who investigates financial fraud.
MDPD Sergeant who trains new mortgage fraud investigators.
MDPD Sergeant who is a member of the mortgage fraud task forces board
Mortgage Broker
Financial planner
Real Estate agent
Accountant
That's seven jobs that we know of folks! He's got the Subway/Turnpike toll collector guy beat by a landslide! DAMN! Like we said, Sgt. Davis must be the busiest man on the MDPD. We're gonna have to take a closer look. Till 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...
