Last week we discussed Sgt Richard Davis of the Miami Dade Mortgage fraud task force and were perplexed by how he could juggle at least seven other jobs while working for the MDPD. We learned that Sgt Davis was in charge of educating the new mortgage fraud detectives on the task force (nice work as evidenced by Detective Jorge Baluja) and that he was the Sgt in charge of a squad that consisted of nobody but himself. Now, come to find out that Sgt. Davis was taken off the task force back in March of 2008! WTF? Wasn't he the most highly trained member of the task force in the areas of real estate and mortgages? Let's go to the March 20, 2008 Daily Business Review article that discusses Sgt. Davis and his departure from the Task Force...
"Sgt Davis said he was preparing to retire and was going to concentrate on his financial services and real estate businesses."
Oh, ok. So now after all these years he's going to concentrate on the other business. This part is most interesting:
"A source speaking on condition of anonymity said Davis has been criticized by some task force members for not devoting enough time to task force work."
We can only imagine! How could you, especially during tax season?
"Davis, a mortgage broker, at one time was the department's key fraud investigator in the economic crimes division..."
Considering the stellar performance of the people like Detective Baluja, perhaps the citizens of Miami Dade county were better off with only one investigator! The article goes on to say...
""The citizens of Miami-Dade County deserve a 100 percent attention to a crime that is affecting our communities and tax base to a degree I've never seen in my 30 year career in real estate," said Nancy Hogan, who manages a Coldwell Banker office in Coral Gables. She is a former chairman of the Florida Real Estate Commission and chair of the task forces education committee."
Are we reading that correctly? Is Nancy Hogan saying that perhaps Sgt. Davis wasn't giving 100% of his attention to his day job with the PD? Nah, we must have misunderstood but we really are warming up to this Mrs. Hogan!
Leave it to former MDPD Chief legal counsel and the Chairman of the Mortgage Fraud Task Force, Glenn Theobald, to give us the icing on the fail cake...
"Glenn Theobald, legal counsel to Miami-Dade Police Department and chairman of the fraud task force, said Davis' position on the task force had grown awkward because he often had to direct higher ranking officers."
BRILLIANT! Davis as an expert in the field of Real Estate and Mortgage had to direct higher ranking officers that perhaps didn't know as much as he did about the subject and that's a problem?! So he knows more than the higher ranking guys, how do we fix that in Miami Dade county? WE GET RID OF HIM!
Who knows, maybe if Sgt. Davis was still there the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case may have never happened but then we wouldn't have anything to write about on our blog!
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...
So how does a MDPD mortgage fraud detective get to learn all they need to know about mortgage fraud? As we've learned over the course of our blog, mortgage fraud is a complicated and very paperwork intensive crime, a mortgage fraud investigator has to get into the minds of mortgage brokers, straw buyers, title agents and real estate attorneys. Surely there's some sort of extensive training program for cops that are going to go after these smarter than average criminals, let's not lose site of the fact that most of these fraudsters have been in the real estate or mortgage game for years, in order to catch them at their game, you have to be at least as knowledgeable as they are. Are the mortgage fraud investigators that smart or well trained? We can't speak for all of them, but at least in the case of Detective Jorge Baluja, we know somehow the system failed him horribly, whether he wasn't trained properly or perhaps he was and just wasn't smart enough to grasp the concepts that he was being taught, we're sure we don't need to remind our readers of Detective Baluja's extensive knowledge of real estate or the mortgage business...
So just what kind of training did the mortgage fraud investigator that's the center of one of our mortgage fraud stories get? Let's go back to his deposition from the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case and have Detective Baluja tell us...
Not exactly the answer to the question Detective Baluja was being asked, but does anyone recognize that name, Sgt Richard Davis? That's the same guy that did the undercover work on one of the Mortgage Fraud Task Forces inaugural cases! You remember, Sgt. Davis went undercover to the closing posing as the sellers accountant and caught attorney David Rodriguez red handed officiating the crooked real estate closing. So know we know that not only did Sgt. Davis do under cover work but he also trained the mortgage fraud detectives. Wow, this Davis guy must be one busy fellow! Let's keep going...
There's two things about this excerpt that strike us as strange, firstly considering all of the experts that are on the MDPD Mortgage Fraud Task force, why was there only one person training the detectives? The second thing that seems strange is the fact that these detectives only receive ONE WEEK OF MORTGAGE FRAUD TRAINING? WTF is that? The people they're going after are highly skilled sophisticated criminals that have years and years worth of real estate and mortgage know how and they're going to catch them after one week of training? PUHLEEZE! Moving along...
You've got people like real estate industry veteran Nancy Hogan or attorney Robert Cohen who represents the biggest title insurance companies and others from the banking sector, with this kind of brain power on hand, why only have one guy training the new mortgage fraud detectives? Considering all the time and dedication these people have given to the task force, wouldn't they have gladly volunteered time to teach the guys on the front line how to catch the bad guys? If you have these kinds of resources available to you, why the hell wouldn't you use them?
Ok, maybe we're getting carried away. Perhaps this week of training was so intense, so thorough that there was no need for more, maybe you could call it something like a "mortgage fraud cram course". It's entirely possible that the training over that week was so good that even Detective Baluja was ready to hit the streets, let's see...
BRILLIANT! After all that intensive training, after bringing in a headline mortgage fraud case, after all that coaching by Assistant State Attorney Kostrzewski, Detective Baluja can't recall how a mortgage fraud can occur. Wonderful.
Isn't it hard to imagine a scenario worse than this? After everything we've learned, does anything surprise you any more? Problem is that we haven't even scratched the surface yet, our story is much larger than a Detective that couldn't investigate his way out of a wet paper bag or a bumbling washed up prosecutor who couldn't even explain his own case to a judge, much, much larger. We've stepped into a pile of $hit that was previously unimagined.
Today we learned that Sgt Davis has many roles within the mortgage fraud task force, investigator, educator, mortgage fraud task force member, etc. Doesn't he seem like a busy man? We're gonna have to take a closer look at Sgt Davis tomorrow...
Isn't that a simple question? Does the lead detective in the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case know what "Identity Theft" is? We discussed the definition in yesterdays post, regardless though, the very phrase is simple to understand as it's self explanatory, isn't it? As I've mentioned before, I've spent countless hours in the courthouse going through the Barrera mortgage fraud case file, among other things in the file are the depositions of Detective Jorge Baluja. As I've said in earlier posts, there's a ton of comedic material in those transcripts as Detective Baluja seemingly doesn't know his ass from his elbow when asked about this case. Now this is a pretty serious allegation isn't it? After all, a lead detective in a case of this nature has the power to destroy peoples lives, even worse, if he makes mistakes or doesn't understand the nature of the case and the crimes that he alleges have been committed, he's opening up himself and the state for a boat load of problems.
We've already seen that Detective Baluja has no understanding of the basic fundamentals of Real Estate transactions or the business of Mortgages, we've also outlined that he has very little understanding if any of Mortgage Fraud, we've even uncovered an easy step by step pictoral guide to the "typical mortgage fraud scheme" prepared by the Mortgage Fraud Task force and still we've yet to uncover a single stitch of evidence to support that Detective Baluja had any understanding whatsoever of what he was doing in this case. Yesterday we discussed the crime of "identity theft", we know (at least as lay people) what the elements of that crime are, I.E., stealing someones identity, producing fake documentation to pose as the person who is being impersonated and then somehow deriving a financial (or other) gain that you were not otherwise entitled to. Pretty simple isn't it? Can it get easier than that? Now what if I tell you that based on what I've read, Detective Baluja HAS NO IDEA WHATSOEVER what the elements of the crime of identity theft are? Keep in mind folks, that before the good detective goes into these depositions that he is HEAVILY COACHED AND PREPARED FOR HOURS by Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski on the case, how he's to behave in the depo and what he's supposed to answer, knowing that and considering how much preparation goes into getting ready for the deposition, HOW THE HELL COULD YOU NOT KNOW WHAT IDENTITY THEFT IS?
So here we go, when Detective Jorge Baluja is asked what makes the defendant (at least the attorney) guilty of Identity Theft he responds with this gem:
There it is folks, in Detective Baluja's mind accepting a third party check for the closing for the purchase of the Oak Avenue home satisfied the elements of the crime of Identity Theft. In what bizarro parallel universe does that make sense? Accepting a third party check constitutes IDENTITY THEFT?! This is the same Detecitve Baluja that was given a commendation by Major Juan Odio for his investigatory skills?! WHAT THE FCUK?
We've established after several months of writing that Detective Baluja posses a less than stellar intellect, the question that begs to be asked though is who the hell was watching over him at the PD? How can this level of misconduct go on without someone supervising him? Isn't there a system of checks and balances in place at the police level to stop someone like Detective Baluja from putting together a case whose crimes he has no understanding of? Even worse, if there is no one at the PD level to review his work, isn't the state attorney supposed to vet the cases before they move forward? After all folks, we're talking about life changing events here! I'm sure that before you move forward with charging folks with crimes as serious as these you use an abundance of caution, DON'T YOU?
At this point in time anyone reading this blog from it's inception should be furious. Why doesn't one of the readers from law enforcement or the state attorneys office explain to us HOW THE HELL SOMETHING LIKE THIS IS ALLOWED TO HAPPEN? How is a thoroughly incapable cop allowed to fumble his way through a case, make up evidence (yes you read that right) and throw together charges that he DOESN'T EVEN UNDERSTAND? Worse yet, how is this allowed to progress without one of his superiors at the very least asking him if he even understood what the FCUK he was doing?
Is this what the mayor's heralded Mortgage Fraud Task Force stands for? After all that we've read about Glenn Theobald's ground breaking mortgage fraud legislation and creation of this task force, is Detective Baluja's work on this case a fair representation of Mr. Theobalds efforts? After all we've learned about Sgt. Richard Davis, his fantastic police work (at least in what we read in the David Rodriguez case), his training of detectives on the task force, is it fair to characterize his efforts through Detective Baluja's behavior in this case? In my opinion what we've learned about Detective Baluja's handling of this case is SHAMEFUL, both to himself and to all those who worked tirelessly to create the Mortgage Fraud Task Force.
So the question that begs to be asked is when is someone (other than an idiot with a blog) going to do something about this? Shouldn't there be some sort of reaction within the PD to the allegations I've made here? I for one doubt anything will happen no matter how badly Detective Baluja's performance has reflected on the MDPD and the Mortgage Fraud Task Force. Till next time folks, have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Remember that masterfully prepared flowchart outlining a "typical mortgage fraud" that we looked at yesterday? Take another peek at it if you will. Now, let's go through each step and see what we learn.
Step #1
Ok, so far I follow, in the case of the Bernardo Barrera fraud this would be the purchase of the home on Oak Avenue by John Romney for $185,000. Let's now move on...
Step #2
Subject has the property fraudulently appraised. SAY WHAT?! This is the first time we're hearing ANYTHING ABOUT A FRAUDULENT APPRAISAL! WTF?! According to what we read in the media and in statements made in both the criminal court case and the civil foreclosure case, it was the states assertion that the attorney that handled the closing
"fraudulently inflated the value of the home three fold"
I don't know Mr. Baluja, Mr. Kostrzewski, was the attorney also a licensed appraiser whose appraisal was submitted to the bank that financed the fraudulent purchase?! INTERESTING TO SAY THE LEAST! Moving right along...
Step #3
Ok, in the case of the Oak Avenue home the straw buyer would be Bernardo Barrera and or the impostor who the state claims came to the closing, we've shown that there is a cloud of suspicion over this claim several times over the last few months (here and here) but the state attorneys office refuses to do anything about it. That's fine though. There is a step missing here though, the involvement with the mortgage broker. I'm not suggesting that there's any wrong doing on the brokers part, but at the very least somewhere along the line there was documentation that was submitted to the bank along with the application for the mortgage that had to be fabricated, not to mention that someone had to take the application from the real/fake Bernardo Barrera. Regardless, let's move on...
Step #4
PAID!!!! HELL YES! According to what we know from the Miami Herald article, John Romney pockets $369,896.88 and his accomplice (the man who lent the straw buyer the down payment for the home purchase) collected $135,000. According to the states paperwork, the attorney who closed the transaction made off with a whopping, ground breaking ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY DOLLARS. OK, perhaps times are tough, you got to take whatever you can get right? Let's keep going...
Step #5
Right on, there wasn't a single payment made on the Oak Avenue home, after all, Mr. Barrera claimed ID theft a month after the closing, theoretically never giving the people behind the fraud a chance to make a payment. Last but not least that brings us to...
Step #6
Yep, in our case the bank is left with a $450,000+ mortgage on a house that will more than likely sell at the foreclosure auction for less than $20,000. As we mentioned before though, the bank isn't the only victim, it's the neighborhood that suffers a worse fate. Now the neighbors have to deal with a nasty dilapidated home that becomes a haven for undesirables, if that wasn't bad enough they also have to suffer the financial consequences of this bust out, HIGHER PROPERTY TAXES!
So what happened Detective Baluja? Where's the other people that should have been part of your "ORGANIZED SCHEME TO DEFRAUD"? Where are the other people that benefited from this fraudulent transaction? You basically had a fill in the blank pictoral guide to work with and you couldn't pull it off? Fantastic. I know this isn't the way the rest of the Mortgage Fraud Task Force works, especially after reading about the kind of work people like Sgt Davis did in the David Rodriguez case.
According to the clerk of courts website, tomorrow is the day that John Romney (yes the man that cleared $369,896.88 from this fraud) is going to enter his plea, get a slap on the wrist and get sent on his merry way. Any chance of justice being done will go up in smoke tomorrow morning at 9 am.
Sorry about not posting yesterday boys and girls, I was observing YomKippur, the holiest day of the years for people of my background. Alrighty then, I've tried my best to find out what happened with all four defendants in the Mortgage Fraud Task Force's case against Camacho, Delgado, Rodriguez and Zuluaga that we discussed earlier. For those of you who don't remember, this is where Mr. Camacho was going to buy a condo from a retired cop with a fraudulent mortgage brokered by Mr. Delgado and a closing and cash back scheme officiated by attorney David Rodriguez and his closer Mrs. Zuluaga. Here's what we've been able to find on how that case ended:
Nestor Camacho- charged with Organized Scheme to defraud and Grand Theft, the organized scheme to defraud charge got a nolle pros and the Grand Theft charge where he tried to steal $100,000, Mr. Camacho was given an adjudication withheld and probation. FANTASTIC!
Jose Delgado- I haven't been able to find the outcome of his case. Monica Zuluaga- charged with Organized Scheme to defraud and Grand Theft,the organized scheme to defraud charge got a nolle pros and the Grand Theft charge where she put together fake hud-1 statements, fake affidavits stating that there was going to be $100,000 worth of work done to the condo that Mr. Camacho was buying, on that charge she was rewarded with an adjudication withheld with 3 years of probation! EXCELLENT!
Last but not least, the remaining defendant, Attorney David Rodriguez, you all remember him right? This would be the attorney that told the retired cop that was selling the condo that he couldn't reflect that actual sales price on the HUD-1 because the bank wouldn't approve the loan and then went on to negotiate a discount with an undercover cop posing as the sellers accountant! Can it get worse than that? YES IT CAN! Remember even before the police got involved, the two checks that were made out to Mr. Rodriguez's trust account by Mr. Camacho as deposits for the condo purchase were returned as NSF! Mr. Rodriguez and his firm neglected to mention that to the seller and the bank that was financing the fraudulent purchase. Once again we must ask ourselves, CAN IT GET WORSE THAN THIS?! YES IT CAN! Even worse than officiating the fraudulent transaction, worse than negotiating a discount for the seller with an undercover cop for the income tax implications for the seller that may arise because of the $100,000 kickback, Mr. Rodriguez (according to the arrest affidavit and records from his trust account statements from Transatlantic Bank) PAID OFF THE SELLERS MORTGAGE 3 WEEKS BEFORE THE CLOSING EVER HAPPENED USING FUNDS THAT THE BANK GIVING THE MORTGAGE TO MR. CAMACHO HAD SENT TO THE CLOSING ATTORNEY'S TRUST ACCOUNT! ZOINKS! So what happened to Mr. David Rodriguez after he got arrested and charged with organized scheme to defraud and grand theft? As far as I can see NOTHING! Based on what's available in the public record, there isn't even a hint of Mr. Rodriguez getting in trouble, except for that pesky press release with his name and photo as well as his name all over the arrest affidavits for the co defendants in this case.
Can someone explain this to me? It's obvious that Mr. Rodriguez had a master of a defense attorney who cut a deal and then got the records expunged. Fantastic for him, but why did was Sgt. Davis's slam dunk case end up like this? We know from reading the arrest affidavit that Mr. Camacho and Mr. Delgado pretty much admitted to everything and told the state exactly what had happened. Mrs. Zuluaga with her prior arrests for multiple grand theft charges, petit larceny, uttering a forged instrument, etc, why the hell was she afforded such a sweat heart deal? After all, from what we're told in the arrest affidavit, she's the one that did all the legwork under the direction of the attorney, why did she get let off so easily? Considering that at least two of the defendants admitted to committing mortgage fraud in obtaining the fraudulent mortgage, why weren't more charges brought against them? According to the arrest affidavit, at least two of the defendants spilled the beans, why the hell would you cut a deal with the other two? WTF?
Besides the wrong doing by the attorney in this case, why wasn't the attorney disciplined by the Florida Bar? As per the Florida Bar website, Mr. Rodiriguez is eligible to practice in Florida with no history of disciplinary action by the bar. What gives? This case was in the media, why doesn't the bar know about the hijinks that went on here? Ultimately the outcome of this case runs contrary to the mission statement of the Mortgage Fraud Task Force. The defendants were slapped on the wrist then sent on their way, the attorney in the middle of this scheme went on with his life and law practice totally unharmed. Who knows what really happened, one thing that did happen for sure is that Sgt. Davis's slam dunk case got flushed down the toilet.
Tomorrow, a confession to the Straw Buyer from one of the defendants.
The more we look for answers, the more unanswered questions we find. What I'm learning about the inner workings of these cases and the subsequent prosecution of the people who get arrested make about as much sense to me as these fantastic looking breast implants on this old man at Walmart:
Going back to yesterdays post where the Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task forces Sgt. Davis posed undercover to bring in an incredible case where not only did they get the fraudsters but he actually busted the attorney officiating over the fraudulent deal! That's right, in case you missed it, Sgt. Davis was posing as the sellers accountant in the transaction and had the attorney and his closing girl dealing directly with him in all aspects of the transaction from dealing with the extra $100,000 that was to be kicked back to the buyer at closing as well as dealing with the income tax consequences that the overage at the closing was going to create for the seller!
Unfortunately though, finding the details on the outcome of the case for all four defendants has been very difficult, I'll have to go to the courthouse again and see what I can come up with. I haven't been able to find anything on Jose Delgado or attorney David Rodriguez, at the very least though, I know that Mr. Rodriguez is still practicing law and has no history of disciplinary action with the Florida bar. Considering the facts as they are portrayed in the arrest affidavit, I'd love to know which criminal defense attorney represented Mr. Rodriguez!
With that said, I'll try to get over to the courthouse and dig up whatever else I can find, if I manage to do it today, I'll go ahead and post my findings mid day. I've been flooded with tips regarding what we've been writing about over the last few months, I'll have to pour over everything this weekend and see what if any of it we can write about.
Today's post is going to be a bit long in the tooth, so please bear with me, its worth it! For those readers among us that are in the MDPD or in the legal profession, pay particular attention to this post, its full of interesting tidbits that are rather alarming. As I mentioned yesterday, I've contacted attorney David Rodriguez on three separate occasions via email to see if he wanted to tell us anything about this story before we posted our findings. I still haven't heard from him, so we'll go ahead and see what we can deduce from the arrest affidavit for case # F07-34446 A-D. Early on during our research in this case I came across a problem when I was digging through the county clerks website, I was able to find F07-34446-A, and F07-34446-C but was unable to find F07-34446-B or F07-34446-D. Now, I knew the B and D cases existed, I just couldn't find them. I went back and watched the Mortgage Fraud Task Force's press release and counted four defendants, they are as follows:
Nestor Camacho
Jose Delgado
David Rodriguez
Monica Zuluaga
With four defendants, why was I only able to find two with F07-34446 case number? I then searched again and was able to find the following:
Nestor Camacho F07-34446-A
Jose Delgado F07-34447
Monica Zuluaga F07-34446-C
Mr. Delgado's case disposition says "transferred to another case", yet for reasons I can't understand, I can't find the other case. Please be patient with me, as I've explained several times in the past, I have a very limited knowledge of how the criminal court system works therefore I could have erred in some way, shape or form in researching Mr. Delgado's history. Please don't draw any conclusions based on my unsuccessful attempt at figuring out what happened to Mr. Delgado.
That left me with one name that I couldn't figure out, David Rodriguez. His name was in the press release, yet for some reason or another I couldn't find anything on him on the clerks website. Bizarre and all the more reason for me to go down to the court house and look at the file myself. Here's a hint of what I found...
WTF is that black magic marker doing over that name damn it! That really pissed me off! I pour over the arrest affidavit and guys, WHAT A CASE! Sargeant Richard Davis of the Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task Force did a hell of a job on this one! Sgt. Davis posed undercover as the sellers accountant and dealt directly with all the players in the fraud including the attorney! Lets take a look at the affidavit as it appeared in the case file. I'm going to post the affidavit page by page (with a little commentary at the end of each page), if you want to get a better look at the page, just click and the page will enlarge.
Page 1
Here we find that Mr. Camacho was purchasing a condo from a retired police officer, the sales price was going to be $250,000 but they were inflating the sales price by $100,000. When the sellers attorney objected to the extra $100,000 MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER told the sellers attorney that if the HUD-1 reflected the $100,000 going back to the buyer, the lender wouldn't approve the loan. Sgt Davis in his under cover role as the sellers accountant was told that MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER's office was going to prepare phony documents that showed that the extra $100,000 was being given back to the buyer for renovations. Very nice.
Page 2
In page 2 Sgt. Davis tells us how WMC Mortgage wired the proceeds of the loan into MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER's trust account before the closing took place and then MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER paid off the sellers mortgage before the closing ever took place, without the seller signing a single document. We're then told that David Rodriguez's Office never advised the lender of the addendum that was prepared for the seller to return the $100,000 to the buyer at the closing. WAIT A MINUTE! WHAT THE FCUK? David Rodriguez? Was he MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER? Did a clerk forget to cross his name out? WHY WAS HIS NAME CROSSED OUT IN THE FIRST PLACE?
Page 3
Page three discusses different aspect of the fraudulent loan application and indicates that the sellers attorney contacted MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER and asked him why the $100,000 his clients were to give the buyer at closing wasn't on the HUD-1 at which point MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER tells him that if the $100,000 was on the HUD-1, the lender would not approve the transaction. Monica Zuluaga goes on to tell the sellers attorney the same on behalf of MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER's office.
Page 4
Here the sellers attorney calls MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER and asks again about the excess $100,000 that his client was to pay the buyer at the closing, when asked why this wasn't reflected on the HUD-1 MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER tells him once again that if the refund was reflected on the HUD-1, THE LENDER WOULD NOT CLOSE THE LOAN. Sgt. Davis being the bad ass that he his posing as the sellers accountant then goes on to negotiate a $20,900 credit for the sellers so they could cover any potential income tax problems from what would look like a $100,000 profit from the sale of their home! Sgt. Davis is then assured that MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER's office will take care of all the documentation to cover the excess proceeds from the transaction. Once again their is a mention of David Rodriguez's office, is this Mr. Rodriguez and MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER one and the same? We'll see.
Page 5
Here Sgt. Davis uncovers the fact that MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER had paid off the sellers mortgage with the proceeds of the loan the buyer had obtained without the closing ever happening! Sgt. Davis then goes on January 10, 2007 nearly three weeks after the sellers loan was paid off posing as the sellers accountant to ask about the potential tax consequences of the $100,000 in excess proceeds. Once again there is mention of the Law Office of David Rodriguez, this time with an address. Again, we ask ourselves, is David Rodriguez and MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER one and the same?
Page 6
MY GOD! Sgt. Davis now lets MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER and Monica Zuluaga in Mr. Rodriguez's office know that he is a COP and that he's going to be seizing the file with all the fraud in it! HOLY $HIT! NICE WORK SGT. DAVIS! Can you imagine the look on MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER and Zuluaga's faces! I wonder if Mr. Rodriguez was in office at the time when this went down?! WOW!
Page 7
WOW! On page seven we find out that in the closing file there were two deposit checks from the buyer, one for $5,000 and one for $10,000 made out to MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER'strust account, both of which were returned as NSF! Even though both down payment checks made out toMR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER's trust account were returned, MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER nor anyone else ever alerted the sellers to this issue. Sgt. Davis then debriefs Mr. Delgado the mortgage broker who goes on to admit that he prepared all the fraudulent loan paperwork.
Page 8
On Page 8, Mr. Delgado goes on to state the MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER and Monica Zuluaga were aware of the fraud and had helped conceal it from the lender! In addition to spelling out how he helped perpetrate this fraud, he goes on to say that he told the buyer not to worry about the NSF checks written to MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER's trust account and that not to worry, that MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER's office "would cover the issue". WOW!
Page 9
Page 9 details more aspects of how the fraudsters put together the crime then Sgt. Davis goes on to speak to Ms. Sharon Mason the legal representative of the lender, once again there's mention of David Rodriguez's office. Interesting. She goes on to mention that the lender had no idea about the $100,000 overage and had been unaware that the loan application and the documents that had been created by the broker and David Rodriguez's office were fraudulent and fabricated. Once again we have to ask ourselves, is David Rodriguez and MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER one and the same?
Page 10
Sgt Davis goes on to explain the fraud to Ms. Mason who then became enraged at the conduct of the mortgage broker and MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER. Not to mention the fact thatMR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER PAID OFF THE SELLERS LOAN WITHOUT THE CLOSING HAVING HAPPENED USING THE LENDERS MONEY!
I must say, FCUKING BRILLIANT WORK SARGEANT DAVIS! WOW! This man does the citizens of Miami Dade County proud! Sgt. Davis busted not only the fraudulent buyer, the fraudulent mortgage broker, but he gets the closing processor Monica Zuluaga and MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER! But what about the attorney David Rodriguez? Our fearless Mayor told us in the Mortgage Fraud Task Force press release that Mr. Rodriguez was arrested, so why can't I find anything in the clerk's website regarding the arrest? Not to mention WHO THE FCUK IS MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER?! Is David Rodriguez Esq. and MR. BLACK MAGIC MARKER one and the same? Baffling huh? It would be a mystery if not for the funny little camera that I used to take photos of the arrest affidavit. Take a look at how the camera captured this instance of the black magic marker being used to obscure a name...
Draw your own conclusions. Regardless of the fact that someone forgot to cover Mr. Rodriguez's name several times throughout the affidavit, even where they did cover his name, it was clearly visible beneath the black magic marker. There is no misreading this case, after all a great deal of the interaction with the fraudsters was with Sgt. Davis directly while he was posing as the sellers accountant! This is what in my book is called a SLAM FCUKING DUNK CASE! My hats off to the fantastic investigation and under cover work done by Sargeant Davis of the Miami DadeMortgage Fraud Task Force. Its this kind of brave police work that is woefully under reported in the media, my hats off to you sir. JOB WELL DONE.
How does this explain Mr. Rodriguez's name being deleted (albeit poorly) throughout the case file and from the public record? Its a mystery to me. Now that we've seen how Sgt. Davis flawlessly put this case together, the case now goes to the State Attorney's Office. Once the baton is passed to the State Attorney's Office, its up to the Assistant State Attorney assigned to the case to prosecute the bad guys that the PD brought to justice. Tomorrow we'll see how the SAO handled the task forces fantastic case and we'll see if we can get some clarification as to why David Rodriguez's name was deleted from the record.
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...
