It ain't easy writing this blog...

Throughout the last several years, we've often struggled with the subject matter of this blog.  Whether the story was about a crooked politician, dirty cop or other fraudsters that haven't been found out yet, it's tough writing about these people.  Each and everyone one of them has a family that for the most part may have nothing to do or even know about the nefarious schemes our subjects have been involved in yet by outing these folks we invariably do great harm to the people around them not to mention outing whatever crooked business they're engaging in.  So it's tough to write about some of our subjects over the years knowing the kind of collateral damage that will occur as a result of our work, nothing drove this point home more than watching the friends and family of then City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur during her federal mortgage fraud trial.  It tore me up to watch them have to sit through the trial and ultimately watch her get convicted and sent off to jail, regardless, in my opinion, considering her position and how she abused her position, it was a story that needed to be told.  Perhaps she should have thought about her children before she engaged in a ten million dollar plus fraud?

Regardless, we're now working on a story involving a dirty cop who thinks nothing of manufacturing false police reports, fabricating evidence, etc.  When our story comes out, this cop is sure to loose his job and more than likely his law enforcement certification.  I've held off on putting this story together considering the impact it will have on his family, who more than likely have nothing to do with this guy being a piece of shit.  When considering the consequences of outing this guy, you have to take into account that this guy thinks nothing of writing bogus police reports and fucking with people simply because he can.  A dirty cop?  I think so.  Does he deserve to be outed?  What do you guys think?

Two City of Miami firefighters convicted of mortgage fraud yet two drastically different sentences...

Perhaps a strange coincidence or possibly something else going on?  Two veteran City of Miami firefighters engaged in massive mortgage fraud conspiracies, former assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur and firefighter Thomas Thelusma, both federally indicted.  Ms. Arthur goes to trial and loses while Mr. Thelusma decides to cut a deal with the government.  While Ms Arthur's mortgage fraud scheme was far greater than Mr. Thelusma's, there seems to be some disparity in their sentences.


As we discussed back in March, Ms Arthur was able to get away without paying back a single dollar to the banks that she defrauded, in case you missed it, here's her restitution order again...

Veldora Arthur Restitution Order

Rather shocking isn't it?  Despite having defrauded several banks out of millions of dollars, somehow Ms Arthur doesn't have to pay them back?!  No restitution whatsoever!  That's all well and good till one of our readers left us this comment last week...

Thomas Thelusma was sentenced and ordered to pay $1,035,000.00 for restitution! That must be some good ***** she has. Did she **** and **** everyone?? 

HUH?  How the hell could that be?  I pulled up Mr. Thelusma's sentencing order and found the following...

Thomas Thelusma Judgement

As I expected, Mr. Thelusma has to pay back the banks that he defrauded to the tune of $1,035,000!

I don't get it, every other convicted mortgage fraudster that we've written about has had to pay the banks they ripped off back.  Joe Guaracino from the Plantation Cops case has to pay the banks back upwards of three million, John Romney from the Bernardo Barrera case, over half a million, etc.  


You have to ask how the hell did Veldora Arthur get away without having to pay the banks back while these other guys are going to be saddled with this debt for the rest of their lives?

Saving Veldora's pension...

Our sources tell us that there is a meeting taking place today within the City of Miami whose sole objective is to figure out how to save convicted fraudster and former City of Miami Assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur's pension.  Ms Arthur was convicted and sentenced for her role in a massive multi million dollar mortgage fraud scheme last year, since then there's been strong opposition within the ranks of both the fire department and the City of Miami to Ms Arthur being able to collect her pension.

What makes today's meeting all the more interesting is that I'm told that former City of Miami Police Chief and City Manager Donald Warshaw is keeping a close eye on the proceedings, for those of you who don't remember Mr. Warshaw, this story from the Miami Herald sums up his situation...

Former Miami Police Chief Donald Warshaw is not entitled to his six-figure annual police pension, forfeited when he was convicted of diverting $70,000 from a charity for his personal use, a state appellate court ruled Wednesday.

In a 2-1 decision, a Third District Court of Appeal panel of judges backed last year's decision by Miami's Firefighters & Police Officers Retirement Trust to stop paying Warshaw's pension of about $128,800 a year.


Warshaw, who retired as police chief to become city manager in 1998, avoided a conviction for using public office to steal public money as part of his plea deal with the U.S. attorney's office. Such a conviction would automatically have forfeited his pension, according to Florida statues.

Interesting, if Ms. Arthur somehow manages to keep her pension despite her federal fraud convictions, it's going to set a dangerous precedent.  If she gets to keep her pension then by default, wouldn't Mr. Warshaw be entitled to keep his pension as well?  For that matter, wouldn't any city or county employee who lost their pensions due to a criminal conviction be entitled to get their pension benefits back?  

We'll keep an eye on this situation and report back as soon as we learn anything.  More tomorrow on the Airways Tag Agency boondoggle.

Responding to some of the blog comments regarding former City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur's sentencing...

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I'm working on a very important story regarding some unethical activity between City of Miami commissioner Marc Sarnoff and the City of Miami city attorneys office.  We'll have the story ready to go for tomorrow, in the mean time, let's look at some of the comments left over the last few days on our blog posts regarding  former City of Miami assistant fire chief and convicted fraudster Veldora Arthur.


Let's start with this comment...

Anonymous said...

Is she going to lose her city pension??? I really hope you follow this up. She need to lose this as well...

I believe she will lose all or part of her pension simply because she conducted most of these schemes while on City time while using city fax machines and in some instances even city letter head.

Anonymous said...

If the city has an ounce of morality left in its corrupt conscience, it will stip her of everything. I did not see a restitution amount for ripping off 11 milion. If she continues with her pension, this will be merely a slap on the wrist. Corruption and greed at its worst!!!!

There will be restitution, there's going to be a separete hearing in February just for that purpose.  

Anonymous said...

This was a scheme that involved many condo buildings, not just the one in Wellington. She may not have been involved in more than one of them, but the other people indicted along with her, or in similar connected schemes, were involved in more than the Wellington frauds. The series of defaults, after the straw buyers got their money, caused other condo owners to have to pay increased condo fees and property values to go down significantly. So, yes, disgorgement of all money she collected is appropriate.

Correct.  According to the prosecutor, the frauds in this case were just a minor smattering of the many frauds that Ms. Arthur was involved in, we're going to look at least one other fraud that she was involved with but wasn't charged for soon, perhaps after the holidays so that we can highlight how indiscriminate the government is when it comes to charging people based on their ability to garner headlines.  As to the second part of the comment, the judge mentioned the same, even going so far as to say that people like Ms. Arthur were the root cause of the real estate meltdown and because of their bogus inflated property values and subsequent busting out of the properties that we are where we are today with most homes underwater.

Anonymous said...

This convicted felon should lose her pension. She committed crimes WHILE ON DUTY. Send a message. Crime does not pay. What about the $120,000 she got while suspended?

That comments speaks for itself and I couldn't agree more.

Anonymous said...

If she lose her pension or not it won't benefit you! My sister & our family are moving forward & you all should do the same. My sister is paying her time to society & I don't think there is nothing else to talk about.

I'm sorry for the position you and your family find yourself in today as a result of the crimes that your sister was convicted of.  I take no joy in seeing the family suffer because of a series of poor decisions that Ms. Arthur made, but at the end of the day she is where she is and nothing can change that.  I take issue with your statement though when you say...

If she lose (sic) her pension or not it won't benefit you!

In fact, you are wrong when you say that by losing her pension "it won't benefit you".  See, a significant portion of her pension is paid by the taxpayers, the same taxpayers that paid Ms. Arthur an exorbitant six figure plus salary when she was on city time and simultaneously conducting these fraudulent transactions that had nothing to do with her job at the fire department.  For the taxpayer to have to continue paying her pension after she committed these crimes is a further insult to the citizens of the City of Miami.  I'll make you a deal, how about we go and randomly pick out a handful of citizens of the City of Miami and let's ask them what they think.  Are you up for that?

Anonymous said...

Chief Warshaw, the ex-police chief lost his from the City of Miami so she should lose hers too. Any bets she won't lose it...

Agreed.

Anonymous said...

The Straw Buyer, You keep pushing it she will lose her penison...Thank You so much....

That's a bit ridiculous isn't it?  I'm the least of her worries!  If you were in the courtroom during the sentence, did you take a look around and see who else was there?  There were a few members of the upper management of the City of Miami FD that had no love lost for Ms. Arthur who were all to vocal about how the rank and file felt about her tenure at the FD and how they felt about her pension.  Once again, let's not forget the citizens of the city who are appalled at the amount of money she was making on the job while they're working their asses off to make a fraction of what she was making at the FD.  While Ms. Arthur may have taken for granted the incredible pay and gold plated benefits she was getting at the taxpayers expense, most of us would kill to have the same kind of compensation so it's that much more appalling to see someone who had the world at her feet to get involved in this kind of mess.  Don't blame me if she loses her pension, she's got no one to blame but herself for that.


Now, till tomorrow, go back and read this blog post regarding our esteemed City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff and local gadfly and Coconut Grove resident Reid Welch.  This is going to get interesting.

BREAKING NEWS! Veldora Arthur gets sentenced

As the title states, former City of Miami assistant fire chief and convicted fraudster Veldora Arthur was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison this morning after a five hour hearing before Judge Patricia Seitz (check out her bio, WOW!) that started at 8:30 this morning. In addition to the 57 months, once released she'll have to serve an additional 36 months of probation.


I was in utter disbelief as I sat through this hearing, even after being found guilty and having been incarcerated for several months, Ms. Arthur both through her own statements and through her attorney, Bruce Lehr, who gave a somewhat less than stellar performance, were still making excuses and were both pleading ignorance regarding her role in the fraud.  At one point U.S. Attorney, Armando Rosquete brought up another instance of mortgage fraud that she had committed in a separate straw buyer scheme that she was involved with but not criminally charged for.  In this instance Ms. Arthur orchestrated the scheme and put up the money (approximately seventy four thousand dollars) for the down payment, a couple of days after the closing (we'll discuss this case next week in detail) Ms. Arthur received the money back with an additional ten thousand dollar profit.  To his credit, the prosecutor eloquently described the transaction and provided the court with all the relevant documents regarding the down payment that she put up for the straw buyer, wire transfer authorizations, bank statements, etc all detailing the approximately $74,000 being wired out of her account and then the subsequent $84,000 being wired back into her account days later (the original $74k + $10k profit).  When the judge asked Ms. Arthur's attorney to explain this suspicious banking transaction, he explained that his client knew nothing about the real estate transaction nor the wire transfers both in and out of her account.  As ridiculous as that may sound, the judge actually went so far as to say that if Ms. Arthur didn't authorize the wire leaving her account and since she had no idea who had authorized the wire that it must have been a phantom or a ghost that did so!

Are you fucking kidding me?  $74,000 leaves your account without your knowledge or your consent then a few days later $84,000 comes back in and you don't even think to question it?  WTF?

Judge Patricia Seitz

The worst part of this hearing was bringing her family and friends into the courtroom and having them dragged through this mess.  Somehow Ms. Arthur and/or her attorney thought it was a good idea to have her emotionally fragile 15 year old daughter before the court to make a statement.  I can't begin to tell you how horrible I felt watching this poor girl stand before the court and have to be subjected to seeing her mother wearing khaki prison clothes and with shackles around her legs.  This was truly and utterly unnecessary.

I have to really question what Ms. Arthur and her attorneys were thinking when they decided to take this case to trial rather than take a plea, the government had a mountain of incontrovertible evidence against her, most in the form of damning mortgage documents that she couldn't deny.  I suspect if she would have plead out that she could have ended up with something in the neighborhood of 24 months rather than the 57 months she ended getting.  

Regardless of what Ms. Arthur did to get herself into this position she finds herself in today, I have to tell you, seeing her family suffer through this hearing made for one of the saddest days of my life.  I pray that Ms. Arthur and her family get through this horrible ordeal and get on with their lives.

We'll discuss this hearing and its outcome at length next week.   

Veldora Arthur's attorney tries to tell the court why she shouldn't be put away for 57 to 71 months...

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Veldora Arthur

Our favorite former City of Miami Assistant Fire Chief and convicted fraudster Veldora Arthur is about to be sentenced in federal court for her role in a multimillion dollar mortgage fraud scam.  As we discussed a few months back, after Ms. Arthur was found guilty for her role in this nefarious scheme, she quickly dropped her former attorney, Larry Handfield, and retained prominent criminal defense attorney Bruce Lehr to handle the sentencing phase of her case.  Now her new attorneys come before the judge and give a litany of reasons why the court shouldn't slam her with a 57 to 71 month sentence as dictated by the federal sentencing guidelines.  Let's take a look at the many reasons her attorneys offer for Veldora to get a more lenient sentence.


Reason #1, she's really not that guilty...

On September 30, 2011, defendant ARTHUR was found guilty of three (3) counts out of a five count Superseding Indictment. Specifically, ARTHUR was found guilty of one (1) count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and two counts of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§1349 and 1341, respectively.

Ok, I guess things could have been worse?  After all, she was found guilty of three counts rather than five, so she's not as guilty as she could have been?


Reason #2, she's really not that bad of a person and after all...

...it is respectfully submitted that ARTHUR’s history and characteristics (which include
25 years of service as a firefighter), family circumstances, and need to avoid unwarranted sentencing disparity, warrant a downward departure and/or variance from the sentencing guidelines. Prior to her arrest in connection with this case, ARTHUR, who is an extremely religious woman, had never been accused, arrested, or convicted of any crime.

I wonder how all that factored in when she was getting kicked back hundreds of thousands of dollars when she was closing on these fraudulent mortgages?


Reason #3, she's a hard worker...

After graduating from High School in 1982, ARTHUR enrolled at Miami Dade Community College where she took paramedic and EMT courses in the hopes of becoming a firefighter. In 1986, she was hired as the first female firefighter for the City of Miami Fire Department. For more than 25 years, ARTHUR was employed by the Fire Department and held numerous positions including Executive Assistant to the Fire Director and, ultimately, Assistant Fire Chief.

Yet somehow after all that hard work and rising to the command staff of the City of Miami Fire department and making close to $300k+ per year, it still wasn't enough.


Reason #4, she did real good in school...

ARTHUR simultaneously attended Barry University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in public administration in 2001.

Fantastic.

After obtaining an excellent education and providing 25 years of honorable service and dedication to the City of Miami Fire Department, ARTHUR was relieved of her duties as a result of her arrest in this cause.

I beg to differ, she wasn't relieved of her duties, she was simply sent home for nearly a year while on the tax payers dime.  Let me know where I can sign up for the same deal.  On another note, if she was so dedicated to the fire department, why was she working as a mortgage broker, real estate fraudster, credit repairer, etc?  That hardly seems like someone who's dedicated to the Fire Department.  Perhaps some of her coworkers down at the Fire department would like to chime in and tell us just how dedicated she really was...


Reason #5, she's worried her son may not be able to get a job...

Additionally, it is significant to note that Arthur’s son expects to graduate as a paramedic in December of next year. Because of the publicity surrounding his mother’s case, he feels it may difficult to find employment in South Florida.

And why exactly should that concern the court?  Perhaps Ms. Arthur should have taken all that into consideration before she decided to engage in fraudulent activities?


Reason #6, she's not feeling so good...

As noted in the PSI, Defendant ARTHUR is a 46 year old woman with an extensive history of medical conditions, including Sjogren’s Syndrome, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, two herniated discs in her lower back1, hypertensive heart disease, and mitral valve disease.

Ok, and?  Is being healthy a prerequisite for serving the appropriate prison term?  She seemed pretty healthy when I saw her running around in Larry Handfield's office.  Again, I have to wonder, was she brought into the fraudulent closings in a wheel chair?


Reason #7, she went to the feds first...

It is respectfully submitted that ARTHUR’s voluntary disclosure to authorities was an act consistent with someone who was not aware that her actions were illegal. It was not a subsequent remedial measure taken by a defendant who is facing imminent prosecution. At the time ARTHUR disclosed her actions and the actions of others to her attorney and to the Government, there was no pending investigation against her. ARTHUR’s candor, which ultimately subjected her not only to criminal liability but to the loss of her freedom, warrants a downward departure from the sentence suggested by the advisory guidelines.

No kidding?  To me this sounds like someone that's simply won the race to the prosecutors office, not an "act consistent with someone who was not aware that her actions were illegal" but instead the actions of someone who knew they broke the law and was trying to save their own ass.


In summary...

Defendant VELDORA ARTHUR respectfully requests that this Honorable Court sentence her below the advisory guideline range based on her history and characteristics, 25 years of service as a firefighter, family circumstances, and unwarranted sentencing disparity. Additionally, Defendant ARTHUR respectfully requests that a downward departure be granted based on her medical condition and voluntary disclosure of the offense to government authorities.

Come on now.  I guess her attorneys have to give it a try considering the pile of money they must have gotten from Veldora.  I can understand all these wonderful reasons why the court should throw the book at her, but what I can't understand is if all of these things were true, why the hell did Ms. Arthur put herself in this position to begin with?  I'll be honest with you, if I was in her shoes, I would have been perfectly content making over $300k+ per year working over at the FD.  Easy administrative work, take home car, the best medical coverage money could buy as well as a fantastic pension package.  Ms. Arthur finds herself where she is today, behind bars, for one reason, GREED.  

Through this amusing narrative and these wonderful excuses her attorneys have provided the court, she's hoping to get her sentence reduced to something in the 24 to 30 month range.  I personally hope the court throws the book at her and gives her the maximum sentence of 71 months, if nothing else to send a message to anyone in her former position or anyone else in a cushy government job thinking about doing something as ignorant as she did and in turn throwing away an unreal job that took her 25 years+ to get.

The bad news doesn't seem to stop for Veldora Arthur...

Just when you think things can't get any worse for former City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur who was recently found guilty of a bevy of federal charges stemming from her involvement in a number of real estate and mortgage scams, it looks like there's a chance that they will.  While she sits in federal custody in downtown Miami awaiting her sentencing, the government has come before the court and is asking the court to impose a stiffer penalty on her because of an instance of alleged obstruction of justice.


As one of Veldora's bond conditions, she was not allowed to contact anyone who the government designated as a witness in her criminal case.  True to form, it seems like she did just that right after she was indicted, even worse she did so in an email that the witness immediately turned over to the prosecutors...

DUH!  Especially when it clearly states on her bond conditions that she can't contact a government witness except through her attorney!

So why was Veldora so anxious to contact this witness?  It turns out that this witness owned the company whose name Veldora used to create fake proof of employment documents for the fraudulent mortgages that she obtained for the commission of the frauds she was found guilty of.  From the government's motion...

Ms. Smith provided this e-mail to the government during its trial preparation. A bit of background on Ms. Smith is appropriate. As this Court will recall, the fake employment on the loan applications that the defendant signed in this case was Gateway Associates, LLC (“Gateway”). Gateway was a company owned and operated by Ms. Rosalind Smith. Ms. Smith testified that the she knew the defendant, that they talked about starting a business by the name of Financial Solutions, LLC and that Ms. Smith had no other relationship with any other defendant in this case. Obviously, based on the fact that Ms. Smith was the sole owner of Gateway, Ms. Smith was the critical witness who could testify that the defendant never worked for Gateway thereby establishing that the defendant misrepresented her employment and income on the loan applications.


Further, she attempted to persuade Ms. Smith that her “signature was forged on some documents and I was mislead about the validity of the investment deals.” Id. In an effort to buttress her claims, the defendant even attached to the e-mail a polygraph report that she allegedly undertook through a polygrapher who the defendant hired and paid. The defendant concluded the e-mail by stating that the polygraph report “confirm[ed] [her] position.”


Here, the defendant unlawfully contacted a witness in this case in violation of this Court’s bond order and conditions. The witness was a critical witness, which the defendant attempted to influence by, among other things, attaching a polygraph-examination report that purported to prove in some allegedly empirical way that she was telling the truth.

If you're going to do something this stupid, why the hell would you do it in a manner that could be traced like an email?  How about having someone else go talk to the witness?  Or how about saying nothing at all?  Considering the government has identified this person as a witness, you know that they're already talking to her and have more than likely scared the shit out of her, there's nothing you're going to say that's going to persuade her!

The prosecutor sums up this instance of Veldora's stupidity brilliantly at the end of the motion...

Plainly, the defendant’s actions demonstrate—at a minimum—that she has little respect for this Court’s rules and, consistent with her overall conduct in this case, views herself as someone who is above the rules of fair play, fair dealing and honesty.

Exactly, this is the same cavalier attitude that she's exhibited during her tenure at the City of Miami Fire Department and the same "I don't give a fuck" stance she's taken throughout the commission of her crimes all the way through till the very end her federal trial.  Once again, I have to say to the prosecutors, especially Mr. Rosquete, well fucking done.  You guys hit this one out of the park.

Guess who's going to help decide who becomes the next City of Miami Police Chief?

I just about fell out of my seat when I heard who's going to help pick the next City of Miami Police Chief, from the Herald article...

Ten candidates have made the list of finalists to become Miami’s next police chief, following the spectacular firing two months ago of disgraced former Chief Miguel Exposito.
Among the contenders: a retired high-level state police special agent, several prominent former Miami police command staffers and the man who replaced Exposito in an interim role.
A selection committee headed by Miami-Dade Police Director Jim Loftus will begin interviewing finalists Wednesday, and will continue next week.

So far so good, I have the utmost respect for the Miami Dade County Police Director, James Loftus, he's alright by me.

The finalists are: Adam L. Burden, Thomas W. Cannon, Frank G. Fernandez, Michael J. Gugliotti, Rafael P. Hernandez Jr., Roberto Hylton, Manuel Orosa, Amos Rojas Jr., Gerald Speziale Jr., and Louis A. Vega.
Earlier this month, the selection committee picked the finalists from 71 applicants. Nearly 50 had already submitted their applications before Exposito was fired; his contract had been set to expire at the end of the year.
A sharply divided city commission voted to fire Exposito on Sept. 12. City Manager Johnny Martinez had suspended the ex-chief six days earlier for insubordination, saying Exposito overstepped his authority by moving forward with administrative demotions the manager had explicitly placed on hold.

We all remember that circus don't we?

The list of finalists features several candidates that are well known in South Florida law enforcement circles.
Orosa, considered a candidate before Exposito was named chief, has headed the department in an interim position. Burden and Cannon, former Miami assistant police chiefs, retired after Exposito demoted them and a slew of others in December 2009.
Fernandez is the former deputy chief under Chief John Timoney. Vega, a former assistant chief under Timoney, also served as the police director in Camden, N.J.
Rojas recently retired as FDLE’s regional special agent in charge after eight years in the post. Hernandez, a former Miami-Dade police officer, served as chiefs of police in Sweetwater and most recently, North Miami Beach.
Gugliotti is the longtime chief of police in Waterbury, Conn. Hylton, the former police chief in Prince George’s County, Md., is listed as law enforcement advisor to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Speziale is the former sheriff of Passaic County, N.J., who later became the deputy superintendent of the New York-New Jersey Port Authority.

Blah, blah, blah...

The selection committee is made of Loftus and Addy Villanueva, now the special agent in charge of FDLE’s South Florida office; Hugo Barrera, the special agent of Miami’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives...

Sounds good up until here...

...and Maurice Kemp, Miami’s fire chief.

WTF!? 

Chief Mo Kemp

Maurice Kemp, the City of Miami Fire Chief is going to help pick out the next Police Chief?  This would be the same Maurice Kemp who sent his former assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur home collecting over $100k while under federal indictment!  The same Veldora Arthur who was rumored to receive preferential treatment throughout her career because of her alleged personal relationship with Chief Kemp?  This guy should be looking for a job himself rather than sitting on a committee that's going to pick out the next police chief!

Committee members will conduct the interviews with five people appointed by city commissioners to ask questions an provide input. But only the four committee members will pick the top five finalists.
From those choices, Manager Martinez will select the next chief.

Another bullshit dog and pony show.  There is no doubt in my mind that Mayor Regalado and his cronies have already picked interim police chief Orosa to be the next police chief, what we're seeing here with this selection committee is a sham proceeding to make it look like Orosa was chosen through a fair and equitable selection process.  Hopefully I'm wrong but somehow I doubt it.

Former City of Miami Assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur was paid $120,000 while under federal indictment waiting for trial!

Veldora Arthur

That's right!  While federally indicted mortgage fraudster Veldora Arthur was sitting home out on bail awaiting trial, she picked another $120k from the City of Miami for doing absolutely NOTHING!  From Melissa Sanchez's excellent article from El Nuevo Herald via Google translate...

The City of Miami paid more than $ 120,000 to the Deputy Chief of the Fire Department, Veldora Arthur, waiting at home to be prosecuted for mortgage fraud, even though a rule municipal states that non-union employees should be suspended without pay or transferred when they are accused of a crime.
From February to September, Arthur had to stay home from 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday. I could only go out for a lunch break and had to call this office twice a day.

Sorry to hear that Melissa, I don't even get to go out for lunch...

Roberto Suarez, president of the firefighters union, said he did not understand why the City does not reassigned to Arthur while awaiting trial. Arthur was convicted of three counts of fraud on September 30. He was eventually dismissed on October 5.

"Why pay you to do anything when you can put to work"? Suarez said. "Some days? Maybe. Do some weeks? From time to time. But what months? I know of another similar case. "

Not sure what he's saying, I guess Google Translate isn't perfect...

On 3 February, the Federal Attorney's Office charged Arthur and four other people to participate in a mortgage fraud of $ 11 million. Arthur was arrested on February 11 and released the same day on bail of $ 120,000.

The rule states since 1998 municipal non-union employees accused of a crime shall be suspended without pay. Employees cleared of charges should be reinstated to their jobs with back pay. If desired, the administrator can assign these employees to other tasks while waiting for their day in court.

Unionized employees are not subject to the rule, due to different agreements between management and unions. For example, according to a 1989 agreement, firefighters may receive paid leave in such cases. However, Suarez said that in most cases these unionized firefighters are reassigned to other duties.

Arthur ceased to be syndicated by assuming a high administrative position for more than a decade. At the time of his arrest was deputy chief in charge of payroll and quality control.

According to Maurice Kemp, head of the Miami Fire Department, Arthur had been able to recover its previous position of lieutenant, which is covered by the union. If they had, would have decreased his salary of more than $ 184.000. In addition, a pension of $ 167,000.

According to Chief Mo Kemp?  Wasn't that Veldora's boyfriend?

The mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos Gimenez, who was administrator and former Miami fire chief, said Arthur could top having lowered to its previous non-administrative position, so that was protected by the union.

After the arrest of Arthur, his superiors took no action. Kemp said he had been evaluating the charges since 12 February.

"Because Arthur had been out of the office on leave, using their personal days for all days but one February, there was an urgency to reach a decision on their status," Kemp wrote in a recent e-mail to El Nuevo Herald.

On 21 February, blogger The Straw Buyer, was the first to write about the case. The next day, the local press started asking questions to Kemp. At that time, Kemp wrote a memo to Arthur allowing you to continue in office even restricting their access to funds these days departamento.En Kemp met with city administrators to determine what to do with Arthur. Both the then manager, Tony Crapp Jr., as the then chief financial officer, Larry Spring, and others involved in the decision said they preferred not to comment on the case. Johnny Martinez, the current administrator, as the Department of the City Attorney, referred questions to Kemp.

On March 2, Spring Kemp sent an email in which Arthur ruled that separate out their duties with pay.

"This is based on our previous conversations and a review of the rule," wrote Spring.

According to Giménez, administrators can exercise their discretion in applying the rule.

"Right, wrong, indifferent, they came to a decision," he said. "Did you follow politics? Yes, because they have that discretion. "

Beverly Pruitt, Director of Employee Relations of the City, said he did not have records of employees who have been placed under license with or without pay because of an indictment.

Suarez said many firefighters believe that Arthur was treated favoritism. He said the media attention on the case determined that perhaps sent home.

 LOL!  Would that be the media attention that we caused?!

"There are many positions to which they could be assigned as being in charge of the 911 call center," said Suarez. "Apparently, someone in the administration of the City does not want to deal with the drama of her in the office."

Kemp said he was aware of the growing media interest, but felt that did not influence the decision.

That's not what I heard MO!

Arthur also took 125 hours of accrued vacation leave in excess of $ 11,000. During the trial, used three-week vacation. Mayor Tomas Regalado said he wants the Office of the City Attorney investigate the issue to see if it can recover all the money paid to Arthur.

"Having been found guilty, she should return the money," said Regalado.

Arthur remains jailed in Miami while awaiting sentencing on December 16. He has hired a new lawyer.

What?  Here we go again with the idiots from the City talking about clawing back hundreds of thousands of dollars only after the money had already been dolled out!  What a bunch of shit.  I don't know what's worse, the Mayor's bullshit reaction about Veldora picking up $120k for sitting on her fat ass at home or the fact that once again to get real news we have to turn to the Spanish language El Nuevo Herald rather than the English language Miami Herald.  FUUUUUUUK! 

Convicted former City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur gets a new lawyer...

Veldora Arthur the former City of Miami assistant fire chief that was federally convicted of several counts of mail and wire fraud resulting from a massive mortgage fraud scheme has replaced the attorney who represented her during trial, Larry Handfield, with a new attorney for the sentencing phase of her case.  Her new attorney, Bruce Lehr, is a heavyweight in the criminal defense world down here in South Florida, here's the motion for substitution of counsel...

Substitution of Counsel for Sentencing Veldora Arthur

And her former attorneys subsequent withdrawal from the case...

Larry Handfield Motion to Withdraw Veldora Arthur


I have to wonder what caused Veldora to make this move, doesn't it seem like too little too late?  Considering what was at stake, why didn't she hire a criminal defense powerhouse like Lehr before the trial?  After all Mr. Lehr most recently represented attorney Stuart Rosenfeldt who was a named partner in convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein's former law firm, Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler,  and managed to keep him out of jail for the last couple of years, in fact the feds haven't even charged him yet and he's managed to keep his law license!   Isn't this the guy you'd want on your side from the get go?  

Another thing to consider is the enormous amount of money that Veldora has spent to date defending herself, her former attorney, Larry Handfield, told several of my friends that he'd collected a $150,000 flat fee from Veldora for his representation and remember, that's in addition to what she spent with the other attorney that represented her, Herbert Walker.  The question that begs to be asked is where does a City of Miami firefighter come up with what seems to be easily in excess of $200k in attorneys fees?  What makes this even worse is that despite spending a small fortune the cornerstone of the defense teams strategy according to the government was...

Essentially, defense counsel will use the expert to attempt to have the jury impute, infer or assume that Arthur herself is one of these people with a mortgage-broker license who allegedly does not know very much about anything pertaining to mortgages, loan applications, and closing-related documents. 

Is this the best her defense "dream team" could come up with?  She didn't know about anything that was going on despite the fact that she was a licensed mortgage broker herself?  Isn't this defense just another permutation of the "dog ate my homework" excuse?  Is that the best $200k can buy you these days?  If that's the case, I'd save my money and defend myself, thank you very much!

The cornerstone of Veldora Arthur's mortgage fraud defense...

The most common defense in a mortgage fraud case lately has been "I didn't know what I was signing" or "the brokers screwed me" or my favorite, "who reads all those documents anyway"!  As lame as those excuses may be, somehow they keep popping up throughout all of the mortgage fraud prosecutions that we've discussed lately.  Now we can add that lame ass defense strategy to federally indicted city of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur's bag of tricks.  Here's a quick summary of the expert witnesses opinions that she presented to the jury...

ARTHUR’S PROFFERED EXPERT’S OPINIONS 

OPINION 1: It is not uncommon for buyers to sign closing documents without reading them.

OPINION 2: Buyers often rely on broker advice in real estate closing transactions.

OPINION 3: A buyer could be unaware of mistakes or fraud in closing documents.

OPINION 4: Some buyers complain after the fact [regarding their] knowledge of what was signed in closing documents.

OPINION 5: Brokers can and have engaged in the practice of “signing” of [sic] the buyer’s signature.

There you have it in a nutshell, the classic "I had no idea what I was doing defense".  There's a small wrinkle in this instance though, come to find out that Veldora herself was a licensed mortgage broker!  Considering the fact that she's a "licensed real estate professional", how far can she get with this "I had no idea what was going on" defense?  In fact the government thinks that her defense attorneys are going to propose to the jury that even though she was a mortgage broker, she actually had no idea how the mortgage business worked!  From one of the government's motions...

...the government anticipates that Arthur will not limit the expert’s testimony merely to the “requirements for obtaining a broker license in 2005 – 2006.” Indeed, the language in Opinion 7 regarding “and qualifications arising therefrom” suggests that Arthur will ultimately have the expert testify about her own level of knowledge/qualifications...


...the government anticipates that defense counsel will attempt to have the expert testify that individuals who obtain a mortgage-broker license are not, in fact, very knowledgeable about mortgage transactions, closings, and loan applications. From there, defense counsel might attempt to have the expert opine about Arthur’s potential level of knowledge and familiarity based on her having obtained a mortgage broker license herself. Essentially, defense counsel will use the expert to attempt to have the jury impute, infer or assume that Arthur herself is one of these people with a mortgage-broker license who allegedly does not know very much about anything pertaining to mortgages, loan applications, and closing-related documents.

Even more bizarre is that fact that even though Veldora's defense rests the blame on the mortgage brokers who allegedly "swindled" her into doing these deals, somehow her attorneys didn't cross examine them in trial.  As if that wasn't bad enough...

What Arthur is attempting to posit through this alleged “opinion” is that because she was walking around in South Florida in 2005/2006 during the real estate market/climate at that time, it somehow should excuse her conduct.

LOL!  So besides the fact that Veldora is the worlds dumbest mortgage broker, now we're to believe that she's involved in this multi million dollar mortgage fraud scheme simply because that was just the way the real estate market was back in 2005/06? 

Good luck with that defense.  The jury's still out, we'll update if there's any new developments.

The jury in the Veldora Arthur mortgage fraud case begins deliberating...

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As the title states, City of Miami Assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur's mortgage fraud case has been handed over to the jury today.  We'll talk about this case and one of Veldora's defenses in a little more detail tomorrow, for now here are the jury instructions...

Jury Instructions for the Veldora Arthur Federal Mortgage Fraud Trial

Speechless. Sentencing in the Plantation cops case and the government rests it's case against federally indicted city of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur...

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Our comments section has been abuzz over the last few days, first with the second phase of the Plantation cops mortgage fraud trial ending in a hung jury and now with the sentencing of the two cops convicted in the first trial, John Velez and Joseph Derosa, being sentenced today.  I was frankly very startled to learn that in light of the outcome of the second case and the fact that 4 of the six defendants from the first case were acquitted, the court seems to have thrown the book at these guys.


John Velez was sentenced today to 42 months in federal prison, Joseph Derosa received 37 months in federal prison and three years of probation.  Mr. Velez was found guilty of one count of mail fraud, two counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements on a hud.  Mr. Derosa was found guilty of one count of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of "making false statements within the jurisdiction of hud".  Does 37 or 42 months seem commensurate with those charges?  Hardly in my opinion and even worse when you take into consideration the fact that the banks that were the alleged "victims" of Mr. Velez and Mr. Derosa's scheme have done far worse than they have and to date they've gone unpunished.  What makes this even more outrageous is the fact that both Velez and Derosa had no records!  Let's not forget that before this mess these guys were cops!


Now, if that wasn't enough to get your blood boiling, let's take a look at what the cooperating defendants got.  We'll start with the mortgage brokers, the two crooks at the center of this mess who admitted to forging hundreds if not thousands of documents, two fraudsters that admitted to committing fraud on nearly every single loan they processed over the last decade, what did the government hit these guys with?  Matt Gulla got 34 months and his partner Rene Rodriguez gets 43 months with each one of them having to pay $500 in restitution each.  How's that for justice?!  These two characters were responsible for hundreds of millions, perhaps several billion dollars worth of fraud and they get off this lightly?  Judging by the severity of the convicted cops sentences, shouldn't these two get the chair?!


So here were are after nearly five years worth of investigating, almost 8 months of trials and this is the best we can do?  I'd love for someone to do a cost benefit analysis of just how much it cost to achieve the two convictions that resulted from "Operation Copout".  Any wonder why our government spending is out of control?

On another note, we're being told that the government has rested its case against federally indicted City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur.  This case seems to be moving at a much faster clip that the other federal mortgage fraud trials we've been watching, I suspect the trials going to be over within the next ten days.  I'm also told that Veldora herself plans on testifying, that in and of itself should make for some interesting theater.

As if this week wasn't bad enough, we also had the execution of convicted murderer Troy Davis.  Despite the fact that seven of the nine eyewitnesses from his trial have recanted their testimony against him, the fact that a murder weapon was never found as well as plenty of other disturbing facts that created more than enough reasonable doubt as to his guilt, the state of Georgia seemed hellbent to kill this man, they finally did yesterday.  I'm not going to rehash what's already being said about this state sanctioned murder of a man who may have been innocent of the crime he was convicted of, instead I'll leave you with this letter Mr. Davis wrote just before his death...

I want to thank all of you for your efforts and dedication to Human Rights and Human Kindness, in the past year I have experienced such emotion, joy, sadness and never ending faith. It is because of all of you that I am alive today, as I look at my sister Martina I am marveled by the love she has for me and of course I worry about her and her health, but as she tells me she is the eldest and she will not back down from this fight to save my life and prove to the world that I am innocent of this terrible crime.

As I look at my mail from across the globe, from places I have never ever dreamed I would know about and people speaking languages and expressing cultures and religions I could only hope to one day see first hand. I am humbled by the emotion that fills my heart with overwhelming, overflowing Joy. I can’t even explain the insurgence of emotion I feel when I try to express the strength I draw from you all, it compounds my faith and it shows me yet again that this is not a case about the death penalty, this is not a case about Troy Davis, this is a case about Justice and the Human Spirit to see Justice prevail.

I cannot answer all of your letters but I do read them all, I cannot see you all but I can imagine your faces, I cannot hear you speak but your letters take me to the far reaches of the world, I cannot touch you physically but I feel your warmth everyday I exist.

So Thank you and remember I am in a place where execution can only destroy your physical form but because of my faith in God, my family and all of you I have been spiritually free for some time and no matter what happens in the days, weeks to come, this Movement to end the death penalty, to seek true justice, to expose a system that fails to protect the innocent must be accelerated. There are so many more Troy Davis’. This fight to end the death penalty is not won or lost through me but through our strength to move forward and save every innocent person in captivity around the globe. We need to dismantle this Unjust system city by city, state by state and country by country.

I can’t wait to Stand with you, no matter if that is in physical or spiritual form, I will one day be announcing,

“I AM TROY DAVIS, and I AM FREE!”

Never Stop Fighting for Justice and We will Win! 

Rest in peace Mr. Davis.