The Miami Herald's less than stellar job of reporting on the Michelle Spence-Jones case, interesting Google searches and mortgage fraud in the news again...

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We'll get back to discussing the City of Miami CFO Larry M. Spring Jr's mortgage maladies on Monday, today I'd like to say a few words about my displeasure with the Miami Herald and it's coverage of the Michelle Spence-Jones bribery trial.  Several of our readers have pointed out the inadequacies of the Herald's coverage of the trial and worse yet reporter David Ovalle's obvious bias against suspended City of Miami commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones.  I'm not exactly sure what Mr. Ovalle's motives are in writing pro state articles against a defendant that is presumed innocent until proven guilty, regardless though, I've been following what little coverage the Herald has provided and posted a comment here and there in the articles comment sections.  Yesterday, Mr. Ovalle wrote about the trails postponement till Monday because of a medical condition the prosecutor came down with during trial, once I read the article, I went ahead and tried to post a comment, this is what appeared on the screen...

In case you missed it, here it is blown up...

You have to wonder, why the hell is the Miami Herald censoring comments made in the Spence-Jones story?  I posted comments elsewhere and it seems to me the only article with "comment moderation" was the one regarding the Spence-Jones trial.  What gives?


On another note, I noticed yesterday that someone found our blog through a search for "Matt Gulla rat".  At first I found this slightly offensive, then I remembered all of the comments we've been getting regarding ex mortgage broker turned governments witness Matt Gulla, one of the mortgage brokers at the heart of the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case.  Among other things, Mr. Gulla is accused of fabricating and forging an extensive number of documents that are an integral part of the governments case against the plantation cops, to get some idea of just how many documents Mr. Gulla forged, take a look at the governments exhibit list and take note of how many documents are labeled as "false" or "forged".  

plantation cops mortgage fraud case government exhibit list

Interesting to say the least.


On another note, while flipping through the channels last night I accidentally came upon a CBS4 I-Team investigation regarding mortgage fraud, take a look...



Great story.  I love the part about attorney Jonathan A. Heller who's helping defend the destitute family in their foreclosure case free of charge.  Although the story and it's contention of "ongoing mortgage fraud" seems a little late in the game, I have to commend CBS4 for covering a subject that has all but disappeared from the media.  

The question that I'd love to ask the reporter and U.S. Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer who appears in the story is despite all the great mortgage fraud arrests and subsequent prosecutions that his team of federal prosecutors have brought down, why hasn't anything been done about all the mortgage fraud cases that we've discussed on this blog?  How about the millions of dollars worth of fraud that we found and outlined nearly two years ago in Coconut Grove?  What about the massive fraud by John Romney and company involving the house at 911 Columbus Blvd?  Or how about the Larry M. Spring mess?   Take a look at these cases, it's all laid out in our blog posts.

We'll conclude our analysis of the Larry Spring foreclosure on Monday, till then...

Prosecutor in Michelle Spence-Jones case is a WANTED MAN!

 

According to our friends at Investigation Miami, assistant state attorney Richard Scruggs has a warrant for his arrest!


Read about it here...

UPDATE!!!


From the Justice Building blog regarding the Spence-Jones trial...

"Rump, you are missing the big story of the week. ASA Richard Scruggs is being humiliated in courtroom 4-1. Armando Codina repeatedly accused him of lying. This trial is about a lot more than Michelle Spence Jones. The real story is Scruggs. I doubt he survives this debacle if she is acquitted. I see a JOA on the horizon followed by demands for an investigation, etc"

Where did City of Miami CFO Larry Spring live since November 2004?

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Before we can really figure out the motives behind City of Miami CFO Larry Spring's purchase of the home located at 14421 Polk Street back in November of 2004 we need to try to identify where Mr. Spring lived when he purchased the home.  If we had some sort of resources here at The Straw Buyer, we would immediately get copies of his employment records from the city as well as information from his drivers license in order to ascertain where Mr. Spring claimed he lived over the last seven years.  Since we don't have those resources available to us, we're left to what we can find online via the county and state websites.  

Here's what we were able to find, first from the final judgment from the foreclosure case for the 14421 Polk Street property we're shown the address that Mr. Spring was served at...

It's clear from this final judgment that Mr. Spring was served at the Brickell Bay drive address  from the inception of the case in early 2009 all the way through to the final judgment in December of 2009.


Now, let's move on to the other online resource we have available, Sunbiz.org, The Florida Division of State's department of corporations.  A quick search in Mr. Spring's name produces records for a corporation called ACHIEVEMENT MANAGEMENT AND CONSULTING, INC., we'll start by looking at the articles of incorporation which were filed on July 23, 2004...

This document clearly states Mr. Spring's address as being 1111 Brickell Bay drive, albeit at a different unit number.  Now, let's look at the records for the following year...

Once again, the document filed with the state shows Mr. Spring's residence to be at 1111 Brickell Bay drive, but again with a different unit number, this time apartment number 2810.  Let's see what the next year has in store...

Although there are no records for 2006, the 2007 filing shows more of the same, Mr. Spring apparently lived in the Yacht Club at Brickell located at 1111 Brickell Bay drive since at least July 23, 2004 according to the records on file with the state.  What's the big deal you ask?  Remember, Mr Spring purchased his mothers home in December of 2004 and refinanced it in February 2006.  The question is, did Mr. Spring claim the home at 14421 Polk Street as his primary residence on his mortgage applications and on the subsequent two mortgages for the home?  If so, Mr. Spring is in for a heap of trouble.  We'll find out tomorrow...

The Larry Spring "Pump and Dump", taking another look at the City of Miami Chief Financial Officer's foray into real estate...

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Yesterday we discussed City of Miami Chief Financial Officers unfortunate foreclosure on his home located at 13321 Polk street.  Before we continue, let's take a look at the definition of "arm's length transaction", a term commonly used in real estate, from the Realtor.com website...

An arm’s length transaction is one in which the buyers and sellers act independently and have no relationship to each other. The concept of an arm’s length transaction is to ensure that both parties in the deal are acting in their own self interest and are not subject to any pressure or duress from the other party.

Simple to understand right?  Now, let's take a look at the deed for the home Mr. Spring purchased back in 2004...

larry spring deed for 13321 Polk Street

Anyone notice who the sellers were?  According to the deed, Mr Spring purchased the home from Mamie L. Spring and her husband John Flemming.  Could there be some sort of relationship between Mamie L. Spring and Larry M. Spring Jr?  To answer that question, we'll look at a quit claim deed from 1979 for the very same property...

14421 Polk Street Deed From Larry M. Spring to Mamie I. Spring

From this document dated July 11, 1979 we see that Mamie I. Spring took ownership of the property solely in her name from someone named Larry M. Spring, presumably Larry M. Spring Sr.  Coincidentally this quit claim deed coincides with date for Larry M. Spring Sr.'s divorce from Mamie I. Spring (case 1979-904571-FC-04) back in mid 1979. 

 

Conclusion in case you haven't figured it out yet?  From the documents we've been able to unearth, it appears to me like Larry M. Spring Jr. purchased his childhood home from his mother, hardly an arms length transaction, stripped the home of all it's equity then let it fall into foreclosure.  If that is indeed the case then we have to ask another important question, did Larry M. Spring Jr. ever live in the home located at 13321 Polk street after he purchased it in 2004?  

We'll continue our discussion into this seemingly nefarious transaction tomorrow, before we do though, make sure you go back and read our comments from yesterday's post as well as the comments on Investigation Miami and Take Back Miami to get all the necessary background information.

City of Miami CFO Larry Spring's home foreclosed on...

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Could this be true? The City of Miami's Chief Financial Officers home was foreclosed on? Is it actually possible that the man that's in charge of the city's purse strings is so financially irresponsible that he let his own home slip into foreclosure? Let's take a look.


The property in question is located at 14421 Polk Street in lovely Miami-Dade county...

Mr. Spring purchased the home back in December of 2004, according to the county records the home was purchased for $150,000 with a mortgage from Peninsula Bank for $147,682. Here's the mortgage as it appears on the Miami Dade county recorders website...

14421 Polk Street first Mortgage

Now, a little over two years later, Mr. Spring goes ahead and refinances the same property for $191,250, once again here's the mortgage as it appears in the he county recorders website...

Larry Spring 14421 Polk Street Mortgage

So far so good, right? Problem is just two years later the bank that Mr. Spring has his mortgage with decides to file a foreclosure suit against him as evidenced by this lis pendens filed against the property on March 11, 2008...

Larry Spring Lis Pendens for 13321 Polk Street

In case there's any doubt that the Larry Spring who's home was foreclosed on is the same Larry Spring who's the CFO of the City of Miami, take a look at this signature that we obtained from the mortgage in question...

Now, compare that signature to the City of Miami CFO's signature as it appears on the city's 2009 annual report...

Any doubts now?

Disregard the fact that Mr. Spring refinanced the property two years after he purchased it for $41,250 more than what he had purchased it for, also disregard the fact that a man making as much money as Mr. Spring couldn't keep up the payments on a $190,000 loan while making a small fortune as the CFO of a major city. What should scare the living crap out of all of us is that a man as fiscally irresponsible as Mr. Spring has control of the City of Miami's finances! WTF! Come on Larry, if things were so rough, you should have just asked Veldora for a loan!

I'm getting the feeling that there's much more to this story than meets the eye, more coming tomorrow.

Taking another look at Armando Codina's second deposition for the Michelle Spence-Jones bribery case.

We discussed certain elements of Mr. Codina's deposition last Friday as outlined by our friend Francisco Alvarado in his Miami New Times article.  Specifically the New Times story discussed Mr Codina's displeasure with the prosecutor who took a statement from him regarding his donation to Dade Community Foundation that was to be used for a charity event to honor Barbara Carey-Schuler after telling Mr. Codina that the event never happened and that Spence-Jones pocketed the money for her own use.  
 
The problem is that the event did happen and once Mr. Codina found out, he said the prosecutor had mislead him...

"You told me there had not been an event," Codina told Scruggs. "You told me that the charity was a fake and that she had used the money as her own piggybank...that no event had taken place and that she had pocketed the money." 

The prosecutor went ahead and based his case against Spence-Jones on this flawed testimony from Mr. Codina, while several other people have written about the first part of the deposition where Mr. Codina confronts the prosecutor for misleading him, no one has mentioned anything about Mr. Codina's cross examination by Spence-Jones defense attorney Peter Raben, take a look for yourselves...

Q. My client has been charged with grand theft in that acquiring $12,500 contribution from you in March has been charged under the Florida statute saying it was a theft.  As you sit here today, do you believe that you were the victim of a theft by my client?


A. No.


Q. Okay, do you believe that you donated money or you made this contribution as a result of fraud, a willful misrepresentation or false premise by my client?


A. I made the contribution because of what was on that e-mail, and as I know it today, my money was deposited at the Dade Community Foundation, so I would have to say no.  

Can it get any clearer than that?

THE WITNESS:  I said, as I know today, the money was deposited in the Dade Community Foundation, so I would have to say no, I don't think that I was defrauded.

Just in case it wasn't clear enough!

Q. When you say you think you were defrauded at one time, is that based upon the statements that were made to you by Mr. Scruggs when you met with him?

A. Yes, sir.

Yikes!

Q.  Okay, and in terms of what the money was going to be for, would you agree that it was an unrestricted gift to the charity to be administered at the discretion of  the Dade Community Foundation?

A.  Yes.  If  Dade Community Foundation deemed it to be a legitimate charity, I'm perfectly okay with that.  I can't replace my judgment for theirs.

Q.  You trusted their judgment? 

A.  Yes, I trust them.  I trust the Dade Community Foundation to a large degree.

Based on the testimony we just read, where does that leave the states case against Spence-Jones?  If indeed the testimony Mr. Codina originally gave was obtained by the prosecutor lying and misrepresenting the facts that lead up to her arrest then it seems to me there's nothing left.  

Let's see what the jury thinks...

The problem with City of Miami Assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur's mortgage fraud defense.

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We discussed City of Miami Assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur's eleven million dollar mortgage fraud indictment in detail last week and also got to hear one of her attorneys defend her in the media...

Bieber called his client “a victim” who “unfortunately associated herself with people who were committing fraud.”

Bieber said that even though Arthur was able to purchase the properties with no money down — a move he said was fairly common during the boom years of the real estate market — she received a payment after the properties closed.

“She believed this was an honest investment during the real estate boom,” said Bieber. 

That last quote is the best, "...an honest investment during the real estate boom," let's indulge the attorney for a moment and accept his explanation for his clients involvement in this massive scheme to defraud, just how far does this believing it was an honest investment thing get his client?  Let's assume that...

• She had no idea there was anything criminal going on.
• She had no part in creating false loan applications
• She had no part in falsifying her income in order to gain nearly $5,000,000 in mortgages.
• She had no part in conjuring up the down payments for these mortgages which her attorney claims she purchased with no money out of pocket.
• She had no part in the proceeds of these purchases that she made being disbursed to third parties with bogus loans on the HUD statements.

So let's assume all of the above are true and for the time being give Veldora the benefit of the doubt.  Now, let's go back and take a look at the mortgages for the properties mentioned in the indictment...


First the mortgage for unit 3711 which closed on February 7, 2006...

veldora arthur first mortgage for 3370 NE 190th street unit 3711 aventura flo 33180

And now the mortgage for unit 3111 which closed on March 6, 2006...

veldora arthur first mortgage for 3370 NE 190th street unit 3111 aventura flo 33180

Anyone see the problem here on these two homes that closed within a month of each other?  Keep in mind that Ms. Arthur lived and still lives in Weston Florida which is located in Broward county and both these mortgages were for homes located in Dade county.  That brings up this detail from the mortgages, as always, click on the image to enlarge...

WHOOPS!  Through her loan applications and by executing these mortgages, Ms. Arthur has represented to the banks that lent her the money for these homes that they are both her primary residences.  Does this scenario ring any bells for our readers?  Our colleagues over at Investigation Miami busted City of Miami Commissioner Marc David Sarnoff for doing the exact same thing, lying about home being a primary residence in order to get a lower interest rate!  Remember mortgage fraud is defined as...

"submitting and causing to be submitted materially false and fraudulent mortgage applications and settlement statements"

There you have it.  Unless Ms. Arthur is going to turn around and say that she didn't execute the mortgages for the homes involved in the $11,000,000 fraud indictment, she's got a long and arduous uphill battle ahead of her in defending herself, that is unless she chooses to use Commissioner Sarnoff's defense for mortgage fraud...

"I don't know anyone who's ever read their mortgage!"