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.   

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.

Update on the Veldora Arthur mortgage fraud case.

Looks like the United States Attorney's Office issued a press release regarding the outcome of the Veldora Arthur, Neil Fagan and Pamela Johnson mortgage fraud trial late Friday afternoon.  Here it is in it's entirety...

JURY FINDS MORTGAGE FRAUD DEFENDANTS GUILTY OF ALL COUNTS IN MORTGAGE FRAUD SCHEME INVOLVING THE HIDDEN BAY CONDOMINIUM COMPLEX IN AVENTURA, FLORIDA

September 30, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, announced that a federal jury found defendants Neil Fagan, Pamela Johnson, and Veldora Arthur guilty of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, and all substantive mail-fraud counts set forth in the February 3, 2011 superseding indictment. The indictment included charges of conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and substantive mail fraud. The conspiracy and mail fraud counts carry a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment. All defendants were remanded into the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons following their convictions.

Fagan and Johnson were charged in Counts 1 through 5 of the indictment and were convicted on all counts. According to the evidence, Fagan recruited the straw buyers who bought the properties listed in the indictment and received approximately $1,300,000 in mortgage fraud proceeds. Johnson served as the settlement agent who handled the real estate closings and diverted fraud proceeds to herself and family members. Arthur, charged and convicted of Counts 1, 3, and 5, was an Executive Assistant to the Fire Chief in the City of Miami Fire Department who served as a straw buyer. Arthur received approximately $317,000 in fraud proceeds in less than a month.

The properties in the case were located at 3370 NE 190 Street in Aventura, Florida, which is known as the Hidden Bay Condominium Complex. During the course of the conspiracy approximately $11,000,000 in fraudulent loans were issued, resulting in a loss to lenders of approximately $7,000,000.

Sentencing for Johnson and Fagan has been scheduled for December 15, 2011at 8:30am. Sentencing for Arthur has been scheduled for December 16, 2011 at 8:30 am.

Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the FBI. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Armando Rosquete and Sean McLaughlin.

I missed a crucial part of the press release after a quick glance, earlier today our friend Bill Cooke from Random Pixels highlighted what we missed... 

All defendants were remanded into the custody of the United States Bureau of Prisons following their convictions.

HOLY SHIT!  How the hell did I miss that?  Veldora and company were thrown in jail right after the verdict came down?  Lo and behold, Veldora and her codefendants are actually sitting in the federal detention center in downtown Miami!  For the foreseeable future Ms. Arthur is going to be known as federal inmate #96343-004 and will be calling a cell much like this one in the Miami FDC home...

This really caught me off guard since most defendants that I've known of are allowed to stay out on bail while they're awaiting sentencing, I'm amazed that they took her into custody right after the verdict.  Regardless of what Veldora may have done, I can't begin to imagine how hard this must be for herself and her family, first the indictment and now the incredible fall from being the City of Miami's first black female firefighter and assistant fire chief to now simply being a convicted felon sitting in jail possibly for the next twenty years.