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.
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.
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...
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!
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...
