As the title of the post states, the jury is still deliberating on the Plantation cops mortgage fraud case. While we're waiting for the outcome of that case, let's revisit the trial of federally indicted city of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur. As we mentioned yesterday her trial has already begun, the jury was picked yesterday and are expected to be sworn in this morning.
There is a bit of bad news for Veldora and fellow federally indicted city of Miami firefighter Thomas Thelusma, as we mentioned earlier this month, both Veldora and Thelusma share a codefendant in their respective indictments, a fellow named Patrick Brinson. Mr Brinson was indicted in both Veldora's case and Thelusma's case, I predicted that the weight of the government coming down on him on two different massive mortgage fraud indictments was going to be too much for him to bear, it looks like I was right on the money...
Essentially through his change of plea and his factual proffer, Mr. Brinson has admitted to all the facts of the federal indictment and has also agreed to cooperate fully with the prosecution against his remaining codefendants. In other words, THEY'RE FUCKED!
Regardless though, Ms Arthur has now hired a second attorney, Herbert Erving Walker, along with her original attorney Larry Handfield in order to help keep her out of federal prison. Good luck!
In researching City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur's mortgage fraud case we've come across a new character that wasn't part of the original federal indictment, a guy named Patrick Brinson. Somehow in all the hoopla over her indictment I managed to overlook Mr. Brinson, as we discussed yesterday, Mr. Brinson has come forward with a motion to dismiss the federal mortgage fraud indictment on the grounds that his rights to a speedy trial had been violated. The government submitted an accurate accounting of the actual days that are to be counted towards his "speedy trial" time frame yesterday and pretty much closes the door on that motion...
So who is this Patrick Brinson? According to the government, Mr. Brinson was indicted on February 11, 2011 with the group that Veldora was involved in, but then something interesting happens just thirteen days later, Mr. Brinson gets indicted for mortgage fraud again...
Now, among other things this creates a problem for Veldora and her other co-defendants, fighting one federal indictment is tough but doable but fighting two simultaneously is something else all together. You may have a decent chance of marshaling your resources and getting out from under the weight of a federal investigation and subsequent criminal trial, but when the government slams you with a second similar indictment, the chances of you being able to defeat both go up exponentially. If I had to guess, I'd say that at some point in the near future, Mr. Brinson will cut a deal and testify against his co-defendants unless he has a massive war chest set aside for defending both indictments. This could potentially be the remaining co-defendants worse nightmare.
Regardless of what Mr. Brinson decides to do, there's another interesting detail that bears mentioning, let's take a look the first page of his mortgage fraud indictment again...
Take a look at those two items indicated by the red arrows, co-defendant David Lam and a community called Versailles. For those of you who've been following another federal mortgage fraud case involving another veteran City of Miami firefighter, the name and community may sound familiar, anyone remember Thomas Thelusma? Here's a copy of his indictment...
It looks like Veldora Arthur's co-defendant Patrick Brinson was also indicted in a mortgage fraud involving homes in the Versailles community in Palm Beach along with David Lam who was indicted with Thomas Thelusma in another alleged mortgage fraud scheme in the very same community! That's a tight group of people over at the city of Miami fire department, isn't it now?
What remains to be seen though is how much longer will she be on paid administrative leave? Or worse, what happens if she's found guilty? Will the she still collect a paycheck from the city if she's behind bars? Oh well. Veldora's trial is just around the corner, we'll see what happens soon enough.
Sure, why not? While cruising the court dockets last night, I came across this gem of a motion from federally indicted City of Miami assistant fire chief Veldora Arthur's attorney...
Nice try but don't hold your breath waiting for the judge to grant this motion. It looks like after all the defendants attorneys had agreed to postpone the trial date due to the 14,000+ pages of discovery, Ms. Arthur's new attorney has now decided that somehow despite the fact that the defense attorneys were unanimous in their request for a postponement Ms. Arthur's rights to a speedy trial have been violated! Good luck with that. The prosecutors answer with this...
So who's this new character in the Veldora Arthur mortgage fraud scheme, Patrick Brinson? And what about this new attorney? We'll discuss tomorrow, you'd be surprised who Mr Brinson is linked to. Regardless, you can count on this case going to trial in ten days...
It looks like the Miami Herald finally got around to reporting on City of Miami Assistant Fire Chief Veldora Arthur's federal mortgage fraud indictment. From the Herald article...
The indictment says Arthur received a payoff yet had no intention of living on the properties, which eventually went into foreclosure.
Ok, textbook definition of a "Straw Buyer".
Arthur’s attorneys dispute the charges, saying their client actually went to the feds not long after the 2006 purchases took place, and after a friend noticed the paperwork said she was making $123,000 a month, not a year. Bieber called his client “a victim” who “unfortunately associated herself with people who were committing fraud.”
Victim? Really? She had no idea what was going on?
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.
Hold up, her attorney is admitting that she received payment once the properties closed? That in of itself isn't proof that somethings wrong? Isn't the seller supposed to get paid once the property sells rather than the buyer?
Bieber said Arthur was introduced to Fagan through a friend, and was simply looking to make an investment. The plan was to flip the properties for a profit, but, Bieber said, there was no profit because the properties went into foreclosure. “She believed this was an honest investment during the real estate boom,” said Bieber.
Wait a minute, the attorney is now claiming that Ms Arthur was "was simply looking to make an investment", just a few moments ago he clearly stated that his client was able "to purchase the properties with no money down" and "received a payment after the properties closed". Once again, isn't this the textbook definition of a "Straw Buyer"?
After examining the indictment a little closer, we've found that all the homes that were used in this mortgage fraud scheme were in the same building located at 3370 NE 190th street in Aventura.
From the looks of it, the people who orchestrated this scheme found a sweet spot in this condo, units that would appraise high but for one reason or another were having trouble selling on the legitimate real estate market, no different than the sweet spot thatJohn Romney and crew found in the West Grovewhere they were able to bust out several homesraking in millions of dollars in profits.
Now, let's take apart this mess and see what we can find. We'll begin with the deeds for the two condos that Veldora purchased, first unit 3111...
From the documentary stamps we figure the purchase price of this property to be $1,950,000. That's seems like a ton of money for a 2,720 sqft condo! Regardless, let's take a look at the warranty deed for unit 3711 in the same building...
Unit 3711 purchased on February 7, 2007 for $2,000,000 financed by two mortgages totaling $1,657,500
Unit 3111 purchased on March 6, 2006 for $1,950,000 financed by two mortgages totaling $1,811,550.
Based on the purchases prices we were able to deduce that means there was a shortage of $480,950 between the two transactions, Ms. Arthur's attorney stated that she put no money down, so who did then? To further complicate matters, Ms. Arthur turns around a refinances unit 3711 just five months later for a cool $1,680,000...
Can you imagine the kind of money the mortgage brokers and title companies must have made off of these transactions?! We're talking over FIVE MILLION DOLLARS worth of loans not to mention the recording and closing costs! Yet even after signing what looks like hundreds of pages of documents for these purchases and the subsequent mortgages Ms. Arthur's attorney still claims that...
“She believed this was an honest investment during the real estate boom,”
Let's give her the benefit of the doubt, after all our justice system is based on a presumption of innocence for those who've been charged with a crime.I'm baffled at the thought that Ms. Arthur, someone whose job at the fire department calls for managing payrolls and procurements, someone that is supposed to have a modicum of financial sense could have thought that this was a good or even honest investment? The mortgage payments alone for these two properties must have been in the tens of thousands, after all she was borrowing nearly four million dollars at 7 to 8% interest!! That hardly sound like something someone that has any financial sense would agree to especially when interest rates were as low as they were during the peak of the housing bubble. Let's not forget qualifying for the mortgages themselves, how the hell did a City of Miami firefighter making $180k per year qualify for four different mortgages for close to four million with within one month of each other?
Something is definitely haywire with the statements that Ms. Arthur's attorneys made to the media today but like I said, she's innocent till proven guilty and should be treated as such. Let's assume that she had no part in falsifying the documents used to obtain these mortgages, let's even assume that she wasn't really a straw buyer and didn't even get cash back after these transactions closed. Let's say all of those defenses are legitimate, there is one aspect of these transactions that she's not going to be able to explain away though, has anyone figured it out?
We'll discuss tomorrow, in the mean time think about this question, what do Veldora Arthur, Commissioner Marc Sarnoff and the Plantation cops that were indicted for mortgage fraud all have in common?
Consider for a moment who Ms. Arthur is within the City of Miami Fire Department, oddly enough her responsibility is to oversee the financial matters of the Fire Department including payroll and procurement. Who exactly do we have behind the controls at the City of Miami? Ms. Arthur makes $184,336.44 as an assistant fire chief, in this day and age, is that not enough to get by on?
What's even more disturbing is the fact that she was arrested ten days ago on an indictment from late 2010, yet we haven't even heard a peep out of the local media. What happened to the perp walk or the press release? Ms. Arthur and crew were charged with a nearly $11,000,000 mortgage fraud scam and the media is mute? What gives here folks?
Ms. Arthur is out on $125,000 bond, we'll have a full break down of the indictment coming on Wednesday, stay tuned.
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...
