We have to be honest here folks, we here at the Straw Buyer are not computer savvy, not one bit. We've had several people suggest that we get involved in all the difference social media sites (myspace, facebook, twitter, etc...), to be honest with you all that stuff is way above our pay grade. That's not to say that we haven't been looking through some of those sites to glean information on the people that we've been writing about, it's just not our cup of tea.
What's startling though about these social media sites (IE facebook) is just how much of their private lives people make available for the public to see, pictures of themselves inebriated, doing things that perhaps you'd like to forget or even worse, pictures of themselves with people that they may not want anyone to see, etc. These social media sites make a great investigatory tool for law enforcement. While the Barrera mortgage fraud case was in its earliest stages, through facebook we were able to link almost all the players involved in the fraud including several other people the PD didn't even know about. Even worse though are all those horror stories that emerge from these social media sites, people getting raped, kids getting molested, really who needs it? Does anyone remember this guy?
Is meeting real people in person too much trouble?
Regardless though, there is one aspect of Facebook in particular that can lead to major embarrassment for prominent members of the community, IE judges, politicians, etc. What happens when you're say a judge or a member of the local police forces command staff with a Facebook page and it turns out one of the people on your "friends" list is accused of some sort of embarrassing act or even worse a heinous crime? Not good huh? You all remember Glenn Theobald right? He was the former Chief counsel of the Miami Dade County Police department and the former chairman of the Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task Force. Let's take a look at Mr. Theobalds friends from his Facebook page...
Uh, oh! Let's take a closer look at that person outlined in red...
Wait a minute, doesn't that face look familiar?Could this Maria Lopez be the Maria Teresa Lopez who was charged and arrested for mortgage fraud,grand theft, identity theft and money laundering that wediscussed a few weeks ago?Damn! That doesn't look good now does it!
Mr. Theobald, you may want reconsider that Facebook friend!!!
Here we are again at the end of another week, specifically the week before the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case is to go to trial, don't get worked up though as we sincerely doubt that the trial will start on May 10 as anticipated. How do we come to that conclusion? Simple, as we've seen at least seven other times, defendant and government witness John Arthur Romney still hasn't finalized his plea agreement, this stifles any attempt by the other defendants to depose Mr. Romney. With that said and the complete lack of any evidence on the docket of his attorneys preparing for trail, it's safe to say that there's an insurmountable obstacle to going to trial. Monday should be interesting day in court though as the judge hearing the case has been progressively getting more and more impatient with the nearly two years of continuances on this case, so no trial on Monday, but there's definitely going to be some interesting moments before the judge.
Moving on, over the last few weeks we've rehashed several aspects of the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud investigation and how the state had handled it, today let's specifically look at how Detective Baluja investigated Mr. Barrera's previous identity theft case. From his deposition...
In a nutshell, Detective Baluja in his infinite wisdom didn't even bother to look into his "victims" previous claim of identity theft. FANTASTIC! From the depo:
"Detective Baluja, he's coming to you, telling you someone is using his identity to purchase a home and he also tells you that someone is using his identity to purchase a boat and you thought nothing of it...You didn't think it was important?"
He then responds...
"NO."
FCUKING BRILLIANT! Let's try to follow Detective Baluja's line of reasoning here, let's look at the following examples:
Your home is broken into, you report it to the police and also let them know that your home was broken into just days before. Wouldn't the cop consult with the cop who took care of the previous break in order to help find the burglar?
You were raped, you report it to the police and also let them know that you were raped just days before. Wouldn't the cop consult with the cop that took the report on the previous rape to see if there was anyway they could link the two incidents together?
I'm sure those among our readers that aren't completely brain dead can see the point that were making here. If indeed the Detective would have spoken to the Detective who worked on the other identity theft case, perhaps they would have seen some similarities and maybe proved the hypothesis we presented the other day about the guy claiming identity theft having sold his identity to a ring of fraudsters? The ultimate irony about this inaction on the part of Detective Baluja is that the Detective that worked the original identity theft case not only works in the same office as he does but they're also FRIENDS!
We've also recently discussed how important the timing of Mr. Barrera's claims of identity theft were and that if one were to set up a time line of the two separate identity theft cases a disturbing pattern would emerge that would cast serious doubt on Mr. Barrera's claims of not being involved with either fraud. So how did Detective Baluja handle these dates during his investigation? Once again, let's look at his performance during one of his depositions...
Once again, FCUKING BRILLIANT! We've gone to great lengths to show how important dates are throughout the investigation of the Bernardo Barrera frauds and what does Detective Dipshit have to say?
Q: When did he become aware of it?
A: I don't have a specific date. Prior to him making the report.
Q: As you sit here today, you don't know when Bernardo Barrera became aware of this transaction?
A: Not specific date, no.
Q: Is it documented anywhere in your Offense-Incident report?
A: Not to my knowledge.
If that wasn't enough, it get's better...
Q: Do you agree that the date Bernardo Barrera became aware of this transaction, which he denies any involvement it, is an important date?
A: The specific date, no.
Brilliant. In what planet are dates regarding crimes like this not important? The question that begs to be asked now is whether or not Detective Baluja ever received any training regarding these kinds of dates, once again from his depo...
Q: That's something that you were trained to include in your report, correct, important dates, right?
A: Not specific to that, no.
MY GOD! So not only are dates not important to the good Detective, but we now have learned that he wasn't even trained to include important dates in his police reports! HOLY $HIT! Detective Dipshit, I'm sorry, Baluja, have you lost sight of the fact that the entire steaming pile of shit you built called a case is built entirely on dates and the dates and times when monies went in and out of the defendants hands? WHAT IN THE FCUK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!
If you're as pissed as we are, it's time to take a step back and chill...
Now that we've taken a deep breath and calmed down a bit, consider the following, Detective Baluja was being supervised by people within his own office that have far more experience than he did. There is no reason why his superiors shouldn't have realized how grossly incompetent he was. Even if his incompetence and gross negligence wasn't recognized by his superiors, there was someone far more educated and experienced working the case with him, Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski. There's no excuse for any of this to have happened considering the prosecutor was by the Detective's side every step of the way while the case was being put together, that's what makes this even more unbelievable. What this proves isn't just the lack of knowledge and total incompetence by the cop, but of Veteran Economic Crimes Prosecutor, Bill Kostrzewski as well.
With that said, have a great weekend folks and let's see what Monday holds in store for the Barrera mortgage fraud case...
While shuffling through the Bernardo Barrera case file, we came across what amounted to a great Christmas present for defendant Michael Martinez, the man who lent the straw buyer $125,000 to close on the Oak Avenue home purchase that's at the center of the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case. Take a look at what Mr. Martinez got courtesy of the state back on Christmas eve 2009...
COOL!! We had previously discussed Mr. Marinez's plea here, let's take a look at the nuts and bolts of that agreement once again...
2. The Court shall adjudicate defendant guilty and shall sentence defendant to two (2) years of Community Control, followed by three (3) years probation.
And then this part...
9. As a condition of Community Control, defendant may not petition the Court for conversion of Community Control to probation until the defendant has successfully completed six (6) months of Community Control and is current in his payment of restitution, cost of supervision and his community service hours. Also as a condition of probation, defendant may not request early termination of probation for two (2) years from the date of this agreement and only if the defendant has successfully completed his requisite Community Control and probation, and has fully paid his restitution and satisfied his community service obligation and cost of supervision. Defendant agrees to extend the term of his probation to the statutory maximum to insure full payment of his restitution obligation.
In an nutshell, the most severe part of Mr. Martinez's punishment is over (if you can call it that), now his probation goes from the weekly meetings (and possibly wearing a lojack) to just regular probation. Although the plea agreement calls for 3 years of regular probation, based on what we've seen through this modification of probation, he'll more than likely be done in just a year and half. Good for Mr. Martinez and nice job ASA Kostrzewski! Boy did you send a message to anyone out there considering committing a crime!
This modification of probation really got us thinking though, so much so that we decided to go back and carefully examine the original plea agreement that was prepared by ASA Kostrzewski. Let's take a look at it again...
Now, before we dissect this plea agreement keep in mind the following pertinent facts, the agreement was prepared by a VETERAN Economic Crimes prosecutor and that the entire Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case is based his interpretation of complicated real estate and mortgage instruments. We've eluded to ASA Kostrzewski not knowing what went on throughout the transaction that is the basis of his case, not understanding the fundamentals of the transaction, being grossly incompetent in regards to these matters and even worse, being careless throughout the course of the investigation and the subsequent prosecution. There are several embarrassing incidents and screw ups that can illustrate our claims, but we'll hold off for the time being.
Back to that plea agreement that Mr. Kostrzewski prepared, remember, this entire case is based on accuracy of documents, dates, signatures etc. Let's take a close look now at the document that Mr. Kostrzewski prepared...
Note the case number outlined in red, F08-36522C. Moving on to page two...
All good, once again, note the case number outlined in red, F08-36522C. Page three...
So far so good, page four...
Again, take note of the case number, outlined in red, F08-36522C and last but not least, page five...
WTF WAS THAT?! Look closer...
WTF is that Bill? You fcuked up the plea agreement! The Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case is PD080208066734 and in case you forgot, the case number is F08-36522C not F07-44341B! Are we reading this wrong? Who do those case numbers correspond to? Let's see...
Who the hell is Portia Simac and why is her case number on Martinez's plea agreement?! Bill, this is all about precision! WTF is this?
Just another perfect example of the incompetence, carelessness and gross negligence that Mr. Kostrzewski has exhibited throughout this case. Nice work Mr. Veteran Economic Crimes prosecutor! Does this screw up mean that the restitution that Mr. Martinez has paid is going to the wrong case number? Bravo Bill! Amazing how there's nothing but excuses for how you've handled this case and overlooked vital details, isn't this worse than not noticing who the remitter on a check is Bill? We got an even bigger surprise for Mr. Kostrzewski coming up, this plea is gonna bite him in the ass. You'll have to be patient though, it's going to be worth the wait...
Yesterday we discussed a purely hypothetical situation where someone who was down on their luck with a good credit history sold their identity to make a buck. Continuing along with that theory, we have to ask ourselves, how did the guy who sold his identity and credit get to the fraudsters? Perhaps they were sitting at a bar together and started talking about fraud and how to rip off banks?
Maybe they met on a bus?
Or perhaps at a baseball game...
Or maybe they were introduced by a "broker", someone that deals in stolen identities and credit fraud? We sincerely doubt you just happen to randomly come across a name, social security number and employment history of someone who's credit worthy for an over half a million dollar fraud, correct? Just like the junkie knows where to go to get his hit, people know where to go to get what they need whether it's drugs, money, prostitutes or money for selling your identity for a Straw Buyer scam. What we're proposing is that our down and out Straw Buyer sold his identity to one such "broker" who then turned around and used his identity to conduct several frauds before the Straw Buyer was busted out and no longer credit worthy. See where we're going?
Now, once all these frauds are committed using our Straw Buyer, why the hell would he turn around and call the cops after what could have been a nearly half a million dollar profit? Could it have been Straw Buyer remorse? We doubt it. Or did the Straw Buyer get screwed by the "broker"? Maybe the Straw Buyer got shorted on his share of the proceeds? Perhaps they lied about what his cut was going to be? Or maybe they turned around after pocketing the money and told the Straw Buyer that the deal didn't happen at all perhaps knowing that he couldn't call the cops since his name and real signature was all over the original purchase contract and all the loan applications? Pure conjecture, but plenty of explanations as to what could have taken place...
So enough with the hypothetical crap. Whether Bernardo Barrera was actually involved in the Oak Avenue Mortgage fraud, one has to ask, how the hell did the fraudsters get his identity? Was he an acquaintance of one of the people charged? Was he a previous client of one of the fraudsters who just happened to keep his information on file? Was he a client of a friend of one of the fraudsters who then turned over his information for a fee? Or did he sell his identity to a master identity theft and mortgage fraud ring who then brokered the identity to one of the people charged in the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud? I'm gonna guess the later. The proof is right here in this blog and throughout the states paperwork, problem is Detective Baluja and ASA Kostrzewski either couldn't see it or didn't want to see it as the truth would have destroyed their case...
Let's examine hypothetical situation. Let's say we have a guy with a good credit history that's unemployed and down on his luck. After several years of not being able to find gainful employment he decides to go rogue. First he purchases a home for nearly $150,000 more than his next door neighbor who purchased the identical home at the same time. Next, he sells his identity and credit to make some money, he then hooks up with some people that are in the "game" and proceeds to do some deals. First he sells his credit for the purpose of obtaining a loan on a boat that doesn't exist and splits the proceeds with the fraudsters. Once that deal is complete, they then use his identity for a six figure home bust out, once the mortgage is approved and ready to close, the man who sold his identity then goes ahead and claims that his identity was stolen for the boat purchase. Sweet. 11 days later the group closes the fraudulent home deal and cashes out nearly $400K. The same day this closing is occurring the man who sold his identity and credit is sitting at the County Economic Crimes units office giving a statement for the boat identity theft case. Then a month later, he goes ahead and calls the cops again saying his identity was stolen again for the purpose of obtaining a fraudulent mortgage on a home that the fraudsters busted out.
With me so far? Add into the mix a group of community activists, realtors and journalists from the area that the home was busted out in that are furious and fed up with all of the real estate fraud going on in their area. Now lets introduce a task force that's made up of people from local government, local police and concerned members of the real estate industry all who have had their task force highly publicized and claim that they're going to come down on real estate fraud with an iron fist. Imagine what would happen if the first group of concerned citizens went to one of the Task Force's meetings and started raising a fuss over the task forces inaction towards the rampant fraud that's going on in their community that's ruining property values, increasing property taxes and leaving empty homes that are in disrepair in their neighborhood. Now, this creates a bit of a conundrum for the task force members, some of which are trying to win tens of millions of dollars from the federal government so that they can sell a nationwide mortgage fraud task force modeled after their own task force and possibly garner some sort of position on this nationwide task force. With the one year anniversary of the task forces first arrests, the task force is slipping from the public conscience and needs a headline case not only to prove that they're still relevant but also to help push through the legislation for the creation of the nationwide task force.
Now, a case comes along that has everything needed to make "Joe Citizen" who's reading about it in the paper shake his head and thank god that this task force exists, let's say for example it went like this...
Victim gets his identity stolen for a nearly half a million dollar fraud (that's a great number that will get peoples eyes rolling).
Everyone involved in the fraud is young and Hispanic (you know those Latins are crooks!)
The attorney whose office closed the transaction is young and successful (how could she be if she wasn't a crook?)!
Home was purchased just a week before the fraud occurred for a third of what the fraudsters sold it for (they must be guilty, anyone making money must have done something wrong).
Doesn't that make for the perfect story to sell to the media if your trying to prove the relevance of this task force?
Now, the word goes down the line to the rookie Detective on the street and to the "Veteran" prosecutor that are working on this case to bring it in ASAP no matter what. All sorts of details are overlooked, documents fabricated, testimony manipulated, etc in effort to bring in the case on a deadline. Regardless of how the case was put together, the task force gets its case on the anniversary of its first arrests, there's a media blitz, the task force once again becomes relevant in peoples minds, it's members and creators get all sorts of accolades, federal money comes rolling in and life is wonderful. It's a feel good moment and now we're winning the fight against mortgage fraud! Sort of like this...
Ya think? We'll see where it went wrong tomorrow...
If you've ever had your identity stolen, you know the kind of mess it creates for you. I had my identity stolen about 16 years ago, no big deal, someone had gotten a couple of credit cards under my name without my consent and charged away. I immediately called all the different card companies and credit reporting agencies and notified them of the situation. Once I did that I thought I had it all behind me, little did I know what I had gotten myself into! Once I got the fraudulent items discharged and removed from my credit my identity was flagged within all the credit bureau's as having been a victim of identity theft. From this point forward there were no more instant credit approvals at department stores or car dealers, every request for credit I made from that point on had to be manually approved by whoever was considering my credit worthiness. Now that was for small stuff, if I was applying for major credit (car, home, etc) it was even worse, you can't imagine what kind of hassle I had to go through in order to get ANY KIND OF CREDIT after my identity was stolen. In fact it obtaining credit became such a hassle over the next few years, I actually abstained from getting any new credit at all.
What's my 16 year old identity theft have to do with our blog? It's safe to conclude from my story that if you were a victim of identity theft any credit card, loan, etc that you try to obtain after you claimed your identity was stolen is going to be a major pain in the ass, whoever is considering lending you money is going to go through your request for credit with a fine tooth comb and turn your life upside down before giving you a cent. In other words, the last thing in the world you'd want to do if you were running a mortgage fraud scam with a straw buyer would be to have them claim their identity was stolen right before you pull of your scam right? Imagine if Mr. Barrera was really involved in the fraudulent purchase of the Oak Avenue home, based on what we've gleaned from my story, it would have been much more difficult (if not impossible) for Mr. Barrera or the people who were using his credit to obtain a loan from Citi Mortgage for the purchase of the home. So how the hell did Mr. Barrera or the people who used his credit get the loan for the Oak Avenue home when we learned that in early February 2008 Mr. Barrera had claimed his identity was stolen on another fraudulent deal? Let's let the documents tell the story, here's a page from the 1003 loan application that Mr. Barrera filled out for the Oak Avenue home mortgage...
Notice the date? January 16, 2008. So far so good. Just 9 days later GE Money, the bank that lent the money on the fraudulent boat purchase mails a statement for the loan to Mr. Barrera's address...
It's safe to conclude that by the end of January or the first week of February 2008 that even if on the odd chance that Mr. Barrera really got his identity stolen for this boat deal, he was alerted to its existence well before he told the police he found out his identity was stolen for the boat deal. Now, let's take a look at that Citi Mortgage commitment letter for the Oak Avenue home loan that Citi mailed to Mr. Barrera's primary residence...
That letter from Citi Mortgage was mailed to Mr. Barrera's primary residence on January 31, 2008, we can only assume it reached Mr. Barrera within a week of leaving Citi Mortgage's Ann Arbor Michigan office. Once Citi issued the commitment letter, the mortgage for the Oak Avenue fraud was a done deal, from this point on there was no more scrutiny of Mr. Barrera's credit history in other words, wouldn't this be a great time to report the other identity theft? Take a look at the date on the police report for the boat identity theft deal...
You see that? The report was filed on February 8, 2008 after Citi Mortgage sent the commitment letter for the Oak Avenue mortgage, essentially at this point the Oak Avenue mortgage was a done deal. Remember, once Mr. Barrera screams identity theft, he's busted out, his usefulness as a straw buyer is finished. Coincidence or perfectly engineered scam?
That's enough for now. Let's not forget that this steaming pile of $hit that the state calls a case is only 6 days away from trial...
Considering all that's gone on lately with the runaway Toyota's and the abysmal sales as a result, it looks like Toyota is getting rather desperate. Take a look at this ad...
Or even better, this version of their "Moving Forward" ad campaign...
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...
