The estimated 5 week trial is in front of Judge Cohn in Ft. Lauderdale. The Herald is covering it here:
The fraud trial of six law enforcement officers accused of helping to run a multi-million dollar home loan scam got underway Tuesday with opening statements in U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale.
According to federal indictments filed in July, John Velez, Daryl Radziwon, Casey Mittauer, Joseph DeRosa, all current or former Plantation Police officers, along with Lauderhill Police officer Joseph LeGrasta and FBI Special Agent Robert DePriest, of Plantation, fraudulently secured $16.5 million in mortgage loans in a house-flipping scheme during the housing boom several years ago.
The men are charged with offenses, ranging from conspiracy to mail and wire fraud, to obstruction of justice, and making false statements. All but the false statements charge carry penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment. The latter charge comes with as much as five years of prison time.
Is the case about greed or simple cops?
Federal prosecutors argued that the defendants were willing participants in the plan and had to have known Rodriguez and Gulla were forging documents in their names. Prosecutors also suggested the defendants were motivated by earnings they couldn’t achieve through real estate investments made with their own money and their own credit worthiness.
But defense attorneys opened their cases by arguing their clients were good cops and simple investors, too naive about the workings of fast-paced real estate financing to know their personal information was being used to defraud lenders.
Judge Cohn has to try the case twice:
At the conclusion of this trial, a second trial will start for Joseph Guaracino, his brother Dennis Guaracino, also a former Plantation Police officer, and attorneys Steve Orchard and Stephen Stoll, who allegedly helped seal the fraudulent deals by handling the loan closings.
Some of members of the fraud ring had to be tried separately because they have made incriminating statements about other defendants, and prosecutors believe those statements could tarnish possible convictions and bring about mistrials.
The SDFLA Blog is dedicated to providing news and notes regarding federal practice in the Southern District of Florida. The New Times calls the blog "the definitive source on South Florida's federal court system." All tips on court happenings are welcome and will remain anonymous. Please email David Markus at dmarkus@markuslaw.com
1 comment:
some people actually investigate a little before they report. You guys usually do a great job here is a tip, from some one who already started
Every time we mention the Plantation Cops mortgage fraud case on our blog our comments section gets inundated with comments regarding the case. Most often we get comments like this one...
Anonymous said...
Very simple case. The cops and others bought homes fixed them up and sold them. The cops submitted real info, the brokers forged documents on these loans and hundreds of others. The Governent was made aware of the fraud commited against the cops and many others they ignored the eviedence and targeted the cops. End of story, look at the other loans you will find the same thing. People who commit mortgage fraud don't fix up the homes and make mortgage payments for several years, and then sell the homes at losses. They run away with money! Someone please do a real investigation, maybe a reporter, as the FDLE has clearly not.
July 19, 2010 11:08 PM
That comment has bothered me since it was posted, especially this part...
The cops submitted real info, the brokers forged documents on these loans and hundreds of others.
Could that be? Could the brokers have been the bad guys all along? Is there a chance the cops that were indicted in this massive mortgage fraud scheme were actually innocent of filing false loan applications to obtain these loans? Because we have no semblance of a life left since the inception of this blog, we decided to pour over the thousands of pages of evidence against the indicted cops that were provided by the government. First let's look at the signatures on one of the loan applications, specifically the loan application that the feds allege was executed by former Plantation cop Casey Mittauer and his wife Stephanie, as always, click on the image to enlarge...
There they are outlined in red. Now let's take a look at their signatures as they appear on the closing documents for the same home...
Oh SHIT! Let's take a look at the signatures side by side...
Any idiot can tell you the signatures on the loan application were not executed by the same people that signed the closing documents. Just for shits and grins, let's take a look at the broker's signature as it appears on the bottom of the loan application...
And now, compare mortgage broker Matt Gulla's signature to the Casey Mittauer's signature on the loan application...
Remember, the signature outlined in red is supposed to be Casey Mittaur's signature, not Matt Gulla's! Draw your own conclusions, but if you ask me this simple thirty second handwriting analysis proves our that our reader who stated that the mortgage brokers forged the cops signatures was right on the money.
More coming...
Read The Full Article:
http://thestrawbuyer.blogspot.com/2011/03/forgeries-and-more-on-plantation-cops.h
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