South Florida Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog
Robert Moran, a yacht broker from Fort Lauderdale, was sentenced to 2 months in prison for his role in filing false federal tax returns and using off-shore bank accounts to conceal millions of dollars. Swiss bank UBS was the banking institution utilized by Moran in his criminal activities. The Honorable Judge James Cohn of Federal District Court in Fort Lauderdale did give credit to Moran due to him confessing his crime and for helping federal investigators in the probe of UBS and other off-shore banks. Moran is the third UBS client to be sentenced in the last 2 weeks in the South Florida region. Moran will be facing a felony record for tax evasion and loss of his yacht broker license.
Articles Posted in Federal Criminal Defense
Florida UBS Client Charged With Tax Evasion
Steven Rubinstein is being sentenced by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida for tax evasion. Rubinstein admitted to failing to report an account he had with UBS. Government officials claim over $3 million in taxes was evaded by the use of an off-shore corporation in affiliation with a UBS account from the period of 2001 to 2008. This probe led to the investigation of others involved in Rubinstein’s scheme. Government investigators have said to in prosecution that they are seeking the minimum spectrum of the sentencing guidelines due to Rubinstein’s testimony being “timely, significant, useful, truthful, complete and reliable.”
Florida Fugitive Caught In Tough Situation Faces Prison Time
A 37-year-old man left the state of Florida last June with a $25,000 bail in lieu of a conspiracy for trafficking ecstasy charge. The man’s name will remain anonymous due to death threats he has been receiving and pending legal proceedings. Due to a life-and-death incident he faced, he left Florida to Canada on illegal standing due to organized criminals in Florida. The unidentified man will be facing 15 years in US prison for the falsification of documents and skipping bail in Florida.
Florida Drug Cartel Man Caught and Standing Trial
Fabio Ochoa Vasco, 48, was arrested and charged with drug trafficking by US authorities in South Florida. He will be looking at 10 years to life in prison for a drug operation involving the smuggling of tons of cocaine by speedboat, cargo ship and airplane from Columbia into the U.S. Federal prosecutors and authorities are looking to cut a deal with the man for forfeiture of assets including apartments around the world owned by Vasco, a $1 million island, as well as a bunch of other assets named by Vasco. Vasco is claimed to have been involved in the drug trafficking industry and the Medellin cartel for three decades.
ICE Agent Arrested on Cocaine Charges Will Be Sent to Florida
Richard P. Cramer, a high-ranking agent at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement federal agency, was arrested in his Arizona home for suspicion of conspiracy to smuggle cocaine. Cramer was formerly stationed in Mexico during his active duty and later retired in 2007 in the U.S. An investigation reaching back into 2006 was discovered to be the source of the warrant and arrest. Authorities claim that Cramer assisted a big time drug trafficking organization by alerting them to inside informants working for the government via illegal use of a confidential law enforcement database. One shipment the organization involved with Cramer was worth $400,000 and weighed about 660 pounds. That’s a lot of cocaine. Officials seized the shipment once it landed on U.S. soil, stopping its journey which originally started in Panama and was going to conclude in Spain. Cramer will be extradited to a holding center in Florida because most of the criminal acts occurred here.
Florida Judge Guilty of Mortgage Fraud
Thomas E. Stringer of Tampa plead guilty to a bank fraud charge. The hefty jail time facing Stringer could be in upwards of thirty years. A break in the case though for Stringer is that no parties sustained financial loss in the crime, so Stringer may only face forfeiture of the funds acquired from the fraud itself. No date on sentencing has been confirmed as of yet. The premise of Stringer’s fraudulent scheme was to receive a loan for a residential property in Hawaii. A mortgage application made by Stringer was falsified by saying that he did not borrow any money for the down payment. In reality, he used a third party in borrowing some money. The FBI investigated the case to its conclusion, in partnership with two US Attorneys.
Florida at the Center of a Cocaine Ring
Dennis A. Bell, Jr., 28, has been charged with conspiracy to traffic cocaine from Florida to London. He will face up to 30 years in prison, six years of supervised release, a maximum fine of $2 million and a required payment of $100 at the close of the proceedings. By pleading guilty to the charges, as a first time offender, he got one of the charges waived and the first two pleaded out. The right to vote will no longer be something Mr. Bell can do. Oh, boo hoo. Bell along with the 2 other conspirators were arrested by London Police last May. Bell was the only one of the three with a valid driver license.
White Collar Florida Crime Goes to Federal Courts
Huey Granderson of Millersport, Ohio was charged with three counts related to an insurance fraud ring which involved real estate. Granderson was the ringleader of this group that committed theft in upwards of $5 million from companies in the area. He pled guilty to partaking in corrupt activities, theft and failure to file an income tax return; all have been deemed felonies. According to his plea agreement, the other 14 dropped were lifted from his case. Granderson is set for sentencing at a later date although he can face up to 19 years in prison and a hefty fine.
White collar crime can be committed by a number of individuals, generally those with images like accountants, lawyers, doctors, business executives, stock brokers, and bankers. Real estate fraud comes under the grouping of white collar crimes. Penalties for a white collar crime conviction, as displayed in Granderson’s instance, can include criminal forfeiture, payment of fines, supervised release, restitution, and imprisonment.
Florida Prosecution of Mortgage Frauds by Criminal Lawyer Ralph Behr: Part 6
Here is the next installment of Attorney Behr’s mortgage fraud prosecutions series:
18 U.S.C. §225 Continuing financial crimes enterprise
Continuing financial crimes enterprise statue criminalizes any person that “…organizes, manages or supervise a continuing financial crimes enterprise; and receives $5,000,000.00 or more in gross receipts from such enterprise during any 24-month period…”48 The meaning of “…a continuing financial crimes enterprise…” is any combination of eleven other criminal violations found within the same United States Code title “…affecting a financial institution, committed by at least 4 persons acting in concert.”49
This statute was made use of in United States v. Lefkowitz, 125 F.3d 608 (8th Cir. 1997). “From 1984 to 1994, Lefkowitz was President of Cit-Equity Group, Inc. (CEG), a California corporation that formed real estate limited partnerships to build low and moderate-income housing.”50 Starting in 1987, “…CEG began concentrating on projects that would qualify limited partners for low-income housing tax credits…” from the federal government.51 Obtainment of these credits were had when investors built, rehabilitated or acquired “…buildings in which a prescribed percentage of the apartment units are occupied by low-income tenants.”52 Subsequently, the “…government allocates tax credits to the States, with at least ten percent reserved for ventures in which nonprofit organizations participate.”53 Following the federal allocation, individual states and local housing agencies would dispense “…the credits to specific projects.”54
Funds raised from limited partners were used for differing projects as equity, “…generally between one-quarter and one-third of the total project cost.”55 Specifically, after a building is completed, “…CEG’s management company lease out the apartment, the state housing agency release the allocated tax credits, remaining debts to the builder were paid, and…” lastly “…limited partners began receiving their annual tax credits.”56
“During the late 1980’s, CEG’s builders obtained construction loans to build the projects, while CEG obtained permanent financing to replace the construction loan once a building was completed.”57 Starting in 1990 construction loans became hard to obtain and CEG began marketing First Secured Mortgages (FSMs) to other investors.58 These FSM investors made loans to limited partnerships that owned by one or more of the projects “…with the expectation that CEG’s permanent lenders would take out the FSM loans with long-term mortgages.59
“When Lefkowitz left CEG in May of 1994, properties in which limited partners and FSM investors had invested more than $80,000,000 were unbuilt, unfinished, or lost in foreclosure.”60 “Funds from limited partners and FSM investors were first deposited in an operating account for each particular investment.”61 However, “…Lefkowitz and CEG as general partners immediately transferred all investor funds to a central CEG account.”62 Once in this account these monies were misused by the company.63 The extent of the alleged scheme and the participation of the defendant’s general partners provided the evidence needed to convict the defendant of the crime of continuing financial crime enterprise statute, because “…banks invested a total of $1,120,000 in…” FSM loans.64
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Any use of the previous article requires written permission from Ralph Behr and from this website and its subsidiaries under State and Federal Law. DO NOT copy and use the text provided above and/or publish as your own. The document may only be used for private study or distributing among peers in paper, not on internet transmission, with no intent to make profit or sell without credit being due to the original author.
Florida Prosecution of Mortgage Frauds by Criminal Lawyer Ralph Behr: Part 5
Further exposition of Attorney Behr’s mortgage fraud prosecutions series:
18 U.S.C. § 1341 Frauds and swindles
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18 U.S.C. § 1343 Fraud by wire, radio, or television
Also know as the mail and wire fraud statutes. These statutes explain any person “…having devised or intending to devise any scheme or…” ploy while making material misrepresentations in conjunction with the use of the United States Postal Service or the use of any electronic media format may be exposed to prosecution under these statutes.36
An example of both these statutes in action is outlined in the Seventh Federal Circuit case of United States v. Owens, 301 F.3d 521 (7th Cir. 2002). “A jury convicted real estate appraiser Reginald Owens of mail fraud and wire fraud for his part in a multi-million dollar real estate and mortgage fraud scheme.”37 The alleged “…scheme was a land “flip” scheme, which basically involved having people purchase distressed properties for cash and then immediately resell that same property at artificially-inflated prices.”38 One of the co-defendants, Brian Parr’s “…role in the scheme was to first identify the property he wanted to buy through realtors and by searching the Multiple Listing Services (“MLS”), a real estate computer database that showed properties for sale and the seller’s listing price.”39 While arranging for the proper contracts for purchase of these properties, “…Parr would prepare to sell the property at an artificially-inflated price to a second buyer.”40 These sales mostly happened at the same time; however there were instances when the subsequent sale was performed prior to the property being contracted with the first purchaser.41
Second possible buyers were lured in with offers of “…no money down and cash back at closing.”42 “The second buyers, however, typically did not have jobs or bank accounts and thus could not have normally qualified for a mortgage.”43 In avoidance of this potential problem, “…several other co-schemers, including loan officer Tamira Smyth, created false documents to submit to the lender institutions.”44
Besides false documents, the mortgage brokers additionally worked with individual appraisers to make certain the appraisals synched up with the contract price of the subsequent sale to exploit Parr’s profits.45 The appraisers utilized inflated the value of the properties by leaving out critical pieces of information from their appraisal reports and the MLS and “…by comparing the sale house involved in the flip transaction to houses that were far superior.”46 “Parr then used the profits from each transaction to pay his co-schemers.”47
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Any use of the previous article requires written permission from Ralph Behr and from this website and its subsidiaries under State and Federal Law. DO NOT copy and use the text provided above and/or publish as your own. The document may only be used for private study or distributing among peers in paper, not on internet transmission, with no intent to make profit or sell without credit being due to the original author.