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Thomas McCoy, 42, was caught walking outside of a Holiday Inn Express in Tampa by members of the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force, who then tried to arrest him. McCoy, According to the Marshals Office in Tampa, it was determined that McCoy had turned to shoot at the law enforcement officers and did, when a Deputy Marshal shot back, hitting him in the shoulder and buttocks.

While executing a search warrant investigators and Deputy U.S. Marshals recovered a fully-loaded automatic rifle, numerous rounds of ammunition and other loaded hand guns from the hotel room of the murder suspect they apprehended yesterday after having to shoot him, according to the Marshals Office in Florida’s Middle District.

McCoy is listed in critical condition at a local hospital as of this writing.

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Continuing the series on Mr. Behr’s mortgage fraud prosecutions in Florida:

18 U.S.C. §1014 Loan and credit applications generally; renewals and discounts; crop insurance
Under this federal statute, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt (1) a person knowingly made any material misrepresentations (2) directly to any specific federally insured institutions in the business of extending credit (3) for the purpose of influencing the institution’s actions.29 In United States v. Dominguez, 226 F.3d 1235 (11th Cir. 2000) the defendant faced multiple counts involving participation in a cocaine distribution organization and a mortgage fraud scheme.30 The basis of Dominguez’ assumed fraudulent mortgage scheme was an overestimation of his legitimate income by about $40,000.00 on federal tax returns and mortgage loan applications submitted to federally insured banks.31
Dominguez’ argued on appeal “…the district court erred by denying his motion to sever the drug-related charges and mortgage fraud-related charges…”32 The court found his argument to be without merit because it believed the concealment of his income from the “…the drug activity was the motive for the mortgage fraud.”33 Moreover, the court included the government’s closing argument in a footnote to find the two sets of charges were properly joined.34 The government claimed the defendant was falsifying his income just enough to be believable but not enough to raise any suspicion for a person “…four years out of law school.”35

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Kieran Crowley, New York Post, Jail for Dummies

Bernard Madoff’s niece and another relative — worried they’ll wind up behind bars — have contacted a consultant who teaches white-collar criminals how to survive in federal prison and secure early release, sources said. A jail cell would be a stark change for Shana Madoff, who grew up on a six-acre Woodbury, LI, estate called Hastings Hall owned by her parents, Peter and Marion Madoff. Peter is Bernie’s brother.

Shana, 38, who was a compliance officer with the infamous Madoff firm, contacted Larry Levine, a former federal prisoner and founder of Wall Street Prison Consultants, the sources said.

Levine refused to identify his clients, but admitted that “a female relative of Bernie Madoff contacted me” about taking his Fedtime 101 crash course. Shana contacted the company two weeks ago “because she was concerned about her safety” should she ever go to jail, one source said.

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In kneejerk fashion, Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania is expected to call on federal and state lawmakers to pass stricter gun control laws in the wake of the shooting deaths of three Pittsburgh police officers. Rendell was scheduled to hold a news conference this afternoon with Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and other municipal officials from around the state.

Rendell told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he will ask the Legislature to allow municipalities to enact their own gun laws. In addition, spokesmen for Ravenstahl and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter say they expect Rendell to ask Congress to re-enact a ban on assault weapons.

Authorities say Richard Poplawski was armed with a rifle and other weapons when he allegedly shot three Pittsburgh officers earlier this month.

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Continuing in Attorney Behr’s mortgage fraud prosecutions series:

18 U.S.C. § 1010 Department of Housing and Urban Development and Federal Housing Administration transactions
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18 U.S.C. § 1006 Federal credit institution entries, reports and transactions
In United States v. Mclean, 131 Fed.Appx. 34 (4th Cir. 2005), Mclean was convicted under 18 U.S.C. §1010 for making material misrepresentations to “…any person, partnership, association, or corporation…” in order to obtain “…any loan or advance of credit…” with the intention of such loan or advance of credit to be “…offered to or accepted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development…” for mortgage loans insured by the department.17 The defendant was also convicted under 18 U.S.C. §1006 for material misrepresentations made to HUD and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) because he was “…an officer, agent or employee of or connected in any capacity with…” a federal credit institution.18
McLean’s mortgage company was a qualified FHA lender and “…had the authority to approve mortgage loans for federal FHA insurance. 19 “An FHA-insured mortgage loan, in turn, is ‘readily saleable’ on the secondary mortgage market.”20 McLean’s company also obtained the proper authorization to be a Fannie Mae lender giving the company the power to “…originate a mortgage loan with the borrower and then Fannie Mae would immediately buy the mortgage on the secondary market without doing its own underwriting evaluation.”21
McLean’s company formed a subsidiary company for the purpose of building modular homes which was financed by the parent mortgage company. Efforts were made to collect the proper funding for the construction of the modular homes through construction mortgage loan notes allegedly signed by investors and officers of the parent mortgage company.22 “None of the individuals signing these documents ever acquired or possessed any ownership interest in the properties listed on the notes.”23
“Eventually, Fannie Mae detected irregularities in FBMC’s underwriting practices and conducted an audit of the loans it had purchased.”24 Upon visual inspection of the properties by Fannie Mae “…revealed that the many of the lots were either vacant or contained a partially completed house.”25 Furthermore, a portion of the lots secured with mortgage loans previously purchased by Fannie Mae were up for sale.26 McLean believed “…Fannie Mae would purchase construction loans, which disburse funds in piecemeal fashion as each new phase of construction begins.”27 “Fannie Mae, however, does not purchase construction loans, which FBMC was not authorized to sell.”28

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Ten teenagers in the Florida Keys have been charged in making child pornography videos. The tape allegedly had a 16 year old runaway girl engaging in sexual intercourse with a 19 year old man, with witnesses around in the Key Largo apartment. The camera operator and surrounding people would direct movements at times and yell things at them. A 14 year old runaway girl there notified officials of the incident because she believed rape was involved at certain points when the female subject of the video had said “no” during portions of the filming.

All 10 — the six juveniles and Kenneth Carter, 19; Michael Thelus, 18; Derek Williams, 19, who deputies say was the one having sex on camera; and Ceasar Gjerde, 18 — face charges of sexual performance by a child, a second-degree felony. Gjerde also was charged with directing and producing the performance. Williams was also charged with promoting a sexual performance by a child. Bail was set at $175,000 per count for the adults involved.

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Roughly six million Americans abuse prescription drugs, which is more than hallucinogens, cocaine, heroin, and inhalants combined. A sort of “script” madness has occurred where patients will show up in pharmacies. In mid-March, a Kentucky pharmacy was suddenly flooded with residents trying to fill Florida prescriptions for powerful painkillers like Oxycodone, Roxycodone and Percocet. “We were real surprised when we first started seeing them come in due to the fact they were all stamped with the drug name on them and you could see where the people had put all their information on there ahead of time.”

“The officer brought back the people that were involved to the office and within the hour another call from CVS pharmacy that another script was being passed from a doctor in Florida, so another officer went up there and brought those people back to the office … so we had our office full of Kentucky residents trying to pass Florida scripts.”

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Two dozen people were indicted on racketeering and other charges for allegedly conducting a wide-ranging mortgage fraud based in San Diego and led by a street gang member, according an indictment unsealed on Tuesday. The lead defendant, Darnell Bell, a documented member of the Lincoln Park street gang in Los Angeles, received at least $9 million in proceeds from the enterprise, prosecutors said. Bell’s status as an active member of the Lincoln Park street gang helped him recruit straw buyers for 220 properties with a total sales price of $100 million, and later maintain discipline among them, according the indictment. “It was relevant not so much to running the (real estate) scheme but to managing (the people),” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Acton Jones said.

Another defendant, Stanley Gentry, let the conspirators use his real estate license in exchange for a $10,000 monthly payment and a percentage of the commission and broker’s fees from each purchase, prosecutors said. Defendant Billie Bishop was an escrow officer who helped with the enterprise’s fraudulent purchases of more than 100 properties, prosecutors said. The defendants allegedly used straw buyers and inflated appraisals to purchase homes that had sat on the market for extended periods and had been reduced in price. They submitted offers that exceeded the homes’ asking prices, and had the overage paid to a shell construction company that they claimed would make upgrades or handicap modifications to the properties, prosecutors said. The defendants instead disbursed the “kickback amount” to members and associates of the enterprise as payments for their participation, the indictment said.

Lenders later foreclosed on the properties, taking “severe financial losses,” after the straw buyers failed to make payments, the indictment said.

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Alexis Arocha of Miami-Dade county has recently been sentenced to 55 months in prison in response to violation of probation in his 3 year probation deal. What a trade, from a 3 year probation in the outside world to a 4 year prison term in the penitentiary. Arocha had been originally sentenced to 2 years of community control as well as 3 years of probation following a cocaine trafficking conviction and marijuana possession. Not more than 3 months into his probation, Arocha broke his terms of probation while he fled the county and was busted on drug charges in Miami-Dade county soon after.

Cocaine possession, cocaine delivery, cocaine trafficking, in fact all criminal cases filed in Fort Lauderdale, Miami and throughout the state of Florida in which the state seeks criminal sanction for possession of controlled substances begins with a study of Florida statute 893. Statute begins by defining the important words and phrases used in this chapter. In a prosecution for possession of cocaine or possession of any other controlled substance begins with an indictment, which is called prosecutor information, under this statute.

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Three defendants were sentenced to prison today after pleading guilty in January 2008 to federal charges of running an “advance-fee” scheme that targeted U.S. victims with promises of millions of dollars, Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Benton J. Campbell of the Eastern District of New York announced. The defendants were sentenced at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, N.Y. Nnamdi Chizuba Anisiobi, 31, citizen of Nigeria, was sentenced to 87 months in prison. Anthony Friday Ehis, 34, citizen of France, was sentenced to 57 months in prison. Kesandu Egwuonwu, 35, citizen of Nigeria, was sentenced to 57 months in prison.

All three defendants each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, eight counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud. The defendants allegedly sent thousands of email spam across the internet to potential victims using a variety of identity concealers from phone numbers to addresses to email addresses. One of the defendants would even telephone individuals, using a raspy voice, in order to con them into money by making them believe he had throat cancer and needed money immediately.

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