Bankrupt Banker: Florida

Mari Matilde Leony Rodriguez-Triana, 44, and Raisa Diaz, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Six South Florida residents have pleaded guilty in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded several financial institutions out of more than $17 million.They were among 15 arrested last month after a 10-month investigation. The defendants faced charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, mortgage fraud, grand theft, identity theft and money laundering. Authorities believe the scheme involved the use of two separate title companies in Miami-Dade County and worked this way:The title agents would prepare fraudulent HUD-1 statements on behalf of the other co-conspirators, which then would be provided to the lender. (A HUD-1 settlement statement is a document that informs the lender how disbursements will be made after a loan is funded.) Many of the HUD-1 statements involved in this case contained fraudulently inflated sales contract prices. For example, a seller might believe his or her property sold for $1.6 million, but a fraudulent HUD-1 statement might reflect the contract sales price for the property as $2.25 million. The lender would fund the loan believing the property sold for the inflated sales price. The title agent, acting on behalf of the other co-conspirators, would then transfer the fraudulently obtained profits into a bank account of either a third party or a shell company controlled by one of the co-conspirators. Monica Fergusson, 37, and Diana Diaz, 40, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering. They face up to five years in prison and must pay $20,000 to the task force, as well as costs of prosecution and investigation. Mari Matilde Leony Rodriguez-Triana, 44, and Raisa Diaz, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering. They face up to three years in prison and must pay $10,000 to the task force, as well as costs of prosecution and investigation. Marlene Norono, 47, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering. She faces up to three years in prison and must pay $15,000 to the task force, as well as costs of prosecution and investigationMario Lubian, 47, pleaded guilty to mortgage fraud and was sentenced to one year of community control, to be followed by four years of probation, including 90 days of county jail. He must also pay $10,000 to the task force, as well as costs of investigation and prosecution.

Mari Matilde Leony Rodriguez-Triana, 44, and Raisa Diaz, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering.

Six South Florida residents have pleaded guilty in connection with a mortgage fraud scheme that defrauded several financial institutions out...

Wesley Snipes was given the maximum sentence possible

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeFTRQ1Mv6TU_9a7-4CQFvTXpFhE1bxf91W1GsVnLvy-oHX4nx7900qOsLqZDlEu3UlEhQwJQotbp_-mu33ZOmVx-qbykaeiMYGs4y0tDygSAUyh9VJwks5zw3WlajtpP0GkKaDNahO5fa/s1600-h/wesley_snipes_mugshot.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5193122815976967138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeFTRQ1Mv6TU_9a7-4CQFvTXpFhE1bxf91W1GsVnLvy-oHX4nx7900qOsLqZDlEu3UlEhQwJQotbp_-mu33ZOmVx-qbykaeiMYGs4y0tDygSAUyh9VJwks5zw3WlajtpP0GkKaDNahO5fa/s320/wesley_snipes_mugshot.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a>45-year-old Hollywood actor, who has starred in films including Blade, White Men Can’t Jump and Demolition Man, was given the maximum sentence possible after prosecutors described him to a court in Ocala, Florida, as a “truly notorious offender.” He did not have to go to prison immediately but must surrender to custody at a later date. Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years imprisonment last night for his defiance of the US taxman. Snipes sat expressionless as the sentence was handed down. Asked if he had any reaction, he spread his arms and shrugged. One of his lawyers, Carmen Hernandez, complained: “Mr Snipes was sentenced because he’s Mr Snipes.” The decision by US District Court judge William Terrell Hodges came two months after a jury convicted Snipes on three counts of willfully failing to file federal tax returns from 1999 to 2001. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7KzhQ7k-FgY7m-pPS1eKDe-q8XTb3cHs4emSLPAIwQl-gEFtlICNr6qm58BftzyZcJrjAxXsYFyStCht4hzOTsMNW6F7vqAFM49nIfyUxl0eKCHp3nKDpCNQNCcfy5oysFJc5nqFfPwUX/s1600-h/wesley_snipes_narrowweb__300x460,0.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5193122820271934450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7KzhQ7k-FgY7m-pPS1eKDe-q8XTb3cHs4emSLPAIwQl-gEFtlICNr6qm58BftzyZcJrjAxXsYFyStCht4hzOTsMNW6F7vqAFM49nIfyUxl0eKCHp3nKDpCNQNCcfy5oysFJc5nqFfPwUX/s320/wesley_snipes_narrowweb__300x460,0.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" /></a> The court heard yesterday that Snipes dodged $15 million (£7.5 million) in tax through a campaign in which he concealed millions offshore, falsely applied for tax refunds and bombarded the Internal Revenue Service with frivolous correspondence that threatened government employees, railed about extortion and used twisted legal interpretations to back his claim that taxation was unlawful. “For nearly a decade, Snipes has engaged in a campaign of criminal tax conduct combining brazen defiance with insidious concealment,” the prosecuting attorney, Robert O’Neill, told the court in a sentencing memorandum. “In the defendant Wesley Snipes, the court is presented with a wealthy, famous and inveterate tax scofflaw. If ever a tax offender was deserving of being held accountable to the maximum extent for his criminal wrongdoing, Snipes is that defendant.” Wearing a black suit and black tie, Snipes — a twice divorced father of five aged from 1 to 19 — clasped his hands together in a gesture of prayer as he arrived at the courthouse. “He is contrite, promises that he will never again break the law, and respectfully asks the court to consider not just the jury verdict but also all the good that he has done in his life,” his attorneys told the judge in a written document. At the hearing Snipes’s lawyers tried to give the court three envelopes with cheques amounting to $5 million, but the judge and prosecutor said that they could not accept them. An official of the Internal Revenue Service collected the money during a recess. Snipes’s big-screen career took off in 1987 after he caught the eye of the film director Spike Lee for his role as a gang leader in the Michael Jackson music video Bad. He went on to star in more than 40 films, taking roles that range from a crusading vampire to a jazz saxophonist. But his belated contrition and celebrity failed to impress Judge Hodges, despite written pleas for leniency from 31 character witnesses including fellow acting stars Woody Harrelson and the Academy Award-winning Denzel Washington. “Wesley is like a tree — a mighty oak . . . Many who know him have witnessed the fruit of his labours, have sat in his shade and even been protected by his presence,” wrote Washington. Harrelson called Snipes “a true citizen of the world” and said: “He strives for rightness in all his relations.” Snipes’s tax advisers, Eddie Ray Kahn — who has previous convictions for tax crimes — and Douglas Rosile were also jailed, for ten years and 54 months respectively. Snipes was cleared of more serious tax fraud charges in February. But Mr O’Neill warned supporters against describing that acquittal as a victory. “By virtue of his fame and his high-profile campaign of tax defiance, Snipes has become the public face of a movement whose members seize upon the slimmest of threads to justify their obstructive tactics,” he stated.

Wesley Snipes was given the maximum sentence possible

45-year-old Hollywood actor, who has starred in films including Blade, White Men Can’t Jump and Demolition Man, was given the maximum senten...

Erika Nieves-Abrigo, Bilked money and gifts from people by claiming she was expecting quintuplets

A woman police say bilked money and gifts from people by claiming she was expecting quintuplets also is wanted in Florida on a fraud charge.Erika Nieves-Abrigo, who went by the name Nancy Cantu in Beaufort, was arrested in Gadsden County, Fla., in August, accused of unlawfully collecting welfare benefits worth $2,375 from 1999 to 2000, said Richard Combs, Florida's prosecuting attorney in the case. Combs said Nieves-Abrigo was ineligible for benefits in Florida because she was simultaneously collecting welfare benefits from Georgia. In South Carolina, Nieves-Abrigo and Juan Salvador Solis were arrested last month and charged with obtaining goods under false pretenses. They are being held in the Beaufort County Detention Center each on $25,000 bond. Investigators think the couple fraudulently obtained money and goods worth more than $1,000 through the quintuplets scam. If convicted, they face a maximum of five years in prison.The two are scheduled to appear in court Friday.

Erika Nieves-Abrigo, Bilked money and gifts from people by claiming she was expecting quintuplets

A woman police say bilked money and gifts from people by claiming she was expecting quintuplets also is wanted in Florida on a fraud charge....