Originally posted by South Florida Business Journal on April 16, 2010Three South Floridians, including an attorney, have been indicted in a mortgage scheme to defraud Regions Bank.
Attorney Michael Samuda, 37, who operated Attorney Title Center, a title escrow company in Pembroke Pines...
Looks like his trial was set for July after his two co-defendents pled guilty.
Also, it was called - and you couldn't make this up - Operation Stolen Dreams.
Funny that this went unnoticed for almost six months. (Or was kept quiet? I must confess that if I had known, I probably would not have wanted to be the one to "break" this story.)
My PACER account went inactive years ago, so I can't poke around for more information on what might be happening with the case. (Anybody here have electronic access? sweetroll?)
I'd hate to think he'll have to spend any time in the pokey.
(On the OTHER hand, let's be honest, I haven't thought much about Mike since trying to get him, Rick and the rest of the WM crew back together for a 10 Year Reunion which fizzled out right after Rick forgot to pay his domain bill - sound familiar? - and since it's probably BEEN something like ten years since Mike and I even exchanged emails.....well, let's just say there are a few people on my radar ahead of him when it comes to worrying about them visiting the hoosegow for any period of time)
I wonder if Scaia will have anything to say about this?
"All RAW is these days is a cheap version of Saturday Night Live, so if you wanna tune in to watch the amazing star power of Al Sharpton and Nancy O'Dell, go ahead! Who's gonna host next week, Big Bird? Wow, that's must-see TV!" - John Morrison (10/16/09 Smackdown!)
The government dropped the case against him in late June (although they have the ability to indict him again if they want). It doesn't sound like they had the strongest case against him. Here is the prosecutor's factual recitation during the co-defendants' plea hearing:
The Defendant Mr. Martin in February of 2007 purchased a house located at 4010 Bayview Drive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for $945,000 and financed it through a lender known as IndyMac. Mr. Martin's application to IndyMac was not completely truthful, but the loan was approved by IndyMac. Martin soon found himself in financial difficulties and in late 2007 sold the home to a person identified in the indictment as A.D. This person --Mr. Martin had a personal relationship with the person known as A.D.
In the fall of 2007 Martin sold the house to this person A.D. for the sales price of $1,250,000. A fraudulent loan application was put through in the name of A.D. by Mr. Martin to Regions Bank, an FDIC insured institution, for a first mortgage loan of $1 million and later a second revolving credit account in A.D.'s name that was approved for $125,000, for total loans of $1,125,000. 250,000. I'm sorry, Judge. $1,125,000, which were approved by Regions Bank.
Once the loan was approved, Mr. Martin set the loan to close at Attorneys Title Center in Pembroke Pines, Florida, a company doing business off of Samuda & Birdsong, PA. Samuda & Birdsong PA was a law firm doing title closings as an agent for Attorneys Title, also known as The Fund, out of Orlando Florida.
The Defendant Monique Mitchell at the time was an employee at Attorneys Title Center and working for the Codefendant Michael Samuda soliciting mortgage business and handling real estate closings. As part of the closing process Martin provided a check for $70,000 to Ms. Mitchell which was to be a down payment or a deposit on the property being purchased by the person known as A.D., but this check was never deposited into the escrow account at Attorneys Title Center as Martin later informed Mitchell there were no funds for the check to be cashed. However, Ms. Mitchell, as an employee of Attorneys Title Center, went ahead and wrote a letter on the stationary of Attorneys Title Center and sent it to Regions Bank on December 26th, 2007, advising them that Attorneys Title Center was holding $70,000 in escrow when, in fact, that was false.
Prior to the closing Mr. Martin realized the deal was short cash to close of well over $59,000 and advised Mitchell of the problem. Mitchell told Martin she would talk with her boss, Mr. Samuda, about the situation. Shortly thereafter,
Ms. Mitchell advised Martin that Samuda would help him and take care of it. On the HUD-1 that was prepared by Attorneys Title Center's office, Judge, in Pembroke Pines it shows on the HUD-1 that the settlement date was actually January 11, 2008. In fact, it was not.
On Friday, January 11, 2008, Regions Bank wired in interstate commerce two wire transfers to the escrow account of Attorneys Title Center ending in 9562 for 990,022.27 and $125,000. Yet, on Monday, January 14th, 2008, the records of Wachovia Bank, account number 9562, the escrow account of Attorneys Title Center, reflect a $70,000 wire transfer to the Bank of America checking account ending in 3044 belonging to the defendant Mr. Martin. In other words, Judge, they wired $70,000 from their escrow account to Mr. Martin's personal account.
On Tuesday, January 15th, the records of Bank of America reflected out of Sheldon Martin's checking account ending in 3044 a wire transfer to the Attorneys Title Center account ending in 9562 in the amount of $59,038.57, the exact amount due at Line 303 on the HUD-1 as being from the borrower A.D., was transferred to Attorneys Title Center.
The HUD-1 settlement statement dated January 11, 2008, found in the subpoenaed records of Attorneys Title Center and the HUD-1 sent to the Regions Bank by Samuda and Mitchell do match up, Judge, and contain false statements on the HUD-1 sent to Regions Bank.
The subpoenaed records of Attorneys Title show a Landtech disbursement of the funds which reflect the following, your Honor. It shows that there was funds coming in from Mr. Martin's account of the $59,038.57, and the money was not coming from the true borrower A.D. The Landtech also shows a wire transfer out on January 14th, 2008, to Mr. Martin for the $70,000 as described before.
At the closing several documents were notarized and signed by Ms. Mitchell, the employee, where the forged signature of a witness Michael Bird was done on several of the documents, including the note, mortgages, and on the HUD-1. Mr. Bird would testify he was not at the closing and did not give anyone the authority to sign his name.
Going back to the Landtech document, Judge, the HUD-1 found in the Attorneys Title Center file shows also at Line 507, on the right-hand side of the HUD, $71,718.25 for attorneys' fees. On the HUD-1 provided to the lender that $71,718.25 is not shown as the one sent to the lender. It also shows, Judge, on the Attorneys Title Center HUD-1 in their file that they paid off Mr. Martin's old loan to IndyMac of $811,784.13, but yet the HUD-1 sent to the lender Regions Bank signed by Mr. Martin and Ms. Mitchell shows that $883,000 and change was paid off. Another false statement on the HUD-1 sent to the lender.
The $71,718.25 in legal fees, Judge, was totally false and was actually a vehicle for Mr. Samuda to rip off that 71,000 in funds from Mr. Martin.
In addition, Judge, the HUD-1 sent to the lender shows that Mr. Martin received $243,834. In fact, Mr. Martin only received $173,834.68.
In essence, Judge, the HUD-1 sent to the lender that was relied on by Regions Bank was false and materially false as to the payments sent to the old lender, IndyMac, the $70,000 fraudulent down payment, and the $59,000 that was coming in as cash from borrower at Line 303 from the true borrower A.D. when, if fact, it wasn't.
In essence, Judge, these were violations of RESPA and a violation of Title 18, Section 1001, as the HUD-1 settlement form is a form required under the rules and regulations of Department of Housing and Urban Development and under the Real Estate Procurement Settlement act.
I was surprised to see this - and I saw Scott Keith on today and was surprised he had nothing to say about this. Micasa was the third wrestling site I discovered, not counting RSPW.
News From Dayton first, then Scoops, then Micasa. (Then, I believe it was 1wrestling).
Always enjoyed Mike's updates, well written, I thought, which was what I liked about Scaia and CRZ's updates too. No cursing to speak of.
We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.
That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy - Swift
Originally posted by AWArulzI was surprised to see this - and I saw Scott Keith on today and was surprised he had nothing to say about this. Micasa was the third wrestling site I discovered, not counting RSPW.
News From Dayton first, then Scoops, then Micasa. (Then, I believe it was 1wrestling).
Always enjoyed Mike's updates, well written, I thought, which was what I liked about Scaia and CRZ's updates too. No cursing to speak of.
I was pretty much the same way as you, although I think I found Micasa first. I really liked his presentation and knowledge. Although he didn't have fantasy matches on his site like Scoops. "He countered the hurricanrana...with an eye gouge."
"Put on your helmets, we'll be reaching speeds of 3!" "It was nice of you to give that dead woman another chance." "All right, look alive everybody...oh sorry Susan."- MST3K: Space Mutiny Click Here (myspace.com)
Originally posted by AWArulzI was surprised to see this - and I saw Scott Keith on today and was surprised he had nothing to say about this. Micasa was the third wrestling site I discovered, not counting RSPW.
News From Dayton first, then Scoops, then Micasa. (Then, I believe it was 1wrestling).
Always enjoyed Mike's updates, well written, I thought, which was what I liked about Scaia and CRZ's updates too. No cursing to speak of.
I was pretty much the same way as you, although I think I found Micasa first. I really liked his presentation and knowledge. Although he didn't have fantasy matches on his site like Scoops. "He countered the hurricanrana...with an eye gouge."
Well, wrestleline did have my "march madness" TNM7 column for a couple years.
Originally posted by odessastepsWell, wrestleline did have my "march madness" TNM7 column for a couple years.
Yeah, but wrestleline was well after that. I was reading Micasa (and TNFD) long before Wrestleline ate them up. Maybe a couple years? Because TNFD was text - I accessed it first, somehow - maybe it was on RSPW - I think from Compuserve. He linked to Scoops and Micasa right after I got on the web - maybe in 93? 94? In there somewhere and Micasa was in color and pretty. TNFD wasn't. Then TNFD joined Micasa and became wrestlemaniacs and then wrestleline - and I re-discovered CRZ's Recaps.
I never dug the fantasy booking, but I must tell you I HATED Hyatte and was always glad to have Wrestleline and a more friendly site. I was sad to see it go, as well as Scoops.
(edited by AWArulz on 5.10.10 2314)
We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.
That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy - Swift
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