Suspended North Miami Mayor Tondreau found guilty of mortgage fraud Lancien maire de miami Lucie Tondreau coupable de fraude immobilière sera condamnée à 30 ans demprisonnement. Voilà un système judiciaire qui fonctionne By Jay Weaver jweaver@MiamiHerald 12/16/2014 2:37 PM 12/16/2014 3:26 PM In May, North Miami Mayor Lucy Tondreau talks with the media outside the federal courthouse in Miami. She was found guilty of mortgage fraud on Tuesday. In May, North Miami Mayor Lucy Tondreau talks with the media outside the federal courthouse in Miami. She was found guilty of mortgage fraud on Tuesday. CHARLES TRAINOR JR MIAMI HERALD STAFF Story Comments Suspended North Miami Mayor Lucie Tondreau was found guilty by a federal jury Tuesday of using her “celebrity” as a Haitian-American community leader to lure “straw buyers” into an $11 million mortgage fraud scheme during the past real estate boom. The 12-person jury, which deliberated for only two hours, convicted Tondreau of conspiracy and wire-fraud charges after a two-week trial. Tondreau, who was elected as North Miami’s first Haitian-American female mayor in 2013, now faces up to 30 years in prison at her sentencing March 20. U.S. District Judge Robert Scola refused to grant a request by her defense attorney, Ben Kuehne, to remain free on bond while she awaited sentencing. Scola said she used her “celebrity” and “hoodwinked” buyers into allowing their names to be placed on bogus loan applications in exchange for kickbacks in a “massive” fraud against various banks. The judge, noting the fraud was committed before Tondreau was elected as mayor, said she was no different than any other convicted defendant and ordered her to surrender to U.S. Marshals in the courtroom while about 50 supporters watched in silence. “I’m going to treat her like somebody who is what she is — a common criminal,” Scola said. Kuehne, who represented Tondreau along with attorney Michael Davis, said the jury’s verdict “is as disappointing as it is unexpected.” Tondreau, who was suspended from office after her arrest in May, stood trial in Miami federal court since early December on charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud with her ex-business partner and fiancé, Karl Oreste, and two other defendants, who are fugitives. She was accused of plotting with Oreste to bamboozle banks into loaning them a total of $11million between 2005 and 2008. The prosecution decided not to call the trial’s potential star witness, Oreste, 57, who pleaded guilty in July and was expected to detail the 20 crooked real estate loan deals that he and Tondreau were accused of putting together. Prosecutors Lois Foster-Steers and Gera Peoples did not say why. But they may have had concerns about Oreste’s potential vulnerability on cross-examination. Tondreau’s defense team had planned to portray him as the consummate con man who duped her into playing an unwitting supporting role to fleece the banks. “For a community conscience who has lived her life to serve the people, she was victimized by the fraud operation of a man she thought was both an honest businessman and her honorable fiancé,” Tondreau’s lawyers said in a statement. “She now knows the truth, and counts herself as yet another target of his fraud and deception. Luci Tondreau asks the community to keep her in their prayers at this difficult time.” The jury apparently found the evidence against her overwhelming, thanks to a string of straw buyers who testified over the past two weeks. Here was the most compelling example: Like many Haitian Americans in North Miami, Yvon Exius got to know Tondreau through her immigration work, political activism and radio shows. Above all else, the garbage collector says, he “trusted” her. So when Tondreau asked him to be the buyer for a couple of high-priced homes during the last real estate boom, Exius agreed to do it, even though he couldnt dream of affording them. He says that she, in turn, gave him $10,000 for each deal. The fallout: “It has ruined not just my credit, but my life,” Exius testified last Thursday at Tondreaus mortgage fraud trial, which could end this week with a verdict. Tondreau and Oreste were not only business partners but once engaged to be married. The couple co-hosted Creole-language radio talk shows that advertised loan services through his brokerage business, KMC Mortgage Corp. And that’s one way they reeled in straw borrowers such as Exius to file fabricated loan applications to buy a variety of South Florida homes during the last boom, Foster-Steers said during opening statements. The future mayor and her business partner paid off the straw buyers, another recruiter and a title company attorney, but kept most of the loan proceeds to enrich themselves and keep the mortgage-fraud scheme alive, the prosecutor said. At trial, Exius and seven other straw buyers testified that Tondreau talked them into buying homes without putting any money down. They only needed to sign the loan paperwork, and each received thousands of dollars in exchange. In Exius’ case, he purchased two homes in June of 2006: the first for $510,000 on Frow Avenue in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, and the second for $1.2million on Coronado Drive in North Miami. In both instances, the loan paperwork showed that he had an annual income of $29,215, that his employer was Right Choice Housing and that he paid some of the costs at the closings. None of that information was true, he testified. “I have never earned that much money,” Exius testified through a Creole interpreter, adding that he could not qualify to buy either home nor did he intend to live at either address. Yet somehow, in a fast-and-loose real estate market soon to go bust, he qualified for two massive mortgages. At one point, the prosecutor displayed a handwritten note that read: “I am purchasing this property as a primary residence.” Asked if he signed the document, Exius answered no. “It’s not mine, and besides there’s a mistake in the spelling of my name.” Indeed, at the end of the note, his last was spelled “Exuis.” Exius said he grew fearful that he would get arrested for buying the two homes, which were used as rental properties, until they went into foreclosure, he testified. He recalled getting upset with Tondreau over using him for the transactions. “She said I had been given money and how dare I get upset with her,” Exius testified. “Those words killed me.” On cross-examination, her attorneys sought to portray him as a mixed-up witness, and it worked for a while. When asked about his personal life, Exius could not remember details about when he came to Miami from Haiti or how long he had been married or the ages of his children. But Exius, who said that Tondreau introduced him to Oreste, stuck to his original testimony: “I found myself in a series of problems that I never thought would befall me. She didn’t tell me the whole truth.” Read more here: miamiherald/news/local/crime/article4523011.html#storylink=cpy
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 20:44:43 +0000
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