Former Plantation police officer admits mortgage fraud
Former Plantation police officer admits mortgage fraud
From Sun-Sentinel.com
Quote:
A former Plantation police officer faces up to five years in prison after reaching a plea deal Tuesday with federal prosecutors who accused him of orchestrating more than $16 million in mortgage fraud in South Florida.
Joseph Guaracino had been the central target in the federal mortgage fraud investigation, code named "Operation Copout," that resulted in the arrests of eight current and former law-enforcement officers involved in what were alleged to be suspicious real estate transactions.
All of them did business through Guaracino's company, The Home Buyers Group LLC.
Guaracino went on trial this year on 33 criminal charges, but a federal jury sitting in Fort Lauderdale was unable to reach a verdict after a trial that stretched over five months.
He pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, with prosecutors dropping all other charges against him.
He admitted he submitted loan applications containing false information so his investors could obtain mortgages — that otherwise would have been out of their financial reach — to buy properties in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Guaracino, 33, is to be sentenced on Jan. 27 by U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn. He was a Plantation officer from 1998-2004, when he left the department while under internal investigation for several issues.
Of the eight current and former law-enforcement officers arrested in "Operation Copout," two others — former Plantation officers John Velez and Joseph DeRosa — were convicted of mortgage-fraud charges. Velez was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison; DeRosa got 37 months.
The same jury that convicted Velez and DeRosa also acquitted four other current law-enforcement officers, including an FBI agent. Federal prosecutors dropped all charges against former Plantation Police Officer Dennis Guaracino, Joseph's brother, after a mistrial was declared in his case.
The defense of all the former and current officers largely focused on the admitted wrongdoing of two mortgage brokers who handled the loan applications. The officers' attorneys argued their clients didn't know the mortgage brokers were adding false information to the applications and forging signatures. Those brokers cut plea deals and testified against the officers.
In addition to law-enforcement officers, attorneys Steven Stoll and Stephen Orchard were arrested as part of the investigation. All charges were dropped against Stoll last month, while Orchard entered a pre-trial diversion program.
