Monday, June 04, 2007

Florida Attorney Disbarred for Mortgage Fraud

Manuel Arvesu, closing attorney, consented to his Disbarment for commingling funds and failing to satisfy liens in a property sale transaction.  According to the Report of the Referee, admitted the following:

Arvesu served as the attorney for the buyer and Florida Title and Escrow Fund, which was the closing agent in a real estate transaction involving Buyer, Sidonia View Holdings, LLC and Seller, Michael A. Aliberti.  The Settlement Statement reflected that a Wells Fargo mortgage in the amount of $64,235.46 would be paid off from the proceeds due Aliberti.  The mortgage was not immediately paid off after closing; Arvesu proceeded to make monthly mortgage payments for the months of January 2004 through July 2004.  Thereafter, mortgage payments were made by Sidonia View Holdings, LLC.

Aliberti never agreed to the assumption of said mortgage and sold the property ‘as is’ subject to all liens, encumbrances and defects.  At closing, Seller’s proceeds were calculated by reducing from Seller’s proceeds an amount equal to payoff Aliberti‘s mortgage, yet said payoff did not occur until twenty-one months thereafter.

The Staff Auditor of The Florida Bar conducted an audit of Arvesu’s trust accounts and determined that there were large shortages between December 31, 2003 and June 30, 2005.  The Auditor found that the attorney may have commingled personal and operating funds with trust account funds. When Arvesu was asked to provide supporting documentation to address said transactions, as required by Rule 5-1.2(b)(4), he was unable to do so.

Finally, the audit of said trust accounts as noted above, revealed that Arvesu distributed client funds prior to them being collected in violation of Rule 5-1.1(j), maintained client ledgers that did not meet the requirements of Rule 5-1.2(b)(6), and that three of Arvesu‘s trust accounts were not enrolled in the Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) Program as required by Rule 5-1.1(g)(2). 

For the purposes of this consent judgment only, Arvesu admits to violation of Rules 3-4.3 (Misconduct and Minor Misconduct), 4-8.4(c) (A lawyer shall not engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation…), 5-1.1 (Trust Accounts) and 5-1.2 (Trust Accounting Records and Procedures) of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.

-Arvesu spelling correction-

mortgage fraud

1. thank you for reporting the disbarment of Manuel Arvesu but please correct the spelling of his last name which the article has as “Arveso”

   Posted by  on  06/10  at  10:11 AM

2. I have been the victim of predatory lending, and all involved have been found to violate State and Federal laws.  The broker got a kick-back (YSP) and changed the terms and rate without notifying us; the appraisal was inflated by approx. $25,000. and the lender did not disclose that I was in fact paying the YSP; they understated my finance charge by $109,000. and committed over 45 TILA violations.  I’m a Paralegal and the broker was referred by an attorney I used to work for, yet, that did not matter I was caught in the “perfect storm” which is drowning our country now.  My husband and I are suing for fraud, unfair deceptive trade practices and we will go for the jugular on this case.

   Posted by  on  11/09  at  03:45 PM