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A former leader of a Haitian paramilitary force failed to persuade a judge that his mortgage fraud conviction in the United States was unsound.
Eastern District Judge Jack Weinstein denied Emmanuel “Toto” Constant’s habeas corpus petition on Friday, saying the lead-up to his conviction—which involved a state judge’s sua sponte decision to vacate Constant’s plea deal in light of serious allegations against him for his acts in Haiti—did not run afoul of due process requirements.
Alleging a “miscarriage of justice,” attorneys for former NFL star Irving Fryar and his mother are urging a judge to either overturn a jury’s verdicts convicting the two in a $1.2 million mortgage fraud or grant a new trial.
Motions filed by the defense in Superior Court in Mount Holly late last week say the convictions came despite a lack of evidence and because of prosecutorial misconduct.
Former Philadelphia Eagles player Irving Fryar and his mother, Allene McGhee, were found guilty Friday of charges of conspiracy and theft by deception stemming from a $1.2 million mortgage scheme that prosecutors said victimized seven lending institutions in South Jersey and Philadelphia in 2009.
Fryar, a Pro Bowl wide receiver who retired from the NFL in 2001 after playing for 17 years with four teams, and his mother, a retired school bus driver from Willingboro, showed no emotion as a jury in Mount Holly announced the verdict after more than 11 hours of deliberation.
The lawyers defending former Eagles player Irving Fryar and his mother, Allene McGhee, against mortgage fraud charges rested their case in a Mount Holly courtroom Tuesday without calling any witnesses.
Fryar, 52, of Springfield Township, Burlington County, and McGhee, 74, a retired school bus driver from Willingboro, both decided against taking the stand to testify after the prosecution completed its case and the jury trial entered its third week. The two are charged with conspiracy and theft by deception in connection with a $1.2 million mortgage scheme involving six banks and one lending company in South Jersey and Philadelphia between October and December 2009.
Although the CPLR sets forth an applicable statute of limitations period for virtually all causes of action, and otherwise provides for a catch-all limitations period under CPLR 213(1) for claims that are not specifically delineated, the Court of Appeals has recently held that one particular, and not altogether uncommon, cause of action is not subject to any limitations period. In a remarkable 4-3 holding in Faison v. Lewis, the majority of the Court of Appeals held that a claim alleging forgery of a deed is not subject to any statute of limitations defense.
The mortgage fraud trial of a former Eagles player and his 74-year-old mother took an unexpected turn in a Mount Holly courtroom Thursday when the key prosecution witness admitted during cross-examination that he told a prosecutor that he did not believe the woman was aware she was participating in an illegal scheme.
William Barksdale, a mortgage broker already serving a sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, was testifying at the trial of Irving Fryar and Allene McGhee. The state Attorney General’s Office contends they were coconspirators with Barksdale in defrauded seven lending institutions in South Jersey and Philadelphia of more than $1.2 million in 2009.
A 34-year-old Brooklyn man was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison Tuesday in U.S. District Court on wire fraud charges after he orchestrated the straw purchases of homes including one property in Worcester.
Alexander Ndaula, who also goes by the names Money Mals and Mals, was ordered to pay just over $237,000 in restitution. He will be on three years supervised release once he gets out of federal prison.
Real estate developer and Lake Oswego resident Roger Pollock agreed to a plea deal last week in connection with federal bank fraud charges relating to a loan he obtained for the construction of an office building on A Avenue.
Pollock, 54, is best known as the owner of the now-defunct Buena Vista Homes, whose projects included 141 houses built in Happy Valley. The fraud charges relate to a loan Pollock obtained for construction of an office building at 412 A Ave that was never built.
For the third time in three years, a former real estate agent is defending himself at trial in a mortgage fraud scheme federal prosecutors allege defrauded lending institutions out of more than $24 million.
Brett Depue’s first trial ended in a hung jury in February 2012, but he was convicted the following month on conspiracy and fraud charges and later sentenced to nearly 22 years in federal prison.
Did former NFL star Irving Fryar and his mother conspire to defraud banks and a mortgage company of more than $1 million? Or were they the victims of a “con man” who was sent to federal prison for his role in the case?
Based on opening arguments Wednesday at the Burlington County Courthouse in Mount Holly, that is what jurors will consider during the trial, which is expected to last a few weeks.