William Don Woods – 87 Month in Prison for Child Porn on His iPod!

EVERY CHOICE HAS A CONSEQUENCE. You cannot hide – no matter how hard you try – those choices and actions you take that are wrong – morally, ethically or legally.

So imagine, you have an inclination toward Child Porn. You down load it from your computer. You leave your ipod in your car or at a friend’s house (forgetting you’ve got child porn on it). Next thing you know the police are at your door. You’re arrested. Your friend – repulsed by child porn – turns you in. YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW!

William Don Woods, age 31, of Claremore, was sentenced to prison in federal court in Tulsa on April 29 for having images of child pornography on his iPod.

An indictment was issued and revealed the details of the pornography contained on the iPod, including approximately 10 pornographic photos depicting 5-, 6-, 8-, 12- and 13-year-old children involved in sexual acts. There was also more than one video file with at least one depicting a 10-year-old girl involved in sexual acts. – source The Claremore Daily Progress

Chief U.S. District Judge Claire V. Eagan sentenced Woods to over seven years (87 months) imprisonment for the crime of Possession of Child Pornography. On August 25, 2007, an acquaintance found Wood’s iPod and turned it over to Claremore police. It contained multiple pictures and videos of children engaged in sexually explicit acts with adults and with other children. The material had been obtained from peer-to-peer file sharing sites on the Internet. Woods was charged in a federal indictment in November 2007 and he pled
guilty on January 18.

The federal indictment in this case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood initiative and the continuing effort to target individuals who possess and/or distribute child pornography. The Department launched Project Safe Childhood in February 2006 as a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices nationwide, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, and helps identify and assist the victims of these atrocious
crimes.

COMMENT: Project Safe Childhood is producing significant dividends. Many have been convicted for child porn. What makes it easy to obtain child porn also makes it easy to catch. Recently in News Busters the following was reported:

Famed left-wing radio personality Bernie Ward of San Francisco, a former priest who had one of the loudest and most consistently anti-George W. Bush voices in the entire nation, was found guilty of possessing and distributing child pornography on Friday and will serve at least five years in prison. ward tried to argue that he was “doing research” on child pornography, but as the San Francisco Chronicle reported:

His hopes of maintaining a defense based on a constitutional right to research taboo subjects appeared to be weakened further when police in Oakdale (Stanislaus County) released transcripts in February of a series of online sex chats between Ward and a dominatrix in December 2004 and January 2005. The transcripts quote Ward as fantasizing about naked children with no apparent reference to any subject he was researching. Police said he had sent photos to the woman that showed children engaged in sexual activity.

White Collar Crime Speaker – Chuck Gallagher – signing off…

Aryeh Schottenstein and Shawn A. Griffin Plead Guilty! And the Ohio Mortgage Fraud Guilty Pleas Keep on Coming…

As a mortgage fraud speaker, I observe what’s taking place in the mortgage fraud arena, but I have to say, the legal eagles in Ohio are working the mortgage fraud angles hard…

Two more Columbus-area people indicted as part of a mortgage fraud scheme that secured more than $7 million in mortgage loans pleaded guilty in United States District Court. Aryeh Schottenstein, age 34, of Columbus, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of money laundering, and Shawn A. Griffin, age 38, also of Columbus, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of money laundering.

Schottenstein and Griffin were indicted along with Donald F. Green, Jeffrey Lieberman and George “Terry” Jordan for a mortgage fraud scheme in central Ohio in 2003 and 2004. COMMENT: It seems that at the height of easy money for mortgages – mortgage fraud was rising as well. See what these folks did below as their crime is becoming a common pattern.

According to statements of facts filed with Schottenstein’s and Griffin’s pleas, Schottenstein and Lieberman owned a company called Parkview Bank. One of Parkview’s business purposes was to locate financing for real estate investors seeking to buy and renovate houses in Columbus. Parkview needed a source for the financing for this venture. In 2003, Schottenstein and Lieberman met with the managing partners for Stillwater Asset Backed Fund to convince them to provide the funding. They were successful.

Parkview and Stillwater entered into an agreement whereby Stillwater would provide the funding for Parkview’s deals. Rather than abide by the agreement and locate legitimate investors, Schottenstein used Griffin to recruit straw-buyers to pose as real estate investors. Using straw-buyers was quicker and easier than locating legitimate real estate investors thereby making it easier to generate more loan origination fees. The straw-buyers were told by Griffin they did not need to renovate the houses or make monthly interest payments. Griffin assured them he would take care of all the details.

COMMENT: Two things stand out – (1) impatience with legitimate business became the foundation of the fraud; and (2) the “straw buyers” were motivated by quick money in order to participate in the scam.

Griffin also recruited straw buyers in 2002 and 2003 for Jeff Pearson, now deceased. Pearson bought dozens of low-income distressed houses in Columbus for amounts at or near their fair market value. The houses were in need of renovation. Very little if any renovation was done to the houses. The houses were sold to Griffin’s straw-buyers for two to three times the amounts Pearson had paid only a few weeks or months earlier. Despite having good credit, the straw-buyers usually had little income. At the closing on the straw-buyers’ purchases of the houses, the title companies issued large checks payable to Pearson as proceeds from the sales.

Green pleaded guilty on April 11. Lieberman and Jordan pleaded guilty on April 24. All are free pending sentencing. Judge Marbley will set a date for sentencing. Conspiracy to commit wire fraud is punishable by up to five years in prison and the money laundering charges carry a maximum sentence of ten years in prison.

According to the Columbus Dispatch a scheme that investigators say bilked millions from banks, lenders and investors was so involved that there were too many fraudulent home purchases to list in the 36-page federal indictment.

Those indicted originally were:

Donald F. Green, 48, of Columbus, real-estate investor

Shawn A. Griffin, 37, of Cleveland, real-estate investor

Aryeh M. Schottenstein, 33, of Oak Park, Mich., real-estate investor

Jeffrey M. Lieberman, 56, of Bexley, real-estate investor

George T. “Terry” Jordan, 50, of Canal Winchester, real-estate agent

Dwayne L. Carter, 37, of Columbus, loan officer

Jonathan L. Boyd, 38, of Columbus, loan officer

Kenyatta Johnson, 37, of Michigan, loan officer

James Darneil Gaither, 37, appraiser

Every choice has a consequence. As a white collar crime and mortgage fraud speaker, I speak from first hand experience about the truth about consequences. Reality is – no one escapes the consequences of their choices. While Schottenstein and Griffin may have enjoyed the money for a time and avoided the consequences – they did not avoid the consequences all together. Prison is no fun and both are facing several years plus substantial restitution for this conviction. Likely they will serve time and that will prove to be a dramatic change from their prior activities. You do reap what you sow.

If you were a victim…please share your experience so other may benefit.

Mortgage Fraud Speaker – Chuck Gallagher – signing off…

Mortgage Fraud Speaker Chuck Gallagher comments: Darrius C. Alati Charged with Bank Fraud!

As time passes it has become clear that many people have come to the wrong conclusion that creativity in financing is somehow legal. It is not! Just today I heard a radio show where they still talked about creative financing through means that others have found themselves on the back end of a conviction. And in this entry we have another Ohio indictment for bank or mortgage fraud.

Darrius C. Alati, age 38, who resides in Akron, Ohio was indicted. The information alleges that Darrius C. Alati committed three counts of bank fraud.

According to the indictment, Alati was a property broker who fabricated a false corporate resolution which was presented to the subject title company to obtain checks drawn on Fifth Third Bank’s escrow account related to monies flowing from the sale of homes in Akron, Ohio. Alati had the title company divide the monies in to a few checks and Alati forwarded only one of the checks to the seller, James Carter. Carter was unaware that Alati withheld these checks arising from the transactions. In the last instance of the scheme, Alati advised representatives of the title company that he would deliver a $70,000 check drawn on the Fifth Third escrow account to Carter. However, Alati deposited said check into own business account for his personal use.

COMMENTS: From time to time I have been approached at presentations I make on mortgage fraud issues by people who got caught up in a scheme unaware. Those situations are unfortunate. However, in this case, it seems clear that the actions of Alati were thought out and not the result of a simple mistake. Frankly, rarely have I found that mortgage fraud was occurred as the result of a misunderstanding.

Alati, if convicted, will likely spend time in federal prison. More and more the courts are losing patience with the proliferation of mortgage fraud. As the banking system writes off record losses due to the weakness in the subprime market, the punishment for mortgage fraud crimes will likely become more severe (within the federal sentencing guidelines).

Every choice has a consequence. As a mortgage fraud speaker, I believe that we are just at the beginning of a wave of prosecutions for mortgage fraud.