Whipped Cream Difficulties

I was stuck at the hospital all d–n day (not for myself, for Someone Who Isn’t Me), but I wanted to make note of this before it got past me:

Marilyn Mosby, former Baltimore State’s Attorney, can add a conviction on one count of mortgage fraud to her perjury conviction. (Previously.)

She was acquitted on a second count of mortgage fraud.

While much of the trial focused on Mosby’s failure to disclose a federal tax debt that with penalties and interest had grown to $69,000, the guilty verdict was for a “gift letter” she composed saying that her then-husband Nick Mosby gave her enough money to close on the condo in Longboat Key, Florida.

Nick Mosby, by the way, is the president of the Baltimore City Council. Ms. Mosby was $5,000 short when it came time to close on her real estate deal, and she had a “locked in” interest rate that was set to expire.

Her mortgage broker, Gilbert Bennett, had another solution. He downloaded a template for a “gift letter” from the lending company’s website, filled it out partially and told Mosby to take it from there.

She filled it out saying Nick Mosby was going to give her the money.

But, as the forensic accountant testified, he didn’t have that much money in his account. Marilyn Mosby waited until she received her next paycheck and transferred $5,000 to her then-husband. Nick Mosby transferred the money from his checking account to his savings account and back again.
Then, he wired it to an escrow agent for closing. The FBI accountant said the transaction was the only time Marilyn Mosby transferred money to her husband in the five years of the couple’s financial records that were reviewed.

I feel like I’ve got to be missing something here. Why go through all this when she could have just paid the money directly? It might have had something to do with “a federal tax debt that with penalties and interest had grown to $69,000” that she didn’t disclose.

On the whale sushi front:

Mosby faces a maximum of 30 years at sentencing, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. While experts say she won’t receive a punishment anywhere near the maximum, separate federal convictions stemming from two trials makes it much more likely that Mosby, a mother of two, will be incarcerated for some amount of time.

And, on a related note:

Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby said he regrets lying to the public about the status of his tax returns, a revelation that came last week during the federal trial of his ex-wife Marilyn Mosby, but he remains committed to running for office and sees no potential disruption to his ability to serve.

Wow. This isn’t just flames, this is a four-alarm fire of political corruption.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed bribery and extortion charges on Tuesday against 70 current and former employees of the New York City Housing Authority, a sweeping indictment of a troubled organization.

…

In describing the scheme, Mr. Williams said dozens of employees, including superintendents and assistant superintendents, had taken more than $2 million in bribes from contractors seeking to do work at apartment buildings throughout the city’s five boroughs.

…

Prosecutors said that the scheme revealed Tuesday involved small-dollar repairs — under $10,000 — to things like windows and plumbing, deals that do not go through competitive bidding.

According to the NYPost:

The defendants, all of whom were working for NYCHA at the time, sought between 10% and 20% of the contracts’ values — or kickbacks of between $500 and $2,000 — though some asked for higher amounts, authorities said.

This story is still developing. And all suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

In case you were wondering: according to the Justice Department, this is, indeed, the “largest number of federal bribery charges” issued in one day.