From Newsday, lawyer and former Suffolk County Legislator George Guldi found what it’s like to be the object of Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota’s love and attention. He stood idly by as detectives carried 30 years of files out of his Westhampton Beach law office. According to his lawyer, they even took photographs of his children.
Guldi has a general law practice. [John] Diffley said detectives took matrimonial and criminal files from Guldi’s office, which he said “flagrantly breached” the attorney-client privilege.”
Whether this is a touch hyperbolic remains unclear, since it’s unlikely that Guldi has much in his files that would be privileged. But it’s possible, and it’s likely that the detectives seized everything in sight with the intention of sorting it all out later.
Given my experience with defendants and targets in mortgage fraud, I’m surprised that more law offices haven’t been the target of subpoenas and seizures. Shocked really. Not that what I’m about to say has anything to do with Guldi per se, as I don’t know him and suggest nothing about him, but I’ve come to realize that there are a bunch of real estate lawyers who ran closing mills and were integrally involved in the frauds of their mortgage broker clients. The brokers referred them business, and often involved them directly in their scams by way of investment as well as straw-buyers, They were hip-deep in fraud.
The lawyers made a ton of money participating in these schemes. To call them lawyers is somewhat misleading, as they were doing secretarial work as far as the closing were concerned, and were far more interested in being a part of the scheme to defraud than they were in doing anything remotely approaching legal representation.
What shocks me is that they have largely been ignored in the mortgage fraud investigations. When law enforcement runs down the list of bad deals, whether because of fraudulent appraisals, fraudulent applications, straw-buyers or any of the other various mechanics of these schemes, they will find the same names appearing time and again. The names of lawyers representing sellers and buyers.
Some of these lawyers were doing four or five closings a day. Some were doing only one, but owned a piece of everything that was sold. When they represented the buyers, they never mentioned they had an interest in the property being sold. When the represented the banks, they never mentioned that they knew the buyers were strawmen, used to scam the banks out of mortgage money on a fake flip based on a scam appraisal showing a 50% increase in value in six months.
George Guldi stood there watching files walked out of his law office. I have no idea what ran through his mind as he watched. Was it, “oh crap, they got me,” or “oh my God, how can I protect my clients?” But a laundry list of lawyers who made a ton of money out of mortgage fraud remain unscathed. I’m no fan of cops going through the files of a lawyer, and agree with Diffley [full disclosure: I’ve used Diffley, a young criminal defense lawyer, to do some legwork for me in the past] that it raises terrible issues of privilege.
But I am also painfully aware of how lawyers willingly became integrally involved in these schemes to defraud and have, as far as I can see, avoided being tagged for their role. Perhaps if it weren’t for the fact that the feds are so busy rounding up businesspeople for potential lead paint issues on minicycles, they would be rounding up lawyers for their role in the mortgage fraud that has ruined far more people on Long Island than Bernie Madoff or Nick Cosmo possibly could.
As painful as raiding law offices may be (and it is painful indeed), these people aren’t lawyers to me. Their files aren’t legal files. They are plain vanilla evidence of crime.
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I suppose having used Mr. Diffley’s services before you do understand that the idea behind attorney-client privilege is that clients CAN share secrets and be confident those secrets remain kept.
What you fail to grasp in your general condemnation of “crooked” lawyers is the convenient fact that Guldi’s other assorted clients who hired him for criminal defense, matrimonial, commercial, tort matters have an expectation that government wasn’t going to take their files, look, then give them back to the lawyer because nothing was of interest to them.
Privilege is like virginity- once it’s taken, you can’t give it back, you can’t partially breach it and say no harm, no foul. Just consider the likely possibility that Guldi is innocent until proven guilty. All of his clients have already been violated by government. But I guess that’s fine to legal scholars like you.
Katherine Huang Esq.
A word of caution. I was careful to exclude Guldi from the condemnation as I know nothing about him or anything he’s done, and clearly agree that the seizure of his files was wrong. Read more carefully, and then take a deep breath before you post something that makes you appear to be a twinkie.
[Note: I’ve never heard of Katherine Huang before, and cannot find any listing for her on Avvo or MH, so have no idea about her experience. However, as she represents Guldi, no doubt she is a bit caught up in a zealous defensive posture, and might be a bit “on edge,” which could explain her improvident reaction.]
Oh yes, I’m the twinkie.
Unlikely Guldi had anything in his files that are privileged? I would hate to be one of your clients. The point is that the district attorney SHOULD NOT EVER HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY to sort willy nilly through an attorney’s files, regardless of the content. By doing so they are forcing Guldi into the untenable position of practically being a witness against his own clients. Do you remember the content of every single client file? The DA didn’t exactly give Guldi an opportunity to general a privilege list. They just took it all, looked then said, oh no problem, we gave you back what we didn’t need. THAT is the problem.
I have no problems with law enforcement issuing a subpoena duces tecum for files, documents, records, in the course of an investigation. I do have a problem and find incredibly offensive the manner in which they chose to collect files in this matter. I also find it extremely precious that two days later, the DA has a press conference with Steve Israel warning of the wide spread mortgage problem on Long Island and the pressing need for federal dollars. But what does a twinkie know? This isn’t about Guldi. This is about the sanctity of attorney-client privilege and the process law enforcement affords everyone.
You’re still fighting the wrong battle, and you still don’t realize it. No one disagrees with you about attorney client privilege, and no one suggests that your client is one of the lawyers who was involved in mortgage fraud. Regardless of whether Guldi had anything of worth in his files, they are indeed his files and the handling of the mass seizure was wrong. It was obviously so from the outset, and such obvious matters don’t require further in-depth recurring discussions. Now take a deep breath before you go from appearances to conclusive proof. The best thing to do when you put yourself into a hole is to stop digging.
You have seriously missed the boat on this one. Scott’s the best friend you will ever have in your arguement, and you have totally blown it by attacking him. You ARE a twinkie.
It Takes A Dominatrix
My first post about George Guldi, the real estate lawyer and former county legislator, back in February was decidedly provincial in interest.
It Takes A Dominatrix
My first post about George Guldi, the real estate lawyer and former county legislator, back in February was decidedly provincial in interest.
It Takes A Dominatrix
My first post about George Guldi, the real estate lawyer and former county legislator, back in February was decidedly provincial in interest.